The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock.

Sunday morning, Cindy and I were able to attend sacrament meeting here at the hospital. It was a very special experience. We were in a room full of people facing trauma in their lives who I'm sure, like us, were desperately needing to feel the spirit of the Comforter. Well that feeling was strong and peaceful and penetrating and helped carry me through these last few days.

The speaker opened his talk with the scripture from Helaman 5:12:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which you are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

He compared our lives to an experience that he had installing a door recently. What he thought was going to be a simple project because he seemed to know what he was doing, had all the proper tools, and followed the proper steps, turned out to be more difficult than he anticipated. The doorway that he was trying to instal the door in, ended up not being straight. This was a setback that he had not anticipated. After much re-adjusting, cutting, recutting, glueing, and cutting again, he was finally able to match the door to the entryway. He said, sometimes life is a little like that. We end up finding ourselves in a situations that aren't quite what we had planned or expected. Sometimes, life, just like the doorway he had to work with is skewed. But, if we have the proper tools and follow a plan that we know will eventually work out, we can make the door fit. Even amidst trials and difficulties we can find peace and comfort and answers and through our faith we can make it through our trials.  

His talk reminded me of  blog post that I had written clear back in March but for some reason forgot about and never posted. I am so thankful for an all knowing and loving Heavenly Father who knows us individually and helps prepare us for the storms of life. 

Here is the post. 

At Christmas time while making gingerbread houses with our kids, Sirri had a meltdown. A "Sirri meltdown," if you will. I call it this, because it is something that occurs at our house FREQUENTLY. (Though the frequency is lessening. Thank heavens!) Sirri has a LOT of personality packed into her little itty bitty body and her emotions are always right on edge. I know that one day she will learn to channel all that personality and emotion and she can be a leader with strong convictions and determination.

Anyway, back to the story. Sirri was quickly melting down and my well of patience was running low. To make a long story short, my patience finally dried up and everyone went down for naps feeling sad and frustrated. My frustration and sadness continued for a couple of days. My thoughts continually went back to all the moments when I haven't done my best as a mom. Sometimes, I just can't figure out why I can't keep my cool. Why do I let my children get the best of me? Why do I not always discipline my children with love and my motivation turns to power instead? I kept thinking about how quickly our fun filled day of gingerbread house making was spoiled. Why when we try so hard to do fun things like that with our kids does it backfire?

And then it hit me. I had an "aha" moment! I realized that we having been trying to build our family on a "gingerbread foundation." All the fun times we have. All the great activities we do. All the memories we make are nothing if that is our foundation. Kendon and I realized that if our family is going to be able to stay strong and firm when the rains come down and the floods come up then our family and home must be built upon a rock. We have family home evening and we have family prayer and we read the scriptures to our children but we had not been as consistent as we knew that we should be. We came to understand that our foundation had some holes. So, we decided that there wasn't a better time than the new year to patch up our foundation, and not with "gingerbread" but with rock. As a family we needed to get back to the basics and be consistent and diligent. We made a goal to say our morning and evening prayers every day, and to read the scriptures as a family every night at dinner time.

We have been really diligent and consistent the last three and a half months and I can tell a difference in our home. We are by no means perfect, but the Spirit can be better felt in our home and a feeling of love and respect is more abundant. When we are consistent in doing what we need to, the Spirit is able to be consistent as well.

And then when the rains come and we all know that they do, we will have a strong foundation and our house and family can stand still!!!