Delight in the Hard Times

Attending church on Mother's Day is always a treat, but today it was especially wonderful to me.

My favorite thoughts came from our (now former as of today:/ ) bishop's wife, also known as Sister Call, who is both a great speaker and an inspiring woman.

She urged us to savor this time of young parenthood--for her it was the best time of her life and she misses it. This really made me think. Like my post yesterday, it made me again ask am I enjoying this time in my life? Am I appreciating it as much as I should? Probably not. Will I be able to do so fully? Probably not until many years down the road. But I probably could be finding a little more joy in the every day.

Sister Call then added that those hards moments, the ones when your kids put peanut butter on your furniture, and make messes, and say and do embarrassing things end up making the best stories and memories later on. And I realized how true that is of my own life so far. I am so grateful to her for reminding me to have that perspective. It won't always be easy in the moment, but it's so much better to laugh about these experiences than to get angry, which only hurts everyone.

So the next time (because I know we're not past these things yet) Tenley puts on my makeup or hides my phone in the rice cooker or draws all over the fridge, floor, and her body in marker, I'll try to remember that in a few years she won't be doing these silly little things anymore. And in a few more years, she will be leaving home and I'll miss her to death--messy bright green hands and all.