Becoming Like Him

This past General Conference was amazing for me. I didn't realize just how spiritually depleted I was until I listened to His servants. One very strong impression that I walked away with was that both my family and I needed to make a much more concerted effort to develop attributes of the Savior. While the answer for how to do this with my family came easier, for myself I spent more time pondering/praying and was reminded of Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel, "How Do I Develop Christlike Attributes?" - just what I needed!

I took a very honest, at times painful, look at myself as I went through the Attribute Activity at the end of the chapter. I have a great deal of work to do, but I am excited to have a focused plan as I move forward.

The first attribute I am working on is Faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Him is foundational and if I am lacking in faith the development of the other virtues really won't matter. At the moment I am working through defining faith and developing personal questions to answer as I study faith in greater depth. I am hoping to periodically check in here (the title of this blog is Becoming after all) about this great adventure I am embarking on, that of making a very honest, focused, personal, exceptionally imperfect, but sincere attempt to Become more like Him.

Would anyone like to join me?

Super Hero Madness

This is my cute little three year old boy. How I adore this boy. At the moment he is obsessed with super heroes. I am honestly not quite sure how it happened. His older brother, now 13, was never interested in super heroes in the least bit, so this whole super hero thing has caught us way off guard. My little one has never seen any super hero movies or tv shows, so I am guessing that he became drawn to them due to the incredible (and excessive in my opinion) amount of super hero paraphernalia he sees when we are out and about.

Batman is his favorite. A dear friend of mine gave my little one this Batman costume for his birthday in September and I don't think he's taken it off since. He spends most of his day and night pretending he is Batman and saving the world from the bad guys.

When I say he is crazy about super heroes, I really mean he is crazy about them. I've always been somewhat uncomfortable about the obsession for a variety of reasons. As I have been praying about ways to help redirect some of this enthusiasm, I have felt that moving in the direction of Scripture Super Heroes would be a good thing.

While I know that this idea of Scripture Super Heroes is not a unique idea, it will be something unique for our family. After receiving this impression last week I've been made several trips to various dollar stores to try and put together a Scripture Super Hero costume trunk. My little one LOVES to dress up, so I am hoping the costumes will initially help him be interested. I've also been on the look out for pictures of various scripture heroes and ways to tell and reenact the stories in an exciting three year old way. I've tried hard to be still and listen to what would be in my son's best interest, as not only is this new territory for me, but also because He knows my little one much better than I do.

I have a few ideas to begin with, but any and all help would be most welcome!

How To Know

I LOVE the Mormon Channel! Love it! 

I just finished listening to a fabulous program on Gospel Solutions for Families entitled 

How To Know If You Are a Good Parent.

 It was what I needed to hear today - have a listen if you get a chance!

The Well-Educated Mind

Many years ago I read The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and absolutely loved it. The Well Trained Mind outlines a systematic approach to classical education that resonates with my personal educational philosophy. The Well Trained Mind has become a well worn reference book for our family in augmenting and supplementing my children's education.

One of the things I loved the most about my years of obtaining my degree at Brigham Young University was all of the marvelous literature I encountered. It was tremendously satisfying to read a well written book and then engage in thought provoking discussion. I received my degree in American Studies and then went on to teach elementary school until my first kiddo was born. Through all of the years that have followed (and they have been many!),  I have always wished I was more familiar with the classics of literature. I just didn't know where to start.

To my delight a few years ago I came across another book by Susan Wise Bauer entitled The Well Educated Mind - A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. In it she outlines a method for studying various works of literature based on the trivium of classical education. I knew that, someday, this was something I wanted to pursue. I also knew that, while I was in the midst of newborn twins, two elementary age children and a husband in residency, now was not the time. :)

This fall, with a seventh grader, a fifth grader, three year old twins who take great naps, and a husband still in residency, I am happy to say that now is the time! I have carved out a few hours here and there during the week to study more in depth than I have been able to in the past.

My book list at the moment is pictured above. I am reading and analyzing Pilgrim's Progress according the The Well Educated Mind and am studying the others through notes, outlines etc. I am always amazed at how deeply I am enjoying this study.

I only wish I had someone to discuss what I am learning with who happens to be reading the same material! For the moment I have been, with greater enthusiasm then my children might appreciate, starting dinner off with, "Guess what I learned today!" Oh well, hopefully someday my children will remember that their mother loved to learn. And hopefully someday my husband will finish residency so that we can read and discuss together. :)

The Piano Lesson

I have taught piano lessons in my home to supplement our income for many, many years while my husband has been furthering his education.  Our piano was older than I am and over the last year or so was falling apart at a rather alarming rate. We could hardly keep up with the repairs and upon our last visit our piano technician let us know that he would do his best, but our piano was on her way out. We certainly didn't have any money for a new piano, so we tried to maintain the piano the best that we could.

During all of this, my husband was offered a position to stay on at the hospital where he was finishing his residency. Part of the contract included a small salary advance my husband would receive in order to help our family out financially during his last 14 months of residency. We were thrilled with the contract and I was especially excited about the prospect of having a little cushion, something we haven't ever really had during our almost fifteen years of marriage. As we were looking at the numbers we decided that we would have just enough extra to purchase a new piano. We became overly excited and started piano shopping. Our contract had been signed after all, so we thought the salary advance was a guarantee.

One morning, when we were planning on going piano shopping, I had the thought that we shouldn't purchase a piano yet, we needed to wait. Unfortunately, I did not heed that prompting. A few hours later we purchased our new piano.

Well, when all was said and done, the salary advance did not come when we thought it would, and when it did come, it was not as much as we had thought it would be. Instead of the cushion we needed, we now have a piano.

There are many lessons we have learned from our stupidity. :) I will share just one today.

One of Satan's tactics is to try and convince individuals to do a good thing at the wrong time. And when you do a good thing at the wrong time, it is no longer a good thing. For example, dating is a good thing. Dating before you are sixteen is not a good thing. Intimacy in marriage is a marvelous thing, intimacy before marriage is not. This has been Satan's tactic from the beginning - starting with Eve. Partaking of the fruit of the tree of life is a good thing, partaking of the fruit of the tree of life at the wrong time is not. The list goes on and on.

This is one of the piano lessons I have received. Every time I look at our beautiful piano I think of how wanting a new piano was a good thing, but purchasing a new piano at the wrong time has not been such a good thing.

I love my piano and I am grateful for it. It is a good thing too, because I have now had the privilege to take on several new piano students to help cover our last year of residency. ;) Oh well, I am truly grateful that the Lord is merciful and forgiving and that He always lovingly helps us to try again.

We have a saying around our house for when things are going well or when things aren't going so well, "Better keep paying our tithing." We firmly believe that paying our tithing is the only way we have been and will be able to financially survive.

Our exercise of faith in this principle has been constant this last 9 months or so as we've encountered the most straining financial circumstances of our 13+ years of marriage. We have been holding fast to the promise of tithing as one would a life vest in a stormy sea, as indeed that is what is has become for us. Things have been challenging and at times the outlook has seemed fairly grim. I often would think back on stories I had heard from General Conference, friends, family etc. of checks that would show up for amounts that they weren't expecting at just the needed time. I found myself wishing, more than once, that such an occurance would happen to us. I would then think that, unfortunately, I knew where every penny had gone and ,unfortunately, no one had overcharged us or owed us any amount of money. I would then square my shoulders and put my faith in the fact that the Lord would have another way for us to make it through this challenging time.

On Saturday my husband and I were going through the mail and were beyond grateful to receive a notice that one of our major bills was going to decrease by about $400. We then were shocked to find a check attached to the notice in the amount of almost $1600. We had been overcharged the previous year and our overcharge was being returned. We were shocked into a stunned silence. A miraculous amount of money at the time we needed it the most.

The Lord is so very merciful and good to us.

Things have been hard, really hard as of late. My husband and I spent a lot of time on Sunday night trying to figure out why this may be. Each of us had been feeling as if our world was imploding with absolutely nothing we could do about it. Not a very pleasant way to feel. That night I read this devotional by Elder Bednar. It was as if a light came on. I had somehow fallen into the trap of thinking that I had to do everything perfect before I could ask the Lord to step in and help. My thinking was, 'How can I ask the Lord to help us if we haven't done our part with perfection?' I learned that the enabling power of the atonement is there to help us with our part of what is required. We are NEVER required to do our part on our own, the Atonement gives divine help and strength to our most feeble but sincere efforts. I prayed that night to feel the strength given through the Atonement and almost instantly I felt at peace. Peace I haven't felt for a long time. Nothing about our situation has changed, but everything about my heart has changed. I have felt the peace and very literal strength that can ONLY come through the Atonement, and that has given us the faith and hope to walk forward.