Saturday, March 16, 2013

Have you given up?


I want to start this post off with a link to one of my favorite songs. Josh Groban's "Don't give up". This song has come on miraculously at several different times just when I have needed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-G8IfjPAII

I love this video! At about the 2:55 mark in the video, it shows the Savior lifting Peter out of the water. I think all of we mom's try so hard to walk on water, but what would we do without the Savior there to pull us up out of the water when/if we fall short in our faith.

My original idea for this post was to address when we think it is too hard to do it all so we just don't do any of it. Perhaps we have resolved not to harm anybody, but have also resolved not to try anymore, because we think we'll never get it all done anyway. Or even if we do get it all done, we'll probably be on our sick beds because of it, or it won't satisfy the one we think it should, etc...

I would like to tell you from experience that this tactic does not work well. Don't even "give it some time" to see if it does. It just makes more work for later, or for someone else to do. The answer is in baby steps and gratitude.

Take the kitchen for instance. This is a room in the house, that no matter how much work you do in it in a day, it will continuously need more. This can get discouraging to, well, anybody! I remember sitting in our kitchen looking for something to be grateful for. It was hard to find any part of it that was not dirty. I found two squares of tile that looked relatively clean and thought to myself, "If I were Thumbelina, I would love to have a dance solo right there in those two tile squares. I am so grateful for those two clean tiles." After seeing something good in our kitchen, I felt encouraged that perhaps I could improve upon it and make something else good. After I made the something else well and good (another two squares, table wiped, dishes put away, or shining the sink), I could be grateful for the new clean or orderly spots I had just made. If you are thinking, "And then comes the cup of spilled juice, or the next meal, or the tossed oatmeal..." just stop there and remember that you just had a good experience creating something beautiful. Just because someone just messed it up, doesn't mean you have to let that memory and moment out of your heart. You can keep it there and use it to testify to you, the next time you want to create order, that it will be a good experience to treasure up in your heart. You can also choose to treasure up the memory of your little one creating what he or she created in place of your order. Their creations are no less valuable than yours. They are not as advanced of course, but the little one may have no idea what you just did or how you did it. They are practicing what they can do. Does this mean that you sit and have fun watching it? For a second, sure. But don't wait too long before gently teaching them what to do instead of what they did, or disciplining them, if they already knew that they shouldn't have done what they did. Treasuring up the memory of the little one creating, as well, is good because, as you have probably heard many a time from the parents of much older children, "They grow up fast! Enjoy 'em while they are young." They really will be leaving the house before you know it!

Maybe you are one that has no problem whatsoever with keeping a clean house, but you may be giving up on your relationships. Relationships are the most important of all! You can't take your house, things, food, or clothing with you and you certainly won't be able to clean the house after you die, but relationships last beyond the grave. They are worth every ounce of energy you put into them. Make sure you are not wasting your energy, though. Sometimes people try so hard to please someone just doing what makes them feel loved. This isn't all bad, but take time to find out what makes the other person feel loved by you and then spend some time each day or week (however little or much) doing that thing.

In the scriptures there are many references to enduring to the end. There are so many things in life that we could spend our time doing, but if we give up on the things that really matter most, it will only make things harder in the long run. We don't have to think of it as enduring to the end of life, right now. We can think of it as enduring to the end of this trial. There WILL come a point where you do see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hold on. The light will come.
Here's a link to THAT song, by Michael Mclean ("Hold On"). I couldn't choose which link to post. They both have great images to go with them, but the 2nd one has more images from the twin towers incident. I liked the second half of the images on that one better, and the performer, but the 1st one was beautiful, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OvPN1vtZos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBfHdd7mtq8

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