A Post for Callie...

I realized today, it's been a while since I've posted anything besides pictures of my kiddos or something cute that they did. I remember a time when I had lots of time to think about other things besides whose diaper needs changing...and I'm okay with that, I just thought I'd take a little time for me today on my blog and hopefully write something I could come back to later and remember that changing diapers wasn't the only thing I could do to contribute to the world...

I've been thinking a lot lately, and for many reasons, about forgiveness. It all started when Jon was so impacted by President Faust's final conference address. I'd never seen him so enthralled by something from conference, so we studied it a lot. It must not have sunken in completely, because 6 months later I'm still having trouble applying the principle.

But there is hope and God hears and answers prayers. Sunday was great for me this week. Sunday school covered 1st John - 3rd John and focused on lots of scriptures concerning the love of God, the love of our Savior, and then went on to expound on how those two powers influence how we treat and feel about other people. Then to top things off the Relief Society lesson was on President Faust's talk, "The Healing Power of Forgiveness".

So everything came full circle on Sunday and I found myself thinking again about forgiveness. I remember a time in my life when I wondered if I'd ever be able to love someone like I'd loved them before and if I could really forgive them in my heart of hearts and start rebuilding a relationship in which I'd lost hope. And that is the point of President Faust's talk...forgiveness is possible, forgiveness is healing, and we're not excused from forgiving anyone.

I remember the peace that came when I was able to forgive. It overwhelmed my pride and my hurt soul and it healed me. I'm at a place once more where I need to go through this process again. I'm grateful that I've been able to do it before, because it helps me to know I can do it again. I believe strongly that one of the few things we'll have when this life is over are our relationships, so it makes sense that those same relationships are really the place to focus the bulk of my energy and work, so that they will be the kind of relationships that will qualify for the extent of joy and happiness that I hope to have then.

Sorry if this was too personal for a public blog, but it's what I've been thinking about lately and I didn't want to forget it.

And I just realized that I really can't post anything on this blog without something cute from my kiddos so here a picture of Ruby to make up for last time. She found a beanie that Micah left here the night before and Jon told her she looked like a hobo. Then Ruby said, "hobo..." cute girl.