Good Day

Today has been a great day, and I'm grateful. It started out by a sweet and simple conversation I had with my kids this morning while they ate breakfast. Lucy asked me why I wasn't eating and I explained to her that it was fast Sunday. This brought on a discussion about abstaining from food for 24 hours. Lucy's eyes got big and she said, I don't think I'll be able to fast until I'm big like Janeen. ( who is 19). I explained to her that she didn't have to do it all right away, and that we could take it step by step. Maybe just cutting out one thing at a time, like snacks, or drinks, etc. I told her that in Sister Hudson's family, when her kids were little, they would portion out their meal and the kids would choose which item they would fast from and then they would also figure out the dollar amount associated with that so they could pay a fast offering as well. After our discussion she looked at me and said, with a little more hope in her voice this time, maybe I can start fasting when I'm eight. As I thought about it more, I realized what a big deal this must have been to her. Lucy has the personality of extreme obedience...especially to things Heavenly Father or the prophet have said, so the fact that fasting seemed so extremely impossible to her at the beginning of our conversation must have been so disheartening and truly devastating to her. Not being able to do something she has been commanded to do would be the worst thing to her. And then realizing she could take it slowly, I could see the relief on her face. I vote my testimony in sacrament meeting and asked Lucy if I could share that experience, she said yes. I expressed how it made me reflect on times when I feel overwhelmed when I think about all the things the Lord has asked me to do, and how it can seem so overwhelming at times, but that the Lord doesn't expect us to do it all at once. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. It was a sweet reminder of that.
It was also a great day because we were a few minutes early for church and I always feel like I deserve a pat on the back those days. I try every Sunday, of course, but it rarely seems to work out.
Since I completed the Book of Mormon, I have started on the New Testament and had an opportunity to read a bit while Logan was taking his nap. I read in Matthew 5:25, where the Savior instructs tonforgive thine adversary quickly...unless ye be cast into prison, and I thought about how contention really is a prison. We feel trapped and frustrated and it's just hard to breathe or think clearly or be ourselves when we're involved in contention. Some might say that agreeing with your adversary quickly is a point of weekness, but really it frees you...and there really isn't anything stronger than that. Not being under control of contention.
The very last verse in Matthew 5 says, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. He just spent the whole chapter talking about being meek and peacemakers and forgiving and doing good to them who use you, etc, and I thought, 'I guess perfection comes from doing good, even to those who hurt you. Isn't that the hardest thing to learn to do? No wonder that's what is required to be perfect. At the end if His life, after the Savior had done 'the most good' to all those who would hurt him, he visited the Nephites and then said, 'therefore, I would that ye should be perfect, even as I or your Father in heaven is perfect.'. He was good to ALL who used him, and now he was perfect.
Anyway, the day has just been up from there.