An Ensign to me

We got the March Ensign in the mail today.  And it was needed.  We're at 4 months here and each day feels like an eternity of the same struggle only to go to bed completely exhausted, but unable to really sleep and wake up to the same thing again.  Getting out of bed is hard.  It's one of the hardest things I do.  So today I read my scriptures and pray and read the ensign and hold my breath until this passes.  There are good days.  Really good days and I am so grateful for those.  And I go back and read my blog from when Logan was a baby to get my bearings and see when things started to get better, because I'm in the middle of it right now.  And every day I change my mind about this decision I made to have baby #4.  And you can't change your mind.  So I hold my breath instead.  And I read and read and read.  

March Visiting Teaching Message:

The Attributes of Jesus Christ: Long-Suffering and Patient

'Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears.  Patience means active waiting and enduring.  It means staying with something...even when the desires of our hearts are delayed.  Patience is not simply enduring; but enduring well!' - President Uchtdorf

In our premortal life, our Heavenly Father prepared a plan for us - His spirit children - and we shouted for joy at the opportunity to come to earth.  As we choose to align our will with His during our earthly life, He 'will make an instrument of [us] in [His] hands unto the salvation of many souls.' (Alma 17:11)

'Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith.  It means being 'willing to submit to all things which The Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us, even as a child doth submit to his father'.  Ultimately patience means being firm and steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of The Lord every hour of every day, even when it is hard to do so.' - President Uchtdorf

Prophetic Promise: 

"Perhaps during hard times, we might find ourselves asking, 'Do we really need to obey all of God's commandments?'

'My response to this question is simple: 

'I think God knows something we don't - things that are beyond our capacity to comprehend! Our Father in Heaven is an eternal bring whose experience, wisdom, and intelligence are infinitely greater than ours...

'Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up.  But the commandments aren't like that at all.  In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us .  It is our fear , doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.  

'His commandments are the loving instructions and the divine help for us to close the umbrella so we can receive the shower of heavenly blessings."

- President Uchtdorf