Emotional

Thank you, Elder Oaks, for telling telling the world that bringing a cell phone to church is evil. (Isn't that what he said? That's what I heard.)

I'm super emotional today. It's partly a lack of sleep, partly missing my family, partly feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility of being a good mother. I love my kids SO MUCH and sometimes I see so clearly their intrinsic goodness coupled with my inadequacy.

I found a school journal entry from Mary. It said, "I want to go to Africa to visit my family." And then she drew a picture of herself saying, "Dad! It's me Mary!" Through a sea of stick figures one shouts, "Mary!"

She made herself so vulnerable in that moment, and I felt that I'd seen into her very precious, wounded soul. How I ache for her, physically ACHE for her loss and her hope.

I can't help but cry to the Lord, Please lift up and strenghthen these little ones, who love their first parents and long to know who they really are. Make me an instrument in Thy hands, as I try to raise these four children of God.

On Children
by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.