I surrendered my Oklahoma driver's license on Friday. It made me sad. Especially after I saw the picture on my new license. Lol! On the up side, I was only in the department of driver services about 30 minutes with 2 small children. Sam was apparently the entertainment of the day, running back and forth and creating mayhem, but he was too cute for anyone to get mad at. Thankfully.
I joined Weight Watchers on Friday. Again. I am seriously committed this time, since I am having to take out of my grocery budget to pay for this. I am excited to try the new program--I think it's more nutritionally accurate, in light of all the information that's come out in the last several years. And after 5 days, I am now aware that I have been eating terribly in regards to quality and quantity. Unfortunately, only 4 year olds have slimmed off trudging up and down the hill to the bus stop daily. Oh to be younger! I had a friend once tell me that once you hit about 30, it became much harder to keep weight off. She was right. I'm sure giving birth to 5 kids doesn't help much either.
We had a really great Family Home Evening last night about how during Christ's ministry, He not only went about preaching and teaching, but healing those around Him. We are focusing in our FHEs more on the Savior's ministry. We frequently tell our children to be like Jesus Christ, but I want to make sure we are teaching them what He was like. We talked a lot about how to be like Christ in this aspect of healing--how our words and are actions should soothe and comfort others. I used an article from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. You can find the article here.
My favorite part came from the end of the article where the Atonement of Christ was addressed. As much as we help and serve others, we are only to be instruments in His hands, and we are still ever-dependent on Jesus Christ for all that we are and have. For someone who has been through some dark times in her life--both those caused by sin & error as well as those caused by a physical & emotional affliction of the mind--Elder Holland's words really found a place in my heart:
In spite of life’s tribulations, there is help for all of us on this journey. When Christ bids us to yield, to submit, to obey the Father, He knows how to help us do that. He has walked that way, asking us to do what He has done, but He has made it very much easier for our travel. He knows where the sharp stones and the stumbling blocks lie and where the thorns and the thistles are the most severe. He knows where the path is perilous, and He knows which way to go when the road forks and nightfall comes. He knows that because He has suffered “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind … that he may know … how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:11–12). To succor means “to run to.” I testify that Christ will run to us, and is running even now, if we will but receive the extended arm of His mercy.
When we stagger or stumble, He is there to steady and strengthen us. In the end He is there to save us, and for all this He gave His life. However dim our days may seem, they have been a lot darker for the Savior of the world. As a reminder of those days, Jesus has chosen, even in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side—signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect; signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn’t love you; signs, if you will, that problems pass and happiness can be ours. Remind others that it is the wounded Christ who is the Captain of our souls, He who yet bears the scars of our forgiveness, the lesions of His love and humility, the torn flesh of obedience and sacrifice.
There really isn't anything that needs to be added to that. :)
