This is a poem that I wrote a while back in my Junior year in high school: My friend: Bethlehem is where he's from. Light of the world is what He is named also. He's bright, majestice, peaceful, all knowing, all perfect. That they love Him, thankful for His perfect example, I am.
This poem means a lot to me to have found because sometimes as a mother, you have no time to stop and think about the wonderful love our Savior has for us. But he shows in different ways by helping us to be patient when our child is potty training or even screaming at us in the store. Because of Christ's perspective, I can have compassion on my tired child and wait for him to calm down. The greatest lesson is that the more love you give, the more love you receive back. Today, my son must have hugged me about five times. He just loves and loves and loves. I can see Christ's love in his eyes. I would give my whole life and time to make sure that he grows up happy and in righteousness. My hopes are high now. I want him to follow Christ's example and share the gospel with others. I want him to be of service to his fellowman. I want him to be smart, grateful, and true, humble, clean, and pure. I pray for the wisdom to know how to do this and the courage to follow through with the path God wants for my son.

The Joys of Service

I've recently been blessed with the opportunity to serve and be served. I know that my service is small but as the saying goes, "Where'er thou art, act well thou part." So Tuesday, my friend from church calls me up, or visiting teaching companion. A visiting teaching companion is someone that you team up with to make visits to families in your area. We have 3 families and we have been paired up for 2 months now. Anyhow, back to the story. She is involved in helping the young women in our ward find activities to do. She called me and said that they were thinking about helping a mother clean that had young children or in my case a young child. So last night, there were at least 10 young women all cleaning my house. Of course they got it done in like 20 minutes. It was wonderful! Afterwards they had milk shakes. They were all between the ages of 12 and 13 and they were really good. It made me feel appreciated and understood how they were so happy to help and be of service. It was a great experience and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to get to know these girls. What was neat is that at the end, my son was so comfortable with them and they were all holding him and tickling him and he was just sitting there enjoying it. One lesson I learned is there is a need for people to serve just as much as there is a need for people to receive service.
On another interconnected note, I have been learning about natural healing and one of the things that is emotionally healing in your heart is to be able to have heart energies open and balanced to giving and receiving love. That is amazing! I never thought of being open to receiving love as part of having a healthy heart but it makes sense.
As for my opportunity to serve, I have been blessed with wonderful friends who have awesome kids. I watch their kids at times and I get to see Adrian grow to an understanding of how to interact with kids. It is the best thing in the world. So I don't know if this counts as service since it's kind of a play date anyhow but I'm really appreciative of my opportunity to do something in the world:)
I'd also like to make a special note here about my brother who is a great example of a go getter and service. He is going to India. If you want to see about his adventures in India read here: http://nerystripinindia.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/the-journey-begins-blog1/

The Tender Mercies of the Lord

Many times the Lord's miracles in our lives go unnoticed because they are so small. I call these the tender mercies of the Lord. They are simply seeing the laughter of your child or having a little extra time in the day to  take a breather. Today I learned a very important lesson. This morning my son got into the syrup and it made a big mess, my husband came out and started playing with him while I cleaned the mess up. It was then that I realized how truly blessed I am to have so much joy and love in my life. My toddler started being happy again and him and his dad got to have some bonding time. These simple things really make you stop and think that even though things get kind of hectic, there always is a silver lining. Who knows without the chaos that happened today, maybe my son and husband would not have had that precious time together. There's always a good purpose to everything that happens. I'm just glad we were able to make lemonade out of lemons. That is what life is all about anyhow, right:)

Happy Blogging Beginnings

In this blog, I'm going to share some of my sweet experiences of being a mom and how it has blessed my life. So let's get to talking about what's important. Number one is my Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to share my love for Him with the whole world. I know that there are many good people in the world who are looking for truth but they know not where to find it. Well I can tell you for myself that this church is the place where you can find all truth and if it doesn't address a question exactly as you are asking, then it will teach you how to find answers through our Maker. I'm so greatful for all the resources there are available to helping us find truth in our lives. I hope to be able to share inspirational stories from my life as well as we embark on this journey together.