I found my patience...
Turns out it was here all along.
I had the opportunity to go the the temple this morning to do sealings with members of my ward.
For those of you that may not know what that is, in our church when we are married worthy members have the opportunity to go to the temple with their spouse (or soon to be spouse I guess) and we are sealed, or bound together through sacred ordinances performed by holders of the Priesthood for Time and All of Eternity, not just until death. Children whose parents didn't have the opportunity to be sealed together when they were married can also go to the temple with their parents and be sealed together so that their family can be together for all of eternity as well. If you have more questions about LDS Temples you can watch either of these short videos on YouTube (
Why Mormons Build Temples or
The Blessings of the Temple) or read the information on any of these three sites where leaders of the church answer commonly asked questions about Temples (
Forever Families or
Temples and Family History or
Temples).
I got to the temple at 5:53am and when I left this is the beautiful sight that greeted me in the parking lot as I got into my car to head home. I cannot even begin to describe the peace that filled my heart as I stepped foot inside of those sacred doors. It seemed like the stress from the last several weeks and the last few days especially melted away and I paused and took a deep breath as I entered and felt so much relief and a confirmation that I'd come to the right place to seek the strength that I so desperately needed. Life is difficult sometimes. Being a Mother stretches me in ways I never thought possible, but it is also more rewarding than I ever imagined. Too often I forget that I don't have to do it alone. I don't have to carry the burdens of caring for 5 small children as well as our home and all of my other responsibilities by myself. Of course I have my wonderful husband to help me, and he does. I feel like he carries our family more often than he should have to and keeps us where we need to be. He is so faithful and diligent and I have never met anyone who works harder for the things that are important to him. I truly am so very grateful for him. But I also have my Heavenly Father to help me. These are His children too. In the Visiting Teaching message for the month there is a quote from President Hinkley that says,
"Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interests in these His little ones." I know that He has a very keen interest in the well-being of my sweet children and that as often as I will seek Him for guidance and direction and strength, He WILL be there for me and help me. He
wants me to be a loving and patient mother and he
needs me to have the strength to be the best parent I can for them, which makes him so very
eager to pour those blessings on us as we ask for them. We just have to remember to ask.
President Hinkley goes on to say,
"Rear your children in love, in nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things that you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried." What a comforting statement.
"You have not failed as long as you have tried." Try your very best, do all that you can and no matter the outcome, you will not have failed. We all have our agency, which is one of the greatest gifts that we've been given, so we can only be responsible for our own actions. When it comes to parenting we have the responsibility to love and nurture and
teach our children, not to
force them to do what is right. If you will remember, that seemed to be someone elses way of doing things, not the Lords. We can do all in our power to teach and lead by example but in the end, each of us (including our children) will have the opportunity, and blessing, of being able to choose for themselves what they will do. Parenting is hard. Life is hard. But even in the midst of trials we can have strength and joy and yes... even patience!
We are looking for a renter for our home. We are moving across the neighborhood into a larger home (in our same ward) and need to find someone to rent our home (or purchase it at $285K). Rent would be $1500 a month and could be available as soon as November 9th. Click anywhere on this sentence to go to a blog that I put up with more pictures and information on our home. Please pass this information along to friends or family that might be interested. We LOVE our home but we have outgrown it and we LOVE our neighborhood and ward and neighbors and friends even more! Hence the reason we are not leaving any of them behind! Please help us out by telling anyone and everyone about this AWESOME opportunity to get into a beautiful 4 bedroom 3.5 bath house on a cul-de-sac in an AMAZING family friendly neighborhood (walking distance to the elementary school) close to the freeway and almost exactly halfway in between Salt Lake and Provo. 
