Endurance

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the 13th Article of Faith. It just happens to be the Mutual theme for 2011 and so every Wednesday night, I would recite it along with the youth of our ward. The part that has really stuck out to me has been:

“…indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

I’ve been, how shall I put it, a bit cantankerous lately. I’m drained from all the sickness that we’ve dealt with this year so far. I’m constantly exhausted and cranky since I’m up with Alex during the night. I’m short-tempered and impatient with Brendan. I’m frustrated that I can never keep my house clean. I’m tired of dishes and vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms. I also tend to over exaggerate things and only see the negative side of things happening around me. One small thing suddenly becomes a huge obstacle for me because I let my self get carried away. I think that with the craziness that has been our life lately, I’ve lost sight of the mom/wife/woman that I want to be. To put it simply, I have not been a happy camper as of late and I have definitely not been “enduring” my trials very well.

I know that my problem mostly lies within me. I’ve needed an attitude adjustment for a while now and I’ve needed to focus on the virtuous, lovely, and praiseworthy things/moments in my life instead of focusing on the negative and mundane. I definitely need to “seek after” all the good that I have in my life, because really, I’ve been hugely blessed. This weekend’s General Conference was definitely just what I needed to get me started on the right track, and I feel so refreshed and uplifted after listening to the words of our Prophet and Apostles.

Also, I was recently released from my calling as 1st Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. It was definitely a bittersweet moment for me since I absolutely LOVE the young women and being able to serve in that capacity was a faith building experience in many ways. But that calling also stressed me out and took a lot of time, and with two small children and a busy husband, time is precious to me and not abundant anyways. I will now be teaching the Miamaids class though, so I’m grateful that I’ll still get to be a part of the awesome YW program. But I was released because Chris was called to be the Young Men’s President, which stresses me out in a different way but yet I feel very at peace because I know that this will be a good thing for our family.

Things have been going better the past few days. On Sunday, we enjoyed the mild weather and took a walk as a family. Brendan really is the sweetest boy ever and he deserves to have a mom who is patient and kind. Especially when he picks me “flowers”.

I’m hoping that the weather decides to stay mild and decent so that we can get out do more of this. It really helps all of us to be in better spirits.

I have the cutest kids. The little patch on Alex’s sweater says “Captain Adorable” and that he is. I can’t get over how sweet and adorable he is.

And tonight we headed out for ice cream since it was so warm today. It was the perfect way to end the day.

It’s these fun, happy moments together as a family that make all the difficult times worth it.