Live Happily

It's that time of the month again....NO! Not THAT time of the month! It's my turn to teach in church again.

This month's lesson is titled "Finding Joy in the Journey". I felt inspired to try harder and make more time for what is important after I read this talk. Usually, when I hear, "Spend more time with your babies, they grow up too fast, ignore your housework, do what is important first, blah, blah, blah, I start to tune out. I've heard this enough already - I get it. This time however, it struck a note with me. Very appropriate for me at this time in my life, I guess. Maybe it's the timing with the whole new year/resolutions thing that I am attempting to conquer.

“Later, not right now, tomorrow…” I find myself often saying this to my children subconsciously, without even listening to what they are asking me. Sometimes I have to pause, stop what I am doing and listen to what they are actually saying.

P when she forgets what she is about to say, will say “I love you.” I'm trying to do the same thing especially when I find myself about to say "Not right now". I say "I love you" while I pause to collect my thoughts and assess what I am doing….whether it can wait, be put on hold, or is truly important. In my head I think there is always tomorrow, but today is what is important. Tomorrow will be a different day and today may not ever happen again. Childhood doesn’t happen twice.

Here are a few bits from this lesson:

"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays."

"I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. "

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

“Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily.”

"When I was around thirteen and my brother ten, Father had promised to take us to the circus. But at lunchtime there was a phone call; some urgent business required his attention downtown. We braced ourselves for disappointment. Then we heard him say [into the phone], ‘No, I won’t be down. It’ll have to wait.’
“When he came back to the table, Mother smiled. ‘The circus keeps coming back, you know,’ [she said.]“‘I know,’ said Father. ‘But childhood doesn’t'."

"We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."