No Excuses
No excuses, I decided, is a good focus/goal for me right now.
Twice a year our church has General Conference where church leaders speak to the church as a whole. It's broadcast in lots of different languages to all the members in the world. I love it. It's incredibly inspiring and always helps me redefine goals for myself.
I usually sit in my living room and watch it online in my p.j.s with a paper and pencil close by. As I was skimming over the notes I had made a couple of weeks ago, I decided I need to stop making excuses for myself. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good and definitely okay to cut ourselves some slack. We are our own worst critic and we need to not always be so hard on ourselves. However, I do think we need to be true to the priorities we do have.
There are a few things that our church leaders are constantly encouraging us to do in our families. 1. Have family prayer morning and night. 2. Read the scriptures as a family. 3. Have Family Home Evening.
Oh, the excuses I have!! :) It's not realistic to wake up my 2 year old at 4:30 am to have scripture study so Jared can join us, but I can read scripture stories with them over breakfast without him. We always pray before bed as a family (often without Jared) but mornings seem to get away from me. Family Home Evening has been a hard one for me. It's usually just me and the kids anyway, so what's the difference between "having" FHE and just hanging out together?
Tonight was FHE - (FHE is held on Monday nights and is a time for families to be together. Often there is a spiritual thought or lesson shared. Sometimes families play games, work, give service, or anything else they decide to do together. It's meant to build family relationships.)
Anyway, after dinner I told the kids we were going to have FHE. We gathered in the living room, had a prayer and sang a song, and then Marley and I read a little story and discussed it as Jake ran around the room playing.
Simple.
But, the discussion Mar and I had was enlightening and priceless and one I wouldn't have had if we didn't have FHE. As I was laying next to Marley tonight before saying goodnight to her, I kept thinking how grateful I was that I took the time to do that tonight. It was the perfect reminder for me as to why I need to the simple things I know I should be doing.
Twice a year our church has General Conference where church leaders speak to the church as a whole. It's broadcast in lots of different languages to all the members in the world. I love it. It's incredibly inspiring and always helps me redefine goals for myself.
I usually sit in my living room and watch it online in my p.j.s with a paper and pencil close by. As I was skimming over the notes I had made a couple of weeks ago, I decided I need to stop making excuses for myself. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good and definitely okay to cut ourselves some slack. We are our own worst critic and we need to not always be so hard on ourselves. However, I do think we need to be true to the priorities we do have.
There are a few things that our church leaders are constantly encouraging us to do in our families. 1. Have family prayer morning and night. 2. Read the scriptures as a family. 3. Have Family Home Evening.
Oh, the excuses I have!! :) It's not realistic to wake up my 2 year old at 4:30 am to have scripture study so Jared can join us, but I can read scripture stories with them over breakfast without him. We always pray before bed as a family (often without Jared) but mornings seem to get away from me. Family Home Evening has been a hard one for me. It's usually just me and the kids anyway, so what's the difference between "having" FHE and just hanging out together?
Tonight was FHE - (FHE is held on Monday nights and is a time for families to be together. Often there is a spiritual thought or lesson shared. Sometimes families play games, work, give service, or anything else they decide to do together. It's meant to build family relationships.)
Anyway, after dinner I told the kids we were going to have FHE. We gathered in the living room, had a prayer and sang a song, and then Marley and I read a little story and discussed it as Jake ran around the room playing.
Simple.
But, the discussion Mar and I had was enlightening and priceless and one I wouldn't have had if we didn't have FHE. As I was laying next to Marley tonight before saying goodnight to her, I kept thinking how grateful I was that I took the time to do that tonight. It was the perfect reminder for me as to why I need to the simple things I know I should be doing.
Awesome pictures, awesome goal. Maybe I should join in on that one, but I'm too.....(fill in the blank). Okay really, I should join in because I'm great at excuses.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos and the sentiment.
ReplyDeleteGreat reason to have FHE is a serious discussion with a child. Priceless.
ReplyDeleteOur best idea to keep FHE going was to make a chart and put one of the kids in charge of it. Roxanne was in charge of the chart when she was Marley's age and she never let us forget - ever!
You are so beautiful Heidi! Love the pictures. LOVE! What a great goal. We have that goal too. So far so good. And we have been reading the book of mormon stories to our kids; followed by the referenced scriptures in the book of mormon. I love it. And YES, we will absolutely love to see you while you're here in dec. luv ya!!!
ReplyDelete