These adorable people are my grandchildren, and this is the first photo taken of me with all four of them. ♥️ Let’s just say that getting everyone to look at the camera was an impossibility! #GoodAsItGets 🤣😂🤣 We did our Thanksgiving celebration a few days early and then the day after took them to the Nutcracker movie. Nothing makes me happier or brings me more peace than being with them because they are a constant reminder of what is truly important in my life. Being a grandma to these precious children is the most remarkable feeling, I love it!!! 😍
I am so grateful for them and for all the other blessings in my life. Although I have made mistakes as everyone has, I have tried to rebound from each one filled with more knowledge which gives me greater hope. I believe the main reason I have been able to bounce back or stay resilient with my mistakes is because of the basic things my sweet Mother taught me.
She encouraged me to search for peace even in storms, and because of that counsel I look for it every day. You know it is the only feeling that cannot be counterfeited! The experience we feel from peace is authentic, it is truth. When my Mother saw I was wrestling with a decision, her advice was always so simple—follow Christ’s example—because she knew that would be how I would find peace. Even though she realized some of my decisions were going to cause me difficulty, she still gave me the incredible gift of agency; letting me make my own mistakes, knowing I would be able to learn and grow from them. Through this example and with the knowledge I would gain, she knew It would bless my life and eventually I could teach this skill to my own children to bless their lives. If she had simply told me what to do I would not have benefitted from my experiences. My Mother followed the pattern of the Lord by leaving things unfinished for me. A great man Thomas Monson once said,
“God left us the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.”
Some of the things I have “created” have not always brought me joy, but I believe, as does every religion that “every peril and travail will bring us experience and be for our good”. I am a much better person because my Mom showed me how to make decisions and then stepped aside and allowed me to do it. And most important, through success or failure she never stopped loving me through this process. ♥️ There will never again be anyone in my life like my Mother and I cherish the wisdom and example she shared with me!
I have always said, “it’s hard to raise your children if you’re not raised yourself”. We can choose to grow or stay injured by justifications. I know some challenges are very difficult, especially if we have been hurt, but that is why we have a Savior. With Him we CAN heal and keep growing up. I know I need to keep working hard on refining myself😂 because I’m a work in progress!🧐😌 I hope my family forgives mistakes I make and I of course will always strive to forgive them...that’s Christ’s example for us to follow.
Another example of the Savior and especially during this time of year is as we show forgiveness to others it could be the very way to show gratitude to Him who always forgives us! My Mother counseled me to offer mercy whenever I could because that is one way I would experience peace. (Matthew 5:7)
Offering forgiveness is not always easy but the harder it is the greater the gift. And I will tell you... nothing is more gratifying than finding peace with your family, friends and loved ones. After all... tiz the season of peace.😊🎄 #HappySunday