Simple Things

Easter traditions . . . well, there's no more desert trips, I'm skipping coloring Easter Eggs this year since our little Foxy lays greenish colored eggs and coloring Easter Eggs with four shorties is more of a mess than a fun tradition, but there's one thing we always do . . .THE EASTER PAGEANT. This year was no exception. It was good as always but the funnest part was the kids. You always hope that your kids get something out of it because why else would you go? We got off to a rough start though. While Mary was dancing with the Baby Jesus DJ leaned over and asked me, "what if she kicks Joseph in the face while she's dancing?" I really had to quiet my laugh so I wouldn't be rude to the people around us. He's such a BOY! Isabel on the other hand was talking about the beautiful dances for the rest of the night. But after that rough start I think they started catching on. In a way I was seeing how acting on the inspirations we receive for our families brings more blessings than expected.

Did I confuse you? Let me take you back to conference. As I was watching conference I was trying to figure out how I could make our home a nicer place. I realized that a lot of the stress comes at night. It never used to be that way but now with the kids in school I feel like the drill Sargent ordering the troops around at boot camp. Night times have not been fun around here. It gets to be late, I'm stressed out because kids aren't in bed, kids are tired, they want to read books, mommy just wants them to sleep, house is a mess, mommy cleans by herself, kids still don't want to sleep. . . and so it goes. I was into this thought so intensely that I don't even remember who was talking or what they were talking about but they said something and everything clicked. Surely, this is not a big revelation to anyone else it was way too simple but it was specific for our family. I'm not a planner but I needed a night time schedule. So in my conference notes I began to jot down how our nights would be run.

6:00 Dinner
6:30 Inside Jobs (We have outside jobs too but, that's an entirely different post.)
7:00 Baths/Brush teeth
7:30 Scripture study / Family prayer (This was new in my list. We have NEVER attempted this before.)
8:00 Bedtime

This was too easy, I thought. Making our home a nicer place couldn't be that simple. But that night we tried it and IT WORKED!! It ran like clockwork. Not only that but the kids were happy to do their jobs and they actually sat quietly for scripture study . . . SCRIPTURE STUDY!! Of course that was the first night but you can imagine my total amazement when the next night we tried it and it worked again and they were in bed by 8! HUGE accomplishment for me. Not only that but the house was CLEAN!! Now before you think, "What does this have to do with the Easter Pageant?" I am coming back to that. About 4 days ago we read the story of the crucifixion and resurrection, not because I thought it would be good to read before we go to the Easter Pageant, at the time I didn't even have plans of going, it just happened to be the story that the kids picked. Then tonight I saw the bigger picture. Alexandria sat there and watched as the crowd yelled "crucify" and leaned over to Grandma and told her all about that part. And DJ was so into it you would have thought he was watching Star Wars on stage. Plus he totally redeemed himself when he told Grandpa with such faith and happiness that his favorite part was when Jesus played with the little children. Then I realized that we are already receiving blessings from our little scripture study time however loud and crazy it can sometimes be. They are listening and they do get it. All this time I thought we would do it when they got older. Well, either they're older or I was wrong. I'm pretty sure I was wrong since two four year olds don't fall into the "older" category. So this small (really teeny tiny) revelation has blessed us in more ways than one. It has made our home run smoother like I was initially hoping for but then it also has allowed us time to study the scriptures together as a family. It really was sweet to see that we can receive inspiration to help us do what we have been asked to do and that usually the change we need to make is so simple it doesn't seem like it could make much difference at all. But the difference it does make is exactly what you needed. And the blessings . . . so many blessings.

"Now ye may suppose that this is a foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" Alma 37:6