Friday, October 28, 2011

I am grateful for the love my children possess for one of God's beautiful creations.



I found Collin the Chameleon pale green and standing at the bottom of his cage.  Chameleons never touch the bottom of their cage so I knew something was terribly wrong.  I ran him down to a local pet store and asked the reptile specialist if there was any hope for Collin's survival.  He relayed the sad news that Collin showed signs of only having 12 hours left to live.  I don't think I expected to be so emotional, but I began to tear up.  The reptile expert recommended that we put Collin in the freezer.  I was mortified!  There was NO WAY I was going to do that, so he said the next best thing was to make a mini ICU for Collin and force feed him with a dropper.  So that is what we did.  It was so tender and beautiful to watch my boys love, pray for and nurture Collin.  Their increased efforts helped Collin live for an extra 48 hours.  When Collin passed away many tears were shed by members of our family and by my boy's wonderful and supportive friends.  Their friends even helped on Monday night with an impressive and spiritual funeral for Collin.  These kids possess a lot of 
compassion and heart.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I am grateful for personal scripture study.

We are trying to encourage our children to read their scriptures on their own, so we set up a little reward system. Every time they read their scriptures for 5 minutes they fill in a square on our family scripture chart. They can only fill in one square a day. Once all the blocks are filled in, which usually takes a few weeks, we do a fun activity as a family to celebrate. This time we went skating, and it was a blast!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

I am grateful for ward choir.

I have decided that ward choir is like therapy for me. It is a piece of the week entirely devoted to one of my favorite things in life ... music! Today we sang This is the Christ, lyrics by Elder James E. Faust. The message of this song is so powerful and humbling that I could barely sing. I was filled with an immense feeling of gratitude for my Savior, who knows me and loves me perfectly, even when I am not perfect. And He willingly suffered for me, so that I can return to my Father in Heaven.

Friday, October 7, 2011

I am grateful for Heavenly Father's gift of sunsets.

A constant reminder that life isn't just meant for hardship, but for joy and beauty.