This Photo is for you, Diana!!

Sorry the quality isn't so hot.  I guess that's what you get when you try to pull photos off of your phone!!  Johnathan received his endowments last weekend.  So here he is, our prospective missionary and his very pregnant mother.

I read THIS article the other day and thought it was amazing and have been pondering it ever since.

There are wonderful things about having a new baby---but there are difficult things too.  I recognized recently that I have been sad about the timing of this baby.  I have been so excited about the possibilities of working with the youth, which I have done a little over the last six years and which is hard to do with an infant.  Our new baby will make this possibility difficult to say the least.

The timing of our baby is completely the Lord's choice.  This year, my attitude and disappointment about not serving with the youth is a weed in the garden of my life.  (Refer to the above article for a frame of reference for this comment.)  It will interfere in my growth and development as a mother and my ability to bond with this baby.  For whatever reasons, the Lord in His infinite wisdom and love has sent this child to us and we have the blessing to embrace the opportunity and completely welcome him into our home and our hearts.

How often do we look at the gifts our Father in Heaven has given us as stones and serpents because they are not what we want or they do not look like we think they should or they do not happen when we think they should?  Do we not remember that the Lord only gives bread and fish??? [Read HERE--vs. 8-11, to understand this analogy.]  He doesn't give stones and serpents....only good gifts, bread and fish.  The negative aspects of some undesired events or circumstances in our lives may be more a product of our attitude and view point than is truly the case. 

Difficult circumstances and events are usually tailored to us individually and minister to our growth and development, our understanding and compassion, our faith and hope.  We cannot avoid negative experiences..they happen to all of us.  [more on this topic HERE--another GREAT article!]

What experiences have you had that you originally thought of as negative, but later came to realize were a blessing or helped you learn??

There is no doubt in my mind that I will learn a lot.  I already have, even though I have not fully appreciated the lessons, at this point.  I hope I can open my heart more to the process so that I can truly learn the lessons the Lord is choosing to put before me.