Sport is on his way!!

Missionary #4 (#5 including Tams!!) is out the door!!  Hip hip hooray!!!  Super excited!  This is the photo from Scuff and Tams dropping him at the MTC!  His first week there and gets to have General Conference!  Super cool!

I am really not sure what I want to say about it.  Sport has put in more time and more effort getting himself prepared to serve his mission than any of those brothers before him.  It has been a long road and we have had many struggles and set backs, but he is out!  In three weeks, he will be in the field!

It has never ceased to amaze me how different each of us is from one another, even those who come from the same home.  Yes, there are similarities.  We have similar likes and dislikes.  We can usually agree about food, books, and movies.  But each of my children learns so very differently.  Each has such a different view of themselves, others, and the world around them.  The experiences each one needs to develop their character into the character God wants for them takes such a different path to growth.  Sport is probably the most humble of all of my children to go out.  His self-esteem the most fragile and yet he has had to work the hardest and put in  the most time to be ready to serve.  He has done it on his own time-table.

I am so very grateful that our loving Father in Heaven has a plan for each and every one of us!!  That He knows us so completely and so totally values our agency that He patiently waits until each heart is prepared.  He doesn't push us.  He will force no man or woman to heaven.  It has to be our choice, to choose to make the sacrifices He is asking of us.  He will take us when we are ready and not before.

It is me, the mortal woman, who gets so very frustrated with other people. I do not have that eternal perspective.  I want people to make the choices I think they should and I want them to do it when I think they should.  I am so grateful God does not operate that way!!!  Especially concerning me......so shouldn't I be a little more patient with others and their time-table?  Shouldn't I be a little more forgiving and willing to let others grow and learn on their time-table and God's?  Do I really not understand that spiritually learning really only takes place with a broken heart and a contrite spirit---a willing participant?  If the heart is not given freely, it hasn't really been given, and though the behavior may look right, the heart is not converted.  If we want true conversion, it will only happen as the individual makes the sacrifice to give it freely.  Only then do we approximate the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.  His gift, was given willingly, to comply with the desires of the Father, but only because of His (Jesus Christ's and the Father's) great and eternal love for us---a love that would never violate our agency!!!

If we want our children to learn, really spiritually learn, we cannot violate their agency either.  Teach them? Yes!!  Train them?  Yes!!  Have expectations of them?  Yes!!  But we can never force their behavior---because if we are, as soon as they are in a place where they are no longer under our influence, or control, they will do what their heart truly desires, regardless of what we want or taught.

And that, I guess, is my rant for the day!  I am glad that my Sport is out there!!  That it is the desire of his heart to be there!  And I will pray that he will have the strength he needs to stay there and overcome the challenges and difficulties that are yet to face him in the mission field!!  You can do it Sport!!  With the help of our Father in Heaven, you can do all things!!