Special Moments

Jonathan
Last weekend was a really big weekend. We had lots and lots of family time. I felt that we all needed a break on Sunday. I decided to forgo our Family Home Evening that we normally do on Sundays. I also decided to skip our Sunday Letter project that we had started the week before. I thought that two late nights in a row should warrant a day of rest. The kids went about their business and made no mention of the abandoned activities. It should be noted that we still had an extra-special dessert that Jonathan got to choose.

Now, fast forward to last night. Jonathan looked up at me and so sweetly asked if we could have Family Home Evening. It was late and I was in no way prepared. He said, “I like it when we get to eat candy and I really like to learn new stuff.” My heart did flip-flops. I sure do love this boy. Instead of Family Home Evening, we picked out two pieces of Halloween candy and sat down to work on our Sunday Letter project. Each of the kids wrote out the little notes that they would have written on Sunday. Then we read several articles from our church magazine. I am so glad that Jonathan reminded me how important our Family Home Evenings are.

Jessica
I love to walk past Jessie’s room. She always has her CD player going with lots of uplifting music. She loves to listen to music from her favorite LDS artists. She is bombarded on a daily basis with texts, media and internet material that sometimes is not uplifting. I can’t always see what she is doing on the internet or on her phone. I am glad to know that she is  listening to good music. I am thankful for her example in our home.

Yesterday, Jess came in and sat next to me. She wanted to share something important with me. (That doesn’t happen often with this teenager, so I seized the opportunity). Jess has a friend that was in a car accident. She was very worried about this girl and had been praying for days. She had mentioned fasting and we had asked her not to. Jess was in the middle of switching medicines and I really didn’t think it was a good time to get her blood sugar out of balance. However, I know she was fasting anyway, because she was eating absolutely nothing.

Jess recounted how hard she had been praying. She told me that she had received word that her friend was okay and would be out of the hospital soon. Jessica was so sweet as we talked about how this experience had strengthened her testimony of prayer.

Parenting is such hard work, but I want to always remember these special moments.