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 Amy's bookshelf: 2024
So so good! Orla and Kate are long-time best friends off on a girls' weekend away. Kate is a bit of a player who is trying to get back at her soon-to-be-ex, causing her to spend frivolously and do drugs and hook-ups. Orla is a new mom ex...
Parts were a screaming 5 and parts were like “what?” And just irritated me. It is a Groundhog Day premise about a family of four - the mom is caught up in her own life and missing all that is going on around her with her kids and then he...
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I was sitting in a meeting and I received a text from our nanny. “Ivy would like to know what color your shirt is. :)” “Which shirt? I’m wearing black today.” “That’s what she thought 🙂 I’m sending you a picture.”
“She wanted to look just like mom :)” So when we got home from work, Scott took a picture of the two of us. Looking just the same. (Only I look like I’ve had one heck of a long day at work and she looks like she had a wonderful day of playing and rest at home.)
 I feel extremely lucky. And very blessed.
I don’t say it often enough. Nor do I show it as much as I could. Maybe it is time that I do. Today is the day that I get to celebrate being married to the man of my dreams.
Today I get to shout it out that I am in love with the most amazing father. Today marks 9 years since we said I do. It hasn’t always been easy. I’m not the easiest person to be married to. I have made mistakes. He is forgiving. Sometimes we argue. But every day we show one another that we are in love, more today than 9 years ago.
I am married to my best friend. Together we play. With the family, we play. We celebrate life and embrace our love.
I’m really very lucky. I don’t say it often enough. But I am very blessed.
I am grateful to have found the man of my dreams nearly 10 years ago. Looking forward to eternity helps me get through any challenge I may face. Knowing that I will be with him forever, brightens every single day. Every minute with the love of my life gives me peace and hope for tomorrow. Watching him giggle with our little girls reminds me that marrying him is a decision I will never regret. I love you, Scott. I’m so glad you said yes 9 years ago.
Assume for a moment that you have a good job but your spouse has received another job offer for more money, but it requires you move to another state or country. How do you decide whether to take the job or not? In my upbringing, I was always taught to counsel with God through prayer and study before making any major decision. I have never been great at following that counsel. Not because I don’t believe I could receive help or guidance but because I feel we need to do as much as we can on our own and only ask for help when we can do no more. I have watched people pray to know what car to buy, what color to paint their walls or where they should go on vacation. I don’t judge people for doing this because they obviously have more faith than I do. Over the past 10 years, I have had many major decisions. I wish I could say I relied heavily on the Lord when making this choices. When Scott and I decided where he should go to graduate school, we made the decision that made the most sense in the immediate future – financially. After graduate school, Scott took the first job he was offered and didn’t apply for any others, because it was a good job and it made sense for his career track. Later I was offered a job that allowed us to move back to the state where both of our parents were. We made the decision to take it and walk away from Scott’s better job because we wanted the benefits of being close to family. We bought our house when we did, not because we had found the perfect house nor because we “felt strongly” about an area. We bought the house when we did because Scott still had a job and we didn’t want to wait and see in case it took a long time for him to get a new job. Elder Marion G. Romney said, “Now, I tell you that you can make every decision in your life correctly if you can learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This you can do if you will discipline yourself to yield your own feelings to the promptings of the spirit.” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1961, p. 947.) Years after making all of these choices based on rational factors or because it made sense, I often question what we would have done differently had we leaned on God for direction. Would we have gone to a different graduate school or moved back to our home state? I am sure that some of the decisions would have been made differently. But, the important thing that we have to remember, is once we have made a decision, we have to accept the consequences. And so we do. How do you make major decisions? Are you rational, risky or faithful? This week, I decided not to participate in the I Heart Faces challenge. It was a really fun theme, so you should still check it out at www.iheartfaces.com This week’s theme was “Me- then and now” and I couldn’t find any pictures of me that would be at all entertaining to have a “now” version of. Here are a few old photos of me as examples…
Moses was an incredibly patient, humble and meek man.
This week we discuss many wonderful traits that Moses had.
Moses had a goal. He wanted to take Israel to the Promised Land. He was constantly focused on that goal, even though they may have stopped for a time in different locations along the way. The people did not fully share that same focus or goal. At least they weren’t working for it constantly. Stand up for a moment. (Wait finish this paragraph and then do what it says to do). Walk from where you are now to the kitchen. If you are in the kitchen, go to the nearest bathroom. The trick is to do this backwards while only looking to where you have been not where you are going. Once you try it, come back here. Okay, go now…. Thanks for coming back. How hard was it to get to where you were going when you were focused on where you had been? What is important is where you are going and where you are right now. Moses understood that. His people did not.
In Numbers we read on several occasions where God somewhat loses His patience with the people and decides to teach them a lesson. The first time is when they are complaining about their food being poor in taste and that they miss meat and garlic among other yummy things. So the Lord says, “fine, I’ll give them what they want. I’ll only give them meat – more than they can eat for a whole month. They will get nothing else.” So, that is what he did and He sent a plague on them. Next we have Aaron and Miriam complaining about Moses’ choice to marry an Ethiopian woman. So, what does the Lord do? He gives Miriam leprosy. Although, I am way impressed with how Moses chose to handle this situation. He forgave them and asked God to cleanse Miriam. Then they waited for 7 days for her to be cleansed. How cool is that? Moses was caring and charitable to her even after she had been criticizing him. During these chapters we learn that Moses was a very humble man. When he was feeling overwhelmed, he didn’t puff himself up and take the weight of the world on his shoulders. Instead, he went to the Lord and asked for help. This is when God put in place the quorum of the 70. To these 70 men, he gave them the power of God with the gift that included revelations. He was humble in that he welcomed this help. Both times I have had a baby, I have refused to allow neighbors and friends to bring in meals or help. I am a prideful person. Moses was humble.
In the end of this section, following much more complaining from the people of Israel, the Lord again decides to teach them a very important lesson. He commanded Moses in Numbers 21:8–9 to build a fiery serpent and said that if anyone was bitten by a serpent, then to be healed they would only need to look upon the brass serpent. What an amazing lesson He taught these people. It is a lesson that I dare say we must all be reminded of. Look to God and ye shall LIVE. How simple is that? And yet we challenge ourselves with it every single day in one way or another. Did everyone look to the serpent that had been bitten? No. Many died. Just as many of us will not look, we too shall die. Moses was faithful. No matter how out there it may have felt to be told to build a serpent of brass to save his people, he did it. He managed to have the faith and looked to God in all that he did. What can you do in your daily life to look to God and live? What is your fiery serpent? Mine is the scriptures. I know that I need to read them every day. I know that God will strengthen me and help my family if I would just read my scriptures every day. And yet, I don’t. |
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