Friday, June 13, 2014

Don't let me fool you...

So I have been thinking that I need a place to write down my thoughts as I have them, because if you know me, my favorite thing to do is FORGET. I really dislike that my memory is so awful, and it makes me feel guilty on more than one occasion, but I don't think I'm totally at fault here... I blame bad memory genes. If you know my Mom or Grandma Dunn, it all makes sense ;) love you Mom.

In particular, I love feeling the Spirit in my life, and I love recognizing when Heavenly Father has blessed me with something, and I HATE that I forget the particulars and just how many of these occurrences have happened to me. Like, so often, all the time, but by the end of the week, I can't tell you one of them... So here are a few random recent ones of those that I want to be able to look back over and read, and get that warm fuzzy feeling again. Bear with me.

1. It is absolutely, by no stretch of the imagination, divine intervention, that caused me to "succeed" or enjoy my last calling. I have spent a lot of my married life as a Primary worker, and every week, in every different ward, I seriously felt bad for the person who was called to be the Primary chorister. Either that, or I just thought, "Wow, it takes a person a whole lot more creative and bubbly and outgoing than I am to do that calling. SOOO glad it's not me up there!" So imagine my dismay when I was called to be the Junior Primary Chorister! (This was in July/August of 2012 mind you...) Wow, I was seriously so stressed out. Luckily, I had an amazing resource in my sister-in-law, Aubrey, and her mother Heidi, who have no-less-than-mastered this calling. They sat me down, gave me all their wisdom, and their props(!), and off I went. The first couple of weeks, I remember being so self-conscious, which sounds SO silly in front of kids ages 3-7! But there I was, sweating bullets. I tried to be fun, but it was hard, when I didn't know what kids knew which songs, or when I was pretty much singing all by myself up there. But as I prayed for direction, and as I actually put time into my calling every single week, I grew to love this calling soooo much! It really does bring me to tears thinking about. After two programs, and nearly two years, I had really learned and come to embrace the truth that kids can feel the Spirit through music, and so strongly too! And my job was to be able to help them learn the truths of the Gospel and feel the Spirit by the songs we sang. And to have fun doing it! I remember Aubrey's sister telling me I had just gotten her "dream calling," and there was not one better. And by the time I finished my service in that calling, I totally agree!! This is great evidence to me that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies. And he knew I could do it, but he needed me to know I could do it. Maybe this knowledge will help me in the future as he asks me to do hard things. I know I can do them with His help now! What a blessing. And I sure do miss those cute kids in the Peruvian Park ward!!

2. A couple of weeks ago, I was washing the breakfast dishes (perk of small SF apartments=no dishwasher) and the kids were off playing, which is pretty typical. Our apartment is very baby-proofed, and I never worry about what the kids could get into. They just like to play together and find things to do. Suddenly, in the middle of washing dishes, I felt like I just needed to see them. To know what they were doing. I recognized that this was weird, and I went anyway, thinking "What could they possibly be doing that I should be worried?" As I walked into their room, where I found them, I saw Reagan had found an entire pack of brand-new sharp-as-you-can-get replacement razor blades for an Exacto knife. And they had fallen out of her hand and onto the floor as I walked in. I was so terrified and so grateful in that moment, that I saw this happen, before either of my sweet babies, could reach for them out of curiosity (Cohen), or trying to be helpful and put them away (Reagan) and get hurt. I am so blessed to have the GIFT of the Holy Ghost, that can prompt me in moments like this, and help me avoid otherwise awful situations!

3. Just two days ago, we were enjoying some playtime at the nearby Dolores park, and parked on a residential street nearby. After playing for a couple of hours, I approached the car with the kids (and Rob, who had met us on his lunch break), and saw a man writing tickets. He was at the car next to ours, and sure enough, our windshield had a ticket! I said "Excuse me, did you just write us this ticket?" And he replied that yes he had. I was seriously confused what the ticket could be for and explained that we just moved here, and he was nice enough to explain that my wheels weren't turned (even though it was pretty much flat ground!), and that he would go ahead and take care of this one for us. I couldn't believe it! He was so nice, and acted like it was no big deal, and we just said "Thank you!" over and over again. I felt so blessed that we got there at that particular moment, and not a minute later, when he would have been down the street, long gone, and we would have had a huge fine to pay! So grateful, to say the least!

I have more moments I want to remember, but I will come back to this!