December 30, 2012

• As of yesterday, Mike and I have been married for 14 years!  We stayed at a resort on the beach for one night while Carol watched our kids.  We had a great time together, on the beach, and then eating, but something I ate at the restuarant did not agree with me and I was in pain the rest of the night.  I took some immodium which allowed me to get through our couples massage.  All in all, we had an enjoyable time.  The beach was a bit too cold to really enjoy it much, but it was still fun to walk the beach with just my husband. 

  The kids all had a great time with Carol, and we are so grateful that she watches our kids each year to we can have one night away!  After she left, Mike played tennis with Cameron and then went on a “Bike Adventure” (as Errolyn calls it) with Cameron, Errolyn, and Logan.  Logan hopped onto Cameron’s old bike that has no training wheels and rode away fine… so now he is on a non-training wheel bike, which he’s excited about.  In the evening, Mike and I saw Les Miserables and then went to Yogurt Zone.  I really enjoyed the movie, other than Ann Hathaway’s whole character… it was too much for me.  She did a great job, I just didn’t like the character.  The music was excellent, and most of it performed really well.  Cosette had too week of a voice, and Hugh Jackman needed to sing “Bring Him Home” in a lower key… but all in all, I loved seeing the emotion throughout each song.  The acting was really good.

  Last Sunday, Logan slipped after getting out of the shower and banged right next to his left eye on the counter.  It banged so hard that it split the skin pretty deep and I had to take Logan to an urgent care clinic.  They were able to glue it closed, put on a small patch, and it looks much better as of now.

  On Monday, Janet’s family was supposed to come out, but they didn’t make it until late and just went to Carol’s.  Carol, Gerogre, Kathy, Brian, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Jim all came over on Christmas Eve for nachos and dessert from Kathy.  We were going to do the nativity but postponed it until Christmas Day since Janet wasn’t able to be there.  We had FHE with Mom and Dad and Dad sang his Samuel the Lamanite song on the guitar for us… which I love.  Earlier in the day, we went Christmas Caroling with some friends to a local nursing home.

  On Christmas morning, Logan woke up at 4am!  We told him to go back to bed until it was in the sixes.  I came down at 6am to take my Synthroid and go back to bed, but Logan was up and opening his stoocking.  He woke up the others and so we had Christmas really early.  Dad came over at 7am to watvhcthe kids open their presents, but we were already done.  I felt badly, but didn’t want to call that early in case he was sleeping.  The kids only got 2 presents each this year, except Logan who got three because his cost total was less than the others.  They enjoyed their new bikes and other presents.  Mike’s parents sent the kids several presents each, so it still felt like a big Christmas to them.

  We let the kids play with their presents for a while and then loaded up the car to go to Carol’s.  Logan accidentally stepped in a tray of 7-layer dip that I was bringing for the dinner… I was not happy and had to scrape out the shoe parts and bring what was left.  We had a good time talking with everyone.  Lunch was a little more chaotic than we’d all planned… it was supposed to be no cooking or little cooking dinner, but somehow it still turned out large with lots of cooking chaos.  The kids ended up eating early and the adults a little later when the cooked dishes were done.  Then we did the Nativity.  I’ll have to get the video from Jim because I’m sure it was funny.  Then we opened presents from family.  We all enjoyed our presents very much and hopefully everyone enjoyed the presents we gave as well.

  After presents, we all watched a Christmas video from Linda that was fun to watch and revealed a super secret message that we all laughed and talked about the rest of the day.  Janet’s family left fairly early, and then Kathy and Grandma left.  Dad had been feeling badly all day, which we all thought was just cedar allergies and now we know was also the flu.  After a little while, Mom and Dad left and we talked with Brian and Kevin for a while and played a couple rounds of Skip-bo.  Then we drove home.  It was a good Christmas… full of family, games, talking, and love.

  On Wednesday, we went to Outback with Carol, George, and Kevin for Kevin’s birthday since they were leaving early to go home early because of Dad’s flu.  It was good to see everyone.  I stopped by Grandma’s and said my goodbyes.  Then I took Cameron to see The Hobbit since he had received a ticket in his stocking.  He really enjoyed it and I enjoyed it much more the 2nd time… and really appreciated the music more the 2nd time.  The next day we cleaned and played. In the afternoon Carol invited us to go see the Abraham Lincoln movie. It was good, but not as powerful as I had thought it would be. The ending, of course, was powerful and sad.  I start feeling a little under the weather on Thursday, I think.  I didn’t think anything of it, but I have slowly gotten worse and worse.  I was still fine on Friday at the beach, but by Saturday morning I was getting worse.  After Les Mis, I felt even worse, and by this morning, I think my cold has full blown hit me.  Still not the congestion that others experience, but I just feel bad and phlemy.  I’ll be fine, I just hope it goes away quickly.  Emma and I are staying home from church today since we both have colds.

  So, not to make a long post longer, but in Sunday School last week we talked about charity.  The Bible Dictionary says charity is not acts or deeds, so the teacher asked how have we had experienced charity in our lives.  We all gave good traditional answers and then she read a little from Elder Holland’s book that revealed quite a different take on chairty than the normal definition.

  In Elder Holland’s book“Christ and the New Covenant” he says:

   

   “It is instructive to note that the charity,or “the pure love of Christ,” we are to cherish can be interpreted two ways.  One of its meanings is the kind of merciful, forgiving, love Christ’s disciples should have one for another.  That is all Christians should try to love as the Savior loved, showing pure, redeeming compassion for all.  Unfortunately, few, if any, mortals have been entirely successful in the endeavor, but it is an invitation that all should try to meet.

   

  The greater definition of “the pure love of Christ,” however, is not what we as Christians try but largely fail to demonstrate toward others but rather what Christ totally succeeded in demonstrating toward us.  True charity has been known only once.  It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us.  It is Christ’s love for us that “suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not.”  It is his love for us that “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”  It is as demonstrated in Christ that “charity never faileth.”  It is that charity- his pure love for us-without which we would be nothing, hopeless, of all men and women most miserable.  Truly those found possessed of the blessings of his love at the last day- the Atonement, the Resurrection, eternal life, eternal promise- surely it shall be well with them.

   

  This does not in any way minimize the commandment that we are to try to acquire this kind of love for one another.  We should “pray unto theFather with all the energy of heart.  That [we] may be filled with his love.”  We should try to be more constant and unfailing, more longsuffering and kind, less envious and puffed up with our relationships with others.  As Christ lived so should we live, and as Christ loved so should we love.  But the“pure love of Christ” Mormon spoke of is precisely that- Christ’s love.  With that divine gift, that redeeming bestowal, we have everything; without it wehave nothing and ultimately are nothing, except in the end “devils [and] angels to a devil.”

   

  Life has its share of fears and failures.  Sometimes things fall short.  Sometimes people fail us, or economies or businesses or governments fail us. But one thing in time or eternity does not fail us- the pure love of Christ.”

  Then the teacher asked, now how have you had charity in your life?  After reading Elder Holland’s passage, I think anytime we repent, feel his pure love, or recognize the Atonment working in our lives, then we have charity because we have Christ’s pure love, the pure love of Christ,  Elder Holland also says we need to seek to have this love ourselves, so this doesn’t excuse us from trying to be charitable as well.  Anyway, I thought it was a neat take on charity.  

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