I was asked to sub in primary this week for the CTR 5 teacher. Aaron surprised me by coming to assist me in the actual class. I was grateful because singing time was difficult for me trying to manage all 9 of them in my class. I was up and down the row helping them to keep their hands to themselves. In preparation, I had planned four different ways to share the story of why we celebrate Easter and increase their faith in the Savior and His Atonement since that was the focus of the lesson but wanted to make it engaging for them. To go with the scriptures of what took place during Holy week, I had a cute diagram/map from the Children Friend to show the kids the journey the Savior took. The kids know so much. Aaron and I were very impressed. I showed them this video to explain the Atonement at their level.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-05-005-the-atonement?category=childrens-bible-videos&lang=eng
I had a tomb stone craft for them to make that would reveal the resurrected Savior and then a coloring page about His resurrection. Oh my! We still had 15 minutes left when they had finished all that. So Aaron improvised an object lesson and then He took them on a Holy Week walk outside while I and one of the kids cleaned up to “surprise” the others. Wow! It has been a few days since I was in primary. It was a refreshing, eye opening change. J
I wanted to include my email to the missionaries this week....
With my educational background, I know exercise is important to the human body. Exercise involves some kind of resistance or opposition, pedaling a bike, lifting weights, swimming or running. Why does a person ride a bike, lift weights, swim, run, etc? It is because they seek greater physical strength and recognize the personal benefits of strong legs, arms and heart. However, what if you are injured or struggle to do the very thing that should give you greater strength?
A parable that teaches the principle of exercising our faith from my life this past week. President and I went on a mountain bike ride for our date night this last Friday. It was going well besides me tipping off my bike at the beginning, (user error) but I felt confident and was determined not to crash on this ride. I have a tendency to crash, due to the user error. I took the less challenging sections while president did technical sections of the ride. It was going so well as we weren’t far from finishing our ride as we headed back to the car. I was feeling confident in my riding, when out of nowhere, I found myself going forward over my bike slamming my left leg into handlebars as I and the bike hit the ground. Not seriously injured, but I could definitely see and feel the side of my knee and lower thigh were already bruising. President heard me crash and stopped to make sure I was ok. I was, but I was in pain. With knowledge from past injuries like this, I knew I had to keep moving or the soreness would increase until I could treat it with ice. I jumped back on my bike and pedaled back to the car. My injury (struggle) wasn’t severe enough in nature where I would have to stop exercising, but I will need to continue to move/exercise to maintain my strength. I may not be able to exercise the way I want to on my left leg for a day or two, but I can in other ways until I can get back on track to where I’m increasing my strength. It is a fact that we benefit from increasing or maintaining good leg and arm strength, but this only happens when a person continues physical activity, even in the face of resistance.
How to liken my parable to exercising faith in Him? Isn’t it ironic that many of us seek greater spiritual strength and fortitude — we know God and want to know His Son, Jesus Christ better, and to know Christ’s gospel is true, but if we get tripped up or things don’t go according to “our” plans, do we have the feeling or desire to give up? We want greater faith and to have eternal life — but there are times where we may want to rest instead of pushing through and exercising our faith and building spiritual muscle. We prefer to avoid resistance; it’s called the fall and we’re good at it. The reality is that just as we need resistance to build physical and emotional strength, we need resistance or challenging circumstances to build spiritual strength. Spiritual strength and growth take effort, work, patience, consistency and perseverance. Keep exercising faith in Him!
We picked up the kids at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Got them to bed for as much sleep as possible before they had to rise for school. I finally got my hair colored after not having it colored for a year. Crazy, I know! I needed more blond in my life. Aaron was always double taking when I would pull my hair back. Later I had lunch with my visiting teaching group. We had a fun discussion on online dating (that is how a brother of one of the sisters met his new wife) and teens and social apps. Age appropriateness and how and what we allow are kids to use. Insightful because there is no one right answer. Jessie also had a gymnastic’s make up lesson after school. She still loving it but would like to take dance soon.
I attended the Houston Central District meeting Wednesday morning and later that night Aaron and I were off to Phoenix for the Mission President Seminar. The next two days were full of inspiring messages, lessons and sharing of ideas. I love getting together with the other Mission President’s wives. They are the only ones that truly know what you are going through yourself. The kids pretty much took care of themselves and did a great job. Jessie and Bode rode their bikes to school. Jessie did her own hair. Bode’s soccer team won again Thursday. He shared with us that he started and played most of the game. The kids enjoyed eating out both nights even though I gave them a plan of things they could eat but no surprise there. We got in late Friday night and Saturday night Aaron and I spoke in the League City Stake Conference. So once again a busy week.