My Yoke is Easy and My Burden is Light

          We studied many wonderful lessons about the miracles Christ performed this past week in my New Testament class. Many of them are my favorites and have really blessed me with insight to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's always difficult to pick a topic or principle to relate because of my love for each of them. The one I feel impressed to share today though, is one that has carried me through my trials. I shared it on my message boards in class this week as well. 

Justin, daughter in law Callie, and I waiting at the Lion House for lunch

          In Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Lunch at the Lion House between Saturday sessions of General Conference

          Do you see in the picture below how the two oxen are yoked together? They help share the load and the burden of the weight they pull is distributed. This is what is meant by taking Christ's yoke on us. As we do so, that burden is easier to pull. He shares the weight of our burdens, often carrying much more than we do.

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         When I was a young mom, there was a a phrase I saw in a store that said, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." It was posted next to a picture of the Savior. 

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I was sharing this with my Father-in-law one day and he pointed out that if I were to look all through the scriptures I would never be able to find it anywhere, because it directly contradicted what the Savior really taught, which was that He did say it could be easy, and that our burdens could be made light. (Apparently it was Mae West who they were really quoting)? 

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Upon reflection, I found this truth to be much more comforting. It was shortly after that when I was having a personal struggle as a young mother of two children. I asked my husband to give me a priesthood blessing. As he laid his hands on my head and gave me that blessing, I could feel the Savior's profound love and empathy for my situation. I knew he was familiar with my grief and sorrow. I could feel it. It was at that time, and many times since, that I've really felt the words Jesus spoke to take His yoke on me that He would make them light. 

All our beautiful children in front of the Jordan River Temple in Utah

This is the part that isn't always easy to do, but as we work at doing that, He does make those burdens way lighter and easier to bare. What a beautiful blessing! A piece of the atonement that made His suffering so necessary in order to truly empathize with me and my situation, as well as you with yours. A truly heavenly, divine, plan.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

 

  I started driving my kids to and from school a couple years ago after a pretty big incident involving Justin that the driver handled quite terribly. He had been suffering some pretty bad bullying for several months without my knowing, by some older girl, and finally retaliated. If you know Justin, he's pretty easy going and very kind, but being the 5th boy in a large family, he tends to handle things himself once he's had enough. The driver is a former jail guard, so she can be pretty intimidating. She punished him with an incident report, which if you get three of, you lose bus riding privileges for. Then she told me about the situation from her perspective in front of him when I went to meet him off the bus. When we got inside, the 3 children all broke down crying and things that had been going on for quite some time started spilling out. Immediately I tried to get a hold of the head of the bus system, but he was out. I called Justin's teacher and notified the school councilor (who apparently had a lot of experience with the bully) and they both said they would watch the situation.

This incident is what made me realized that the bus driver was putting a lot of stress on my kids daily. If they were running a minute late, or if they had a limb in the isle, a pencil out to do their homework, turned around to talk to the person behind them...she was on them constantly. Occasionally stopping the bus to yell at all of the kids for their behavior. I tried to get a hold of the bus system head to let him know the issues we were having for a good two weeks. I started realizing that I loved dropping them off and picking them up. I was the last one to see them before they entered the school, and the first one to greet them coming home. It became a time I could really connect with them. I come to  what all their favorite parts of the day were, how the music teacher is obsessed with coffee, whether they were getting along with their friends, who their friends were...the list goes on and on.

It's been two and a half years since this experience now. Other neighbor kid's parents drive their children now too. I suppose I should really resolve things with the bus driver head, but don't plan to stop driving my children anytime soon. There is more history than I was able to describe here, but I'm giving you the shortened version. The moment we reached our breaking point. Suffice it to say that the driver has been driving my children since Michael, who is in 10th grade, was in elementary school. I asked for a different driver when Alyssa, now in 5th grade, was in Kindergarten. It never changed. I'm a problem solver, not a complainer. 😀

My tip is this: 

Connect with your Kids.

Know what's going on in their lives. 
There will never be an age where this isn't important or valuable. 
Their concerns always matter. 
These relationships are precious, and will last beyond this life. I really believe that.
I'm grateful to my own mother who was always there for the six of us. It wasn't easy, it was often very difficult. But she held firm and consistent in her care and nurturing. I still turn to her for wisdom and comfort. What a HUGE blessing!

Fall in Eugene!

This summer was the hottest summer that we've experienced in Eugene since we moved here 14 years ago. We always get a couple weeks of upper 90's and a couple triple digit scorchers, but for the most part we have mid and upper 80 degree weather. Not this summer though. Instead we had week after week of upper 90's...well into September. That hot weather was not going out without a fight, but suddenly our temperatures have dipped and today the rain for the next nine months has come upon us. It's definitely fall in Eugene!

This is my favorite view of our neighborhood in the Spring and Fall. Those trees drop beautiful pink flower blossoms in the spring, and a ton of beautifully colored leaves in the Fall.

Here's Justin helping with the groceries. He grabbed my slippers in his hurry outside. They were the closest to the door. Notice him ducking from the rain?

 These are my transitional season nails. I really loved how Dollie got the shape right. They are more true to my natural nails then ever! 💙💚💛