Trials and Tribulations are a BLESSING

I was contemplating the story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus. I thought of how great it would be to be that close to the Savior in mortality. I know we can each know Him and love Him but to be a personal friend during His mortal ministry, WOW!! Then I started thinking of the POWER He has. He could have taken away all of the hurt, pain, despair, etc from all of these friends. He did not do that. Yes, He raised Lazarus but He could have healed Him before the death occurred. It is a gentle reminder to me that He did not take those mortal experiences from His friends because He loved them enough to let them learn and grow from them.

Trials and Tribulations are a BLESSING. They help the person grow and give marvelous service and charity opportunities for us to love and learn through service.

What is in a DAY!

So I was pondering the other day and the phrase "we are all given the same amount of minutes in a day" came into my head. This phrase has brought much angst to me on this mortal journey accompanied by guilt. Then it hit me. Yes, we all have equal time given to us in any given day. Every person on earth gets the same 24 hours with its accompanying minutes and seconds, etc. HOWEVER, the tasks assigned to each of us to use these days are very very unique and different. Let me explain....

To a nursing mother, the exhaustion and fatigue cannot be equalized to a working woman's desire to get one more load of laundry done cannot be equalized to the retired woman who wishes there were less aches to hinder the smallest activity to the mother with a child that has extra special needs, etc etc etc.

We are not equal and the measure of our lives I am learning is not in the day, minute, or second but how we meet our unique and diverse struggles. We must lean and trust on the Savior to get us through and do our very best each and every day. Today will be different from yesterday which will be different from our tomorrow. Just try a little harder to be a little better as President Hinckley is quoted as saying.

But...if you have the flu, the little better may just mean that you allow your body the rest it requires to recover.

That is better for you in this moment!

TODAY!

Different Type of Family Visit

Different type of Family Visit
We made our every 6 month pilgrimage to see Mom and Dad S. It was great to see them and make sure that they are okay. They are doing very well.

Saturday we stopped to see them on the way to the hotel. Went and checked in and then had dinner. We were pretty tired so went to bed early. Sunday we went and picked up Mom and Dad and spent a lovely day talking and catching up. On Monday we made our Sam's Club run. Tuesday we made our Albertson's and Walmart runs. On Wednesday we made a trip to the mall and spent the morning and early afternoon looking at all of the few remaining stores there. Thursday, legs hurt, bodies sore and we went for a walk along the river then returned to the rooms and rested. Friday is the drive back home. A great week was had by all.

EVENTS TO NOTE:We have a friend at one of the restaurants we frequent while there. She is the BEST waitress EVER. I just can tell that if she and I lived closer we would be the greatest of friends and drive my sweetheart absolutely bonkers Hee Hee Hee. So we exchanged emails. HELLO NEW FRIEND!

Walking to the parking garage one day I saw 2 roadrunners. Noone else was paying much attention so I was the only person with the privilege.

On one of the trips to the hotel from the apartment building, there was a "red ribbon" floating across the road. Turns out it wasn't a red ribbon but a beautiful redish copperish snake. Beautiful creature. It was probably about 6 feet long. Glad I didn't run over it. I cannot find it exactly on google. I am asuming it is a copperhead and I just couldn't make out the beautiful patterns at such a distance. The distance I am grateful for :-)

A lizard barely escaped death as he dashed in front of our car on one of the trips. He was pretty funny actually.

People watching was a lot of fun! We watched the people ski doing on the river. We suspect that many of them use the little islands for more than just resting. A few of them used them to "relieve themselves". OOOH YUCK!

In the gift shop there were these freaky little animals, mostly cats and dogs. They were toys but with a battery they actually look like they are breathing. I am not sure if they are more on the cute or freaky side of things.

Other than that not too much different. We had very safe travels and were blessed with health by a loving Heavenly Father. Much relaxation accomplished and it was a great vacation!