Throwing the Ball

A couple of Stake Conferences ago a lady in our stake gave a talk about consistancy in the gospel. It really meant a lot to me at the time because I didn't feel like I was getting much out of church or anything spiritually really. At the time she was giving the talk, I was nursing Silver Dawn in the mothers lounge. Between walking the halls with crying babies and dirty diapers, and disciplining older ones etc. I didn't feel I was getting too much out of church. Church was more exhausting than uplifting. Sometimes it's hard with little ones to feel like what you're doing is making a difference.

Her talk was just what I needed and it continues to be a common saying in our home. "We're throwing the ball". As I remember the talk (remember this was about a year ago now, with distractions) she talked about throwing a ball at a carnival at a tower of milk jugs. You may knock them all down! Yipeee!! You may knock a few down, or you may miss the pile all together. But you keep picking up the ball and throwing it.

This is what we do with our families. Sometimes in trying to get kids and ourselves ready and out the door for church, we're late. Sometimes we miss the sacrament. Does this mean we failed and shouldn't try again? No! We threw the ball. We may have missed the mark we wanted, but we picked up the ball and we threw it. We went to church!

So I ended up out in the hall more than I was in the meeting. Did I fail? No, I threw the ball, I was there, and in the process gleaned some spiritual meaning. I loved Elder Bednar's talk in last conference "More Diligent and Concerned At Home". In it he talks about Consistency and how the FHE lessons, scripture studies, church attendance, may fall short of our expectations or desired results, but the value is in consistently doing. Being there is a huge step.

I used to tell the YW to decide ahead of time what you were going to do in a given situation, before the situation arrived. Church attendance for us is one of these things: We have decided to go every week. The Prophet Joseph was tarred and feathered and not only made it to church the next day, but presided and talked at the meetings. That way the decision is already made. Instead of thinking: I stayed up way too late last night and I'm so exhausted today....Should we go? The girls are cranky, there is no way we'll get there on time...should we just stay home?

Sometimes we fail. We look at each other and say...."We saw that going differently in our minds somehow." Does that keep us from trying again? Hopefully NOT! We look at each other and say, "We're throwing the ball!"

The beautiful thing about this life is we get to learn from our mistakes. The purpose of life is in progressing and gaining faith. How grateful I am that there is no "game over" button - Whoops, you loose! Game Over! We have a loving Heavenly Father who when we sincerely repent will forgive and help us overcome.

In the end, I believe it doesn't so much matter the individual deeds that we've done but what we've become as a result of all of it. Who have we become?

Everyone has things they wish they could erase. Some major, some minor. Hopefully we can learn from them. This post has been pretty heavy. Now for a lighter side, hopefully make you smile, it will make me smile - My most embarrasing moments :)

Moment #1: I was playing the piano at Colt's grandmother's funeral. This is the first funeral I've ever had the honor of playing at. As they bring the casket into the chapel they announce will everyone please rise. Well, everyone means everyone, right. They didn't say everyone but the piano player. So, I stood up too. The room fell silent, and I felt really dumb standing there as the funeral director in not so small of a voice instructed me to keep playing. Not such a big thing right. I mean most people probably didn't even notice and if they did didn't think too much of it. Why do we always make more of it than needs to be? Lesson learned: Everyone does Not include the piano player.

Moment #2: River was about 2 years old and I was pregnant with Silver Dawn. I don't drink very much during the day. Like really not very much at all. I know this is a problem, and decided that I needed to drink quite a bit more. To help me, I bought a mug that would hold a good amount of water. I only needed to drink 3 of these a day to get my 8 glasses of water. Wahoo, I was going to start my good habit of drinking water today! I jumped in the car on the way to work with River and put my water mug on the car seat. We live down a winding dirt road, very little traffic, so I wasn't paying all that much attention as my mug fell off the seat and started spilling all over the floor. Observation #1: I could have stopped the car and then retreaved the mug. Observation #2: Really how much harm could 20 oz of water do to the floor of the car? Oh, hindsight is 20/20~!

Instead of doing the above mentioned things, I leaned over and retreaved the mug, only to look up and see myself headed for an electrical pole. WHO IN THE WORLD HITS A TELEPHONE POLE??? It's not moving!! Blessing #1: This is right before the highway. Yes, our dirt road turns into the highway. It could have been MUCH worse.

This was highly embarassing. So, my car won't move, it's right next to the highway where just about everyone we know in our neighboring communities happens to pass by for the couple of hours that it is sitting there before it is towed. I had numerous neighbors and friends asking me about it. Our car still has a dent in it, and people still ask about what happened. (Yes, we do insurance and drive a smashed in front end of a car. I wasn't willing to spend $1,200 to fix our car - which is another topic I'd like to blog about someday, we all choose to spend our $$ differently. What is important to one may not be to another, but it is a choice.) I didn't have any type of phone (no home phone or cell phone, again $$ priorities, yes I am a tightwad in many areas) so I had to walk and ask Colt's aunt for a ride to the office to tell my husband I wrecked our car on a pole!
Well, my husband is an insurance agent who happens to talk to hundreds of clients to insure their cars. He hears numerous embarassing stories about their wrecking a car, he can then laugh and share my wreck with them. Result: They feel less stupid, and it creates sympathy in me for those who do stupid things. Other lessons learned: I keep that dent in my car - on the drivers side as a reminder everytime I get into the car. It could have been worse. A thousand times worse, no one got hurt and it was only a couple hundred dollars to fix the allignment. A moment of distraction can lead to tragedy. I don't talk on the phone or multi-task when I'm in the car. Our lives and the lives of the other drivers are much too precious. Valuable lesson learned! Colt has only been an insurance agent for 4 years, he has had people both killed and kill people in car accidents. He has also delivered the death benefit to a widow on their life insurance policy, young mother with 4 kids. He had another family come in after their father died asking if he had any life insurance.

Life is a precious thing, one where every day is a gift! I love to look for the "Silver Lining" What was good today? It's always there, if you look for it! (We didn't have to go to the Emergency room today when Silver Dawn fell off the desk AND when Silver poured a cup of water on the heater, it didn't electrocute her....it doesn't work now....but, hey, at least the days are quite a bit warmer now and we don't need to use the heater as much - it could have been worse! All this happened before noon! Sometimes their nap is the Silver Lining!!)

It is all worth it. These days go by SO fast!

So we'll pick up that ball again tomorrow and throw, throw, throw!