No Regrets

Lately I have had this habit of leaving my current magazine out on the kitchen table all the time so that I will read whenever I get a spare second. Right now it's the Ensign with the General Conference Addresses from November 2007. I was reading Elder Snow's talk on service and a part struck me in it where he was telling a story about his mother while she was dying from cancer. He asked her a couple of days before she died if she had any regrets...her regret was not serving enough. Of course he was shocked because she was always serving, but I kept thinking all day about what my regret would be if I left this earth. I hope not to leave anytime soon, but more than that I really don't want to regret anything important. What kept coming to my mind all day was being a more patient and better mom. I know we all feel like we would like to be more patient at something in our lives, but I really am not patient at all. I always feel so bad and regretful the second I lose my patience with anyone in my family (you too my husband) but especially my kids. Then, later that night I was reading out of President Hinckley's book "Stand A Little Taller" (this one sits on my night stand and I try to read a couple of pages a night along with my owners manual to my new camera and I always have some novel I'm trying to read). The page I was reading was entitled "An Heritage Of The Lord" (page 120) The scripture was Psalm 127:3 -5 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the furit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." President Hinckley goes on to say that we should look upon our children as the most precious of our assets and lead them by the power of our example in kindness and love. After pondering about my kids and my inabilities as mother all day and then to read that as I went to bed, I knew that it was time to do some changing. I've known this for a long time (as long as I've been a mom), but now I needed to act upon it.

Anyway, I hope that by posting this and knowing that other people are reading this, my goal will seem real and I will always remember how important it is to be a more patient mother. They do grow up so fast and instead of wishing this time away and getting on with my busy day, I need to take time to enjoy them and everything that comes along with having 3 beautiful kids. Every day is a new day, right? So, I have the opportunity to start over each day if I have a bad one!!!