Sundays

I wish I could honestly say that Sundays are my favorite day of the week...but they aren't.  They turn into such busy days and I'm a Sunday nap kind of girl.  I like to come home from church, kick off my shoes and get some beauty sleep.  The only problem is that once I'm sleeping, I have a hard time wanting to get up.  Oh how I love my sleep.

I'm getting way off topic.  Being in the nursery was a blessing in my life because it truly helped me learn to love actually playing with the kids.  It started out just being a babysitting job but quickly turned into a love for the children and the desire to really help them.  I still get excited to see my nursery kids (yes, they're still mine) because it makes me melt when they say "Hi, Sister White!".  Oh bless.  I know people don't feel like kids their ages can soak up much information--but they don't know their children well enough if that's what they think.  

Having said that--being back in Relief Society has been a great change for me.  It's been kind of a weird transition for me, but I'm really loving it.  It's been nice to get to know some of the women in the ward that I haven't gotten to know yet.  My ward is just cool.  That's all there is to it.  

Today we met with the Priesthood for the 3rd hour and listened to our Bishop talk about the temple.  Worthiness, frequency of attendance and how it will bless our lives.  I was so glad I got to be a part of that lesson.  I needed it.  I know we don't go to the temple often enough and this was a great reminder to me.  He asked the group what some of the questions were that we are asked when we are interviewed for a temple recommend and I honestly could only think of a couple.  Now that the interviews are 2 years apart it's easy to just get your recommend and think you have a free pass to the temple for the next couple of years...when in reality you may not be worthy even 1 or 2 months after receiving it.  That really struck me.  He mentioned sitting down every month or so and re-evaluating where you're at and asking yourself the very questions that we are asked when in a temple recommend interview.  

I have a friend who was a temple recommend holding member of the church.  At one point, her husband and her got pretty behind on their tithing.  They went and talked to the Bishop with the expectation that even though they weren't full tithe payers, they'd get caught up at some point and that from that point forward, they'd be better.  The Bishop tenderly  told them that he'd have to take their temple recommends from them if they weren't caught up on their tithing in "x" number of days/months.  (She didn't mention the amount of time).  The very thought of her temple recommend being revoked was really sobering to her and she and her husband took every effort to get up to date on their tithing as soon as they possibly could so that it wouldn't hold them back from the blessings of going to the temple.  Not only did she feel better about being full tithe payers but she felt better about going to the temple and being completely 100% worthy.  No questions asked.

It's really caused me to think about how I need to make little changes here and there to be a true disciple of Christ.  I remember a talk once by John Bytheway where he said many people want to know how "bad" they can be or how far they can go and still be considered an active member of the church in "good standing".  He challenged everyone to change their mode of thinking.  To ask ourselves how good can we be? How good can we possibly get? How close to the Lord can we bring ourselves? A much better challenge.  Only good can come from that.  It has always stuck with me.

This post is kind of all over the place but basically my point is this: I had a great day at church today.  I felt in tune with the speakers and what was being taught.  I came home and truly felt nourished.  I love that feeling.  I'm so grateful for the temple.  I need to be better about going on a more regular basis.  It's almost ridiculous that we are within 15 minutes of THREE temples and don't go more.  RIDICULOUS.  We're going to be better...and what better place to start than the San Diego, California temple when we are there next week! Oh how I love this temple.

And a couple more that Danny took of the Mesa, AZ temple when we lived in Scottsdale.

YES, HE TOOK THESE. :)