Warm Fuzzies

During General Conference, everyone in the family wrote down ideas of things they thought we should follow up on as a family. Everybody mentioned President Monson's talk, What Have I Done for Someone Today?,  so that became the topic for our Family Home Evening lesson last night. (I love that we can watch general conference talks again anytime we want!)  We only watched a small portion of the talk, but all the kids remembered it, especially when we saw the picture of the warm fuzzies-Jeffrey's favorite part.

We focused on the idea of loosing ourselves in service to others and the following thoughts from President Monson:

Often we live side by side but do not communicate heart to heart. There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”⁷

I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.”⁸ How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.”

We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.

We want to focus on "doing" and follow through. The boys went with me to buy warm fuzzies. We piled them in a jar so that each time someone does something kind, they can glue it on a mat surrounding a picture of President Monson and the poem he said he has used as a guide through his life:

I have wept in the night

For the shortness of sight

That to somebody’s need made me blind;

But I never have yet        

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind.

While we were talking, the spirit whispered to me that this lesson, or the results of this lesson could change the lives of our family. We all loved President Hinckley so much (Jeffrey still regular talks and prays about developing the 6 B traits), but now we have a new prophet, leading us in his own special way. Who is kinder than President Monson? And who knows how long we will have him? How long do we have to become more like him? He is one of the kindest, purest souls on earth. If each of us could be more like him, we would be better people.  He is Christ's messenger on earth today.

I remember the spirit touching my heart when President Packer testified of President Monson and reminded us to pray for him, his wife, and his family. I was similarly touched when, the next day, the prophet himself asked us to pray for him. I don't need to be told 3 times. Every day since then, I have tried to make those pleas a part of my life. I've encouraged my children to do it. I've reminded the missionaries to do it. And this is a natural extension of those prayers. We pray for people we love. We also listen to and emulate the people we love. They are all wrapped up together. Praying for the prophet not only sustains him, it changes us. Jen taught me once, that our job as mother's consists of 3 simple things: providing for the physical needs of our family, loving and teaching them to love, and helping them understand their relationship to their Father in Heaven and to their Savior, Jesus Christ. Following the prophet in this way encapsulates each of these three areas.  During this week of Thanksgiving, as a mother, as a daughter of God, I am deeply grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ, for a prophet on the earth to love and follow.