I loved church today. For me, the theme for the day was gratitude. I just couldn’t help but be grateful for all of my blessings. I am grateful for my little ten-year-old girls that I get to teach. Here was the scenario I laid out for them today: You are a good girl. Your dad asks you to go check on your older siblings. But they see you coming, and they dig a big pit, and when you get there they put you in the pit. They take your favorite jacket and dip it in blood, and they go back to your dad and they tell him, “Oh no… looks like Kendell got torn apart by wild animals!” And you think the worst thing is that you are in a deep pit in the desert with no water… but no, some people happen by and see you, and pull you out, and sell you as a slave! And then you get to be a slave for about the next twenty years, while your dad thinks you are dead.
The key to the scriptures is to liken them unto ourselves, so that we can learn from them. I don’t know that I ever saw that I had much in common with Joseph who was sold into Egypt. But as we talked, we found that we all have trials that we are dealing with. Sometimes they are not nearly as terrible as Joseph’s… being sold into slavery by your brothers is fairly extreme, after all. But sometimes they are really just as difficult, and it is those trials that make us who we are. Joseph was “preserved by the Lord” so that he could be a hero and save his father, his family, and all the people from the famine. I don’t know what Heavenly Father’s plan is for me. The trials have been pretty thick lately. But I do absolutely love this quote from Elder Richard G. Scott, an apostle in my church, in which he talks about this principle. He says,
“Were you to know His entire plan, you would never ask for that which is contrary to it, even though your feelings tempt you to do so.” I love that. Trust in the Lord. And be grateful.
And then the girls and I left our classroom to go into singing time, and again I was grateful... this time for a little humor. These twin boys got their heads caught in the railing outside the primary room. I guess I should have helped them, but my first thought was to take a picture instead, so that you all could be grateful as well. Happy Sunday!
