Skip to main content

A Surprise Easter Blessing



Another unfinished piece from Spring, 2014

 Last week was Easter, the week before that was General Conference and my heart has been tender as I have pondered the blessings of both. I received an unexpected lesson from the Spirit during the Sacrament on Easter Sunday. Zach Skinner, a recently ordained Priest, a good friend of Spencer and a sweet young man that I have known for almost as long as we have lived here blessed the Sacrament. I knew that was a hard thing for him to do and was pleased to see him on the stand willing to serve in spite of his apprehensions. He blessed the bread and made a mistake, as many do, but I knew it would be especially discouraging for him. He attempted again, with the same error. This time, Rob Jex, who was presiding that day,  walked over to him and gently pointed out the place in the prayer that he needed to correct. After the third time he got the nod from the bishopric.

I had witnessed this same scenario many times, but the beauty and lesson from the Spirit touched my soul today. The Sacrament prayer needs to be said exactly the way the Lord requests it, but the mistakes that Zach made were not a sin. He was willingly serving the Lord the best he could. It was brother Jex's responsibility to see that it was said correctly and even be there to teach and point out where the error was. Sometimes in more places in our lives than the Sacrament prayer we have to try again and again and even again. Trying again to get important things right is not a sin and the Lord will patiently wait. He will even send stewards to our rescue. In this case, it was a member of the bishopric. Sometimes our rescuers are parents, spouses, friends, and even our own children.

Sometimes we make mistakes even when our hearts are in the right place. In the end, I believe, it is our hearts that count. Tears flowed too freely as I sat there in the chapel surrounded by my children. I felt of the love and compassion that our Savior has for each of us. I have made many mistakes in my life; I have sinned too. I do hope, however, that most of my misgivings were born of weakness and inexperience or even ignorance or misunderstanding rather than willful rebellion against God. It seems that the closer I am to my Savior, the more I recognize my shortcomings. Perhaps I am more aware of them as I become more aware of His perfection; or, perhaps, He shows them to me because I am better able to work on them.

I am a perfectionist, but I wish I were not. I think that I miss out on a lot of joys in the journey because of this trait. In addition, neither I nor the people and circumstances around me are perfect and setting perfection as the standard leads to a lot of disappointment. The feelings I had today during the Sacrament will help me to remedy this. Because of Zach's misread word, there were connections made and lessons learned. We live in a very imperfect world and there is beauty and joy in that. There is beauty in making an attempt especially attempting something difficult and there is joy to be had all around us in spite of our being in an imperfect world. I thank Zach and Brother Jex for their facilitating the circumstances by which I was able to learn a valuable lesson and feel of the love and grace of God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Day He Died

Thirteen years ago today I was at an aquarium in the Gateway Shopping Center in Salt Lake City. I was with my sister-in-law, JuNette; her son Andrew and my three oldest children. Spencer had just turned five the day before, Taylor was three and a half, and Emma was 22 months. The aquarium was new and small, but we enjoyed our time there. After we had been there for some time JuNette handed me her phone and said that Destry had been trying to get a hold of me for quite some time. Destry told me not to worry, but that he and Christine were driving to my childhood home in Springville to check on my dad because no one had heard from him and he hadn't shown up to pick up my mom from the hospital.  My siblings and I had been worried about my mom's welfare because she had had a gastric bypass surgery to help her to loose weight and to improve both her health and her quality of life. The surgery had gone well and she was ready to come home on this day 13 years ago. Oddly, my dad neve
1 comment
Read more

Her Life was Not as Sweet

A couple of years ago at a moment when my mom was expressing her love to her children and grandchildren, she mentioned that her Patriarchal Blessing stated she would live for as long as "life was sweet for her." She told us that while she missed her sweetheart dearly, life was indeed sweet. I thought that was a blessing for her and for us. This past year has been quite difficult for her. Last November she began having pain in her upper back, arms, and shoulders. She visited a pain clinic and received a series of injections providing her with some relief. By Spring her hands and feet were swollen and misshapen and she had difficulty getting her body moving each morning. If she had a morning appointment she would wake up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get her hands moving so she could use them. In the spring her primary care physician suggested she see a rheumatologist.  In the past she has had bad experiences either with rheumatology medications or doctors and I began going to
Post a Comment
Read more

I Should Have Known, But I Didn't or It's Been a Year

I began this blog one year ago this month.  This is my 31st post.  That puts me at exactly 2.4 posts per month.  Not a world's record, but a personal best.  Up from the zippo I had before.  I started it so that my children would have some record of their family's life.  I haven't been very good at journal keeping in the past.  I have been hit or miss at best.  What I hadn't anticipated was how much I have enjoyed writing and reading this blog.  I have reread my posts, some of them several times.  They have made me laugh, cry and reminisce about my life.  I like to write, so it should not have been such a surprise.  But for some reason or other I didn't realize how much I would benefit from it.  Maybe next year I will average a 3 or even 4 posts each month.  I have ideas and notable life events that I could write about, but we shall see.
3 comments
Read more