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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.

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