Blowing out Candles and the Plan of Happiness

Oh my little Tilson is getting so big! He is turning three years old in a couple weeks, and I just can't believe it.  The time has flown by!

I was actually thinking about Tilson in the middle of Sunday School today. It was about one year ago that Tilson was turning two and as we were getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to him, Lamon lit the candles and something that we had never experienced before with the older kids happened . . . Tilson freaked out. He was afraid of the candles . . . of the fire. My oldest three kids have never really been afraid of anything. It was kind of sad. Here we were trying to sing Happy Birthday, which is supposed to be fun, and Tilson was whimpering through the whole song. Then at the end of the song Lamon shoved the cake in his face saying, "Blow out the candles Tilson!" To which Tilson turned his head and scooted backwards and cried. Come on! Really? Shove the cake in his face? That is torture! So while Tilson was crying and totally afraid Lamon didn't give up. "Come on Tilson blow them out like this. . . " and he blew them out.

"Phew . . ." I thought to myself. "Thank Heavens that's over . . . poor guy. Lets cut the cake!" But no, Lamon lit the candles again. Oh boy. So then Tilson watched the candles intently as we sang again and then Lamon pushed the cake in his face again. In fear he started turning away whimpering again. I felt bad and blurted out, "Okay Daddy! That's when Dad comes to the rescue and just blows out the candles for him!" Birthdays are supposed to be fun you know and here is Tilson scared to death!!! But then Tilson suddenly got the courage to blow out the whimpiest little blow and scooted back as he did so, not knowing what would happen. And after just seeing the candle flicker a little he mustered up enough courage to blow a little harder until he finally blew one out . . . then the other. And what happened after was quite magical! He laughed, like only he can laugh, in pure joy . . . and then he wanted to do it again and again and again. Lamon kept lighting the candles . . . and he kept blowing them out while we all laughed.

 So the reason I was thinking about this during Sunday school today was because we were talking about the Pre-existence when Satan presented his own plan for mankind that would ensure everyone of God's children would make it back. Only Satan's plan removed Agency from man. Satan wasn't thinking about our progression, or to glorify God, he in his selfishness wanted all of the glory for himself.

But God's plan was different. His plan required us to come to Earth to be tried and tested. And yes, we would face opposition. At Tilson's little Birthday party I was kind of like Satan(work with me here). I know it's a far stretch.  Any way, I was like . . . "Oh no . . . it's too hard! Look at him . . . don't make him do it!" I didn't want to watch him struggle or be afraid . . . "Just blow it out for him!" I said. And we could have done that, and he probably would have calmed down, and eaten his cake. All is Well.

But Oh seeing the pure joy on that kids face after overcoming his fear and doing something hard . . .  made me think of Heavenly Fathers glorious plan. He knew that life would present trials, hard choices, heartache, all sorts of risks . . .and that it would be HARD!And it was all by divine design! He knew that through exercising our Agency and using the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ in our lives we could overcome all . . .  sadness, heartache, fear, and sin . . . become more like Him, and just like Tilson after blowing out his candles . . . experience Happiness unlike we could ever imagine.

How thankful I am for God's wonderful Plan of Happiness!!! :)

"Positive" Talk

So you know that phrase, "If you can't say something nice don't say it at all?" It is really a great concept and we have tried to teach that to our kids, but up to this point they haven't really caught on very well. My kids are talkers and they tend to say whatever they are thinking, which is great except when what they are thinking is mean. I don't know how many times we have told them "If you can't say something nice don't say it at all" with out a whole lot of success.

So the other day I presented a different strategy. I told the kids, "What if when you are about to say something mean (even if it's true) you say the exact opposite instead?" I know that is not a perfect idea . . . but if they are going to be impulsive talkers . . . maybe it might help them quickly change a negative thought being expressed into something positive. 

So this morning I got back from my six mile run in barely enough time to take Lamon to work. We shuffled all of the kids out the door, and got in the car . . . and as we got into the car Ada says to me with total sincerity, "Mom . . . you smell good!" Ha ha ha. 

It made me laugh so hard. Oh . . . how I love my children!