Sunday Thoughts

I've been so consumed with work this week that I had to catch up on all of my blog entries I wanted to do for this week before I could write this one (well, not really, but I did anyway).  It's amazing how thoughts come to me during the day and I think, "Oh, I want to blog about that!" and then when I don't actually get to blog that day, I forget what I wanted to blog about.  This is definitely one of the weeks.  I had so many different and interesting things happen to me this week that I wanted to write about and I'm sure I forgot many of them and just made my other posts just kind of a little "here's what I did" journal for the week.  Bummer.  I guess I'll need to carry around a little notebook or something with me so I can jot dot notes of things when I think of them.

Today we went to church and I felt a resounding common theme.  It was LOVE.  Love for others, love for self, but mostly and foremost, that our Heavenly Father loves US.  The talks and lessons were a lot about love.  In Sacrament, love.  In Sunday School, the love He and our Savior, Jesus Christ, showed when forming our earth by all the beautiful things on it that help us know they are there and that they love us.

The teacher asked us to share something that helps us know God is there for us.  There were a number of examples shared such as rainbows, the canyonlands in southern Utah, the ocean.  If I had shared, I would have said sunrises.  Yes, I love a beautiful sunset as much as the next person, but I really do love beautiful sunrises more.  First, it's a way of welcoming another day - beautiful or full of hassles.  Second, there is just so much beauty in them.  I love the way the sun reflects off the clouds and the rich hues it produces.  I feel a sense of "promise" for the day when I see a beautiful sunrise.  I love that the world is much more peaceful during those few beautiful moments when it's in all its splendor...at least it certainly feels that way.  There is really just magnificent about watching the sun rise.  This picture is of a recent sunrise on my way to work that was so incredibly beautiful, that I just HAD to take a picture of it (while I was driving).

One year, a few years ago, it was the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  I got up very early to go to the grocery store before everyone started heading there with the same intent - to get the biggest turkey available - and to get everything I needed for turkey day without having to push and shove my way through the store and park over in Scottsdale and hike to the store.  It was still quite dark when I left.  I got through the store pretty quickly, found everything I needed, and started to head for home.  But, as I walked out of the store, I saw the most phenomenal and magnificent sunrise I have ever seen.  Maybe it was so beautiful because I was really feeling low in my life and marriage (#1) at the time and I really needed to feel Heavenly Father's love for me.  Maybe it was because I needed a little sunshine in my day.  Or, who knows?  Maybe the clouds were just perfect because they just were.  I tend to think it was the first reason.  It was at that moment that I felt loving arms around me, comforting me, telling me that He was there and that anytime I saw a beautiful sunrise, to think of Him.  Nowadays, I go into work at a fairly early time - sometime between 5 and 7 a.m., usually.  There are so many mornings that it's dark when I leave, but some time during my trip, I start to see that glimmer of light begin to pop up from the horizon and again, I feel God's love for me.  It just starts the day off right.

In Relief Society, we, again, talked about our Heavenly Father's love for us.  I was quite touched by the words of a song I've sung hundreds of times before:

I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand his words
Before it grows to late.

I am a child of God.
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do his will
I'll live with him once more.

I am a child of God.
His promises are sure;
Celestial glory shall be mine
If I can but endure.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
 
The blessings that are in store for us if we continue to endure this earthly life are rich and abundant.  I realize I am not perfect.  I realize I need to work harder at improving.  And knowing that Heavenly Father's love will help me, makes it all worth it.
 
After church, Melon Man brought me home and then went back for a meeting.  So, I caught up on my blogging and put some pork ribs in the oven to bake.  Since I don't have to go to work tomorrow because it's MLK day, I'm just gonna hang out with my honey tonight and enjoy being together.