Destin Road Trip

We took a mom and kids road trip to Destin this summer!  It was super last minute for me (like I decided the day before- ahhh!)  But I'm so glad we did- it was fantastic!  We left at 5am- of course the kiddos were wide awake and no sleeping in the car.  We listened to The Great Brain and John Bytheway for most of the drive and those basically saved our lives.  I never would have been able to drive for 10 hours straight otherwise.  The kids were good in the car and we had a late lunch at The Golden Corral (which for the record is pretty much as barfy as I remembered it and really not cheap for light eaters like mine.  I did enjoy the meatloaf though)

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting Fort Pickins.  This was an old Civil War Fort and it actually help the famous Native American, Geronimo (which made me really sad actually).  It was neat to see this piece of history though. 

A gigantic front rolled in just as we were leaving the beach at Fort Pickens.  Sort of expected an alien ship to be behind it.

Playing board games and eating ice cream cones in the lobby.  The Hampton Inn at Navarre was awesome.  They were so accommodating and we were able to get some Bananagrams in! YES

Peace

I got to speak in church a couple of weeks ago and as always benefitted more than anyone else from the experience.  Posting it below:

Good afternoon!  It's great to speak today- I always get a little nervous but have really appreciated the opportunity to work on a talk.  It's fun that Curtis and I are both speaking today and we don't have any toddlers making it impossible for us to both be up here.  Appreciate our kids holding down the row.  :)  Just for fun I'll give a brief introduction of our family.  We have lived in this ward for the last 7 years.  It took us awhile to acclimate to Texas but we really love it here and especially love this congregation- you've become our family.  Curtis and I met through a mutual friend when I was at BYU and and he was at UBC.  I still have the journal entry from the weekend we met- something about meeting the coolest guy but we will probably never see each other again.  But here we are, 17 wonderful years and 4 kids later.  I thank Heavenly Father everyday for these 5 people in my life!  We think it might be official- we've been Texified.  Not sure if I could ever handle another icy Michigan or absurdly long Minnesota winter.  So we might be here to stay.  :)

Well Brother deGraaf didn't assign me a topic so choosing was sort of a struggle.  There were a few things I wanted to speak about but I kept coming back to the topic of "Personal Peace."  

1) Peace signs are popular as are one line slogans like "war is not the answer" and "coexist" It only takes a few clicks on your computer to see that we are no where near the lofty goal of world peace though.  This can be depressing but let's look at the scriptures.  Matthew 10:34 Chirst says "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth." D&c 1:35 says that peace shall be taken from the earth.  But Christ promises peace as the fruit of the spirit and he is called "the prince of  peace."

2) the peace that Christ offers is Personal peace and it is attainable in this world.  It's actually critical not just a perk. Personal peace is a deep abiding comfort and confidence in our Father's Plan and in knowing that Christ has overcome the world.  President Heber J. Grant described the Savior’s peace this way: “His peace will ease our suffering, bind up our broken hearts, blot out our hates, engender in our breasts a love of fellow men that will suffuse our souls with calm and happiness. I don't know about you but a soul suffused with calm and happiness sounds amazing. 

3) The world, as always, offers a counterfeit version: pleasure, money, power, luxury vacations, spa treatments and buying more stuff but ultimately these things do not bring lasting peace and they can even create new stresses in our lives.  

4) Peace through Christ is manifest through the Holy Ghost.  Helaman 5:30 describes it beautifully: Perfect voice of stillness, mild but piercing.  How long has it been since you've felt that voice?  There are things we can to do in order to hear and feel the peace I'm talking about:

~ slow down, we are so busy racing from one activity to another that we are making important phone calls while driving and eating and using sign language to prepare our kids for the daily schedule.  And aside from the obvious physical danger that you may experience on the freeways this hyper business can also be devastating to our souls.  We desperately need time to quietly meditate, pray and turn our hearts to our Father in Heaven.  Words like ponder, deliberate, reflect... have become almost extinct in a society that worships traits like smooth talking, decisive, witty and charismatic.  There has been a real shift in our culture as far as which qualities we admire in people.  

~ don't go a day without talking to Heavenly Father and reading his word.  You wouldn't think of having your family skip breakfast.  and lunch.  and dinner right? and spiritual nourishment is even more critical than physical nourishment.  There are so many dailies that we need to do but prayer and scripture study is SO much more important than homework or piano practice or even (gasp) brushing your teeth!! 

~ Keep the commandments,  In this there is safety, in this there is peace.  When we realize that the commandments are there to help us avoid suffering, contention, pain and guilt- it becomes much easier to want to keep them.  I've had several people remark about the word of wisdom and how it's odd that we are asked to abstain from alcohol when it is clear that alcohol was consumed in the scriptures.  My answer to that is probably that alcohol is not inherently evil but God knows more than we do and knows that in our day we will have more peace and security if we just avoid it. Think of the time and toll that sin takes on us.  If we for example stretch a truth a little or cheat or work out a financial arrangement in a way that we know is dishonest... Now we have that swirling around in our heads and we have to spend time rationalizing why we did it and maybe we spend some more time looking around at others are doing it even more so we can feel better... all of this is robbing our souls of the precious peace and confidence that comes from doing our best to keep the commandments and repenting quickly and fully when we mess up

~ Peace can come to us through good music, nature, time at the temple and time serving others.  Take time for these impt activities.  I wasn't sure what to speak on at first but came to church and we sang:  "Be Still my Soul." Then the next week it was "Where can i turn for peace?"  Music is one of the most powerful ways that God communicates to us!

5) The last thing I want to mention is that peace is possible, even admidst life's greatest storms.  I have watched my own mother suffer such pain through some of the choices and circumstances with her children.  I am blown away at the serenity that she is able to find and hold on to.  I'm not suggesting she isn't affected because she most definitely is, but her faith anchors her and affords her a kind of peace that the world simply is not able to provide.  No therapist or amount of time walking int the mountains or eating organic berries or even doing yoga (and I love yoga) can offer the peace I am talking about.  It is the still quiet comforting reminder that this is not our home.  That we are strangers here and our souls long to be with our Heavenly Family.  This peace reminds us that being on earth is a little like looking in a funhouse mirror.  It's distorted and things that seem really important aren't at all and trials that seem to go on and on will feel like a small moment when we have better perspective.  The peace I'm talking about reminds us that Jesus Christ overcame death and sin.  Christ made it very clear that he did not come to establish peace and in fact in the very time that his birth was being heralded by angels singing "Glory to God, Peace on Earth" Kind Herod was slaughtering innocent babies.  Christ assured his disciples that they would have tribulation in the world but He also promised His peace.  Testimony and part of one of my favorite poems by William Wordsworth:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home

EFY, Peacocks and Deer

Jonah and a group of good friends were able to attend Especially For Youth in San Antonio this summer.  They had a fantastic time, made new friends and were spiritually uplifted.  So thankful to live in a place were programs like this are accessible. 

After dropping Jonah off I got a short visit in with my brother Jim's Family.  Military perks include access to parks with tame peacocks and deer.  I brought Daniel along with me and he and I had a wonderful time catching up with my sil, Kathryn and two of her wonderful boys, Jake and Henry.  It's really nice to have family in the same state.  I feel like Curtis and I have been orphans our whole marriage.  Sometimes I long to be around people who've known me for longer than a few years.  :)  Love my family!