A Letter to Kelsey: Galilee

Dear Kelsey,

I was awake pretty early this morning and had a moment of solitude to look at our picture of Christ walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. When I first saw this print, it brought a sense of quietness and peace to my heart as I remembered another early morning watching the sun come up over the water of this same sea. The air was crisp and clean, the morning beautiful as I walked over the pebble-strewn beach. One of my favorite events written about in the New Testament is when the Savior comes to Simon Peter and the other disciples, while they are on the fishing boat. The Savior has been crucified and resurrected, and Peter and the others have returned to their earlier profession of fishing in the sea, when they spot a man on the beach with a fire going, inviting them to join him. The man is recognized by the disciples as the resurrected Lord, and Peter jumps into the water to swim to him. At this time, the resurrected Savior asks Simon Peter, three times: Simon Peter, lovest thou me? As Peter answered in the affirmative each time, the Lord followed up His question with: "Feed my sheep." With this exchange, the Resurrected Lord teaches some great lessons. First, this thrice asked question of Peter, "lovest thou me?", gives Peter the opportunity to not only know that the Lord has forgiven him his earlier denial, which has torn Peter apart, but it also allows Peter to tell the Savior, irrevocably, that he does truly love Him. Through this questioning and answering exchange, the Savior is also very clearly establishing Simon Peter as the head of the church on earth, as well as commissioning Peter, and the other apostles, with their very important mission to "feed His sheep," to be a special witness of Jesus Christ and to spread His gospel throughout the land and the world. This is a very tender scene from the New Testament, which I love. I am so grateful that you get to read this account, and many others from the New Testament, while you are in Galilee. I loved the beautiful lushness of this part of the country, and I was quite moved by the ruins of Capernaum ("his own city"), knowing that the Lord taught in the synagogue there and walked along those streets, and gathered to him the men of the area that would serve as His apostles. It is in Galilee where the Lord's ministry began, where he performed many miracles and taught his most powerful sermons. I am so happy that you, too, get to experience the powerful witness of our Savior in the land where He was raised and where he began His mission. I add my own testimony of the life and love of our Savior and His atoning sacrifice for us all.

Love,
Mom

Driving

I took Madi to the DMV last week to get her Learner's Permit. This is the third potential driver for Steve and I. It's kind of like potty training our kids--it's yucky to go through, but the Independence and freedom it brings to both the child and the parents is fantastic! A few evenings after Madi received her permit, Steve and I were talking about cars and what to do next year with two kids driving to school. I couldn't even believe we were having the conversation in the first place, because it seemed like a pretty easy slam dunk solution to the "problem" was to utilize the great little service offered by the school district, called the SCHOOL BUS.

"Why can't Madi just take the bus to school?" I asked. Steve's reply: "Kelsey and Markelle didn't have to.'' Well, their situations were different, and it required either allowing them to drive or having me act as their personal driver, and quite frankly the 6:00 a.m. tumbling classes was not something I really wanted to be getting up for. The same goes for twice daily trips up to the DATC in Kaysville for Markelle's Cosmetology class. In my mind, Madi could ride the bus like everyone else, or bum rides off of friends like some of the kids in the neighborhood.

But then I got a phone call from a friend who had a daughter leaving on a LDS Mission and needed to sell her car. I went up to take a quick look at it, drove it around the block, and after seeing the price, I HAD to have this car! It was a screamin' deal! I told her I would take it--I gave her a check, she gave me a key and a title and off I drove, into the...well, not sunset, but it felt like it: liberating and free, spontaneous, adventuresome and a little scary. I BOUGHT A CAR! All by my little ol' self. It's cute, too. I drove it home and parked it. I drove it around on my errands and filled it's little tank with gasoline. I did not say a word to any of the girls. When they got home, they all wanted to know who was visiting. When I told them that I bought a car, they immediately insisted that we needed to drive down to Pace's Dairy Ann to get some onion rings and a Coke. Then we had to drive around Bountiful. Markelle and Madi took turns driving the car and they fell in love with it. Then the questions started: who gets to drive the car? I demurely deflected the question--we'll deal with that in November when Madi gets her Driver's License and we will then have FIVE drivers in the family! (and my husband is an insurance agent, so he knows EXACTLY what that means!)

How to Survive the 40's:

My mantra for today, and actually quite honestly, the past few weeks. How come everyone is so emotional?!! I blame it on the time change (which came especially early this year....)

Running

This happened last Monday:

I went running outside for the first time in a lot of weeks, and as I am running down the hill towards Jody's house, I trip and fall. What the heck!! I sit there for a second to get my bearings, dust myself off, shake out my legs and start back up. I didn't even get a block away before I tripped AGAIN! This time, I put a hole in the leggings I'm wearing (sorry Kelsey, they were the one's you got for Christmas, but they were too big for you anyway. However, I do realize that I owe you a pair of running tights), my knees and palms are scrapped up and yes, I had a witness of this particular fall. Thank you, Mr. Man in the red pick-up that stopped and asked if I was okay. "Yes," I replied, "I'm just not having a very good running day today. There's no blood, so I'm okay." As I continued on to Jody's house (alot more carefully, I might add) I start thinking to myself what the Cosmo's are trying to tell me. Instead of a pity party, I tell my self--and I am convinced now that this is the case--that what really happened is that one of the sweet spirits that I have done temple work for was trying to slow me up so that I wouldn't get hit by a car while running down that one really scary blind corner that was just ahead of me. I know that the spirit world is all around us and that our loved ones are helping and supporting us, just like they did while living on the earth. So it is not such a far fetched idea that maybe someone who loved me was just trying to stop me or slow me down in the quickest way possible to save me from real harm. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.