May 20, 2012

lengthen my stride

I was babysitting some cutie kiddos yesterday while their parents went to Stake Conference, and it was an incredible experience.

First of all, the kids are angels. They were so well behaved and I never had to raise my voice. There was a point during the night that I was snuggling with both of the girls (the baby was snoozing in my arms as well) and I thought, I would be perfectly content with a life like this. Granted, I know that being a mom is no cup of tea, but for that one second, it seemed at the very least doable.

Second, I had some pretty incredible spiritual experiences with these little children. The older girl seemed to be especially aware of how much Heavenly Father loved her and seemed very eager to share that knowledge with me. As we were snuggled up reading a board book about the prophets, we read about how Thomas S. Monson learned that Joseph Smith was a prophet when he was 12 years old. I took that chance to look at the girls in the eyes and say, "I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Do you think he was a prophet?" Both nodded their heads very fervently, and the eldest said, "Yeah, I really do." It was so cute, and I really felt a gentle spirit touch my heart.

Third, about three minutes prior to that experience, I was reading about Spencer W. Kimball. He was a pretty goal oriented guy that seemed to know where he was going. We read about how he encouraged members to lengthen their stride and start doing things now. And that really hit me. I'm the queen of procrastination, and I realized that this is not the best title in the world to have. So I started thinking of ways that I could lengthen my stride this summer.

They say the more people who know about goals, the better chances you have to keep them, so here are my summer goals. (Notice the portion about blogging. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.)


*Run a 5-K
*Eat healthy, balanced meals
*Look for ways to serve others daily
*Forget myself and get to work
*Take a picture a day and sit down and blog about it
*Study the Scriptures every day and read the New Testament
*Pray with more sincerity
*Develop good time management skills
*Always be personally hygienic
*Read Gordon B. Hinckley and Spencer W. Kimball's Biographies
*Fast on Fast Sunday every month
*Work to be better at my callings
*Devote time on Sunday to Family History and take at least 3 names to the Temple
*Drink lots of water
*Spend time outside working on the garden or clearing forest

2 comments:

  1. Ahhh The Ashtons! We love them! What cute girls :)

    You inspire me Laney! What a great list of goals, and many that I can work on myself. You are awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those Ashton kids are pretty special, but so are you, so that's a pretty good combination. :)

    ReplyDelete

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