Taking time for Spiritual things Dec 21, 2012

Taking time for Spiritual things

Early on in my grieving I found that I was lifted and that my sorrow was more bearable,

if I took the time for spiritual study, journaling and pondering.  

During the initial month surrounding the funeral,  I was involved in sharing my beliefs with others who had questions about my faith.  I naturally spent a lot of time studying spiritual things and that carried me through.  People remarked, 

"How are you doing this?  How are you coping so well?"

I knew that my faith was helping me, but I hadn't completely put all of it together yet.

  I just knew it was working.  

When my friends' interest ended, I found myself sucked into the realities of life.  I had big financial and legal problems, a large home to sell and take care of, and a move to prepare for.  

I was extremely overwhelmed.

It was easy for me to get lost in the phone calls, paper work, and house hold duties, and for me to neglect the study that I had done early on.  

I began to see a pattern in my days...

Those that were bearable were always coupled with time for study.  

Those that ended in emotional disaster could always be traced back to me 

failing to devote the time needed to fill my spiritual reservoir.  

I began to try and change my priorities, but that did not happen over night.  I struggled back and forth to remember that lesson.  Here is a journal excerpt from 6 weeks out...

Dec 21, 2012 

I have been slacking in my writing. I am on the plane on the way to Provo, and I finally found some time to write.   

The 19th was our 20th wedding anniversary and I spent it driving up to St Louis to go to the temple with my mom and two sisters that live there. It was wonderful to be there and to feel the spirit and feel Scott near me. Everything has new meaning to me now that my eternal companion is on the other side. How grateful I am for the covenants that I have made in the temple and for the assurance that if I am faithful that Scott and I will be able to be together again as an eternal family. I feel that those covenants bind us together now. 

When I am feeling the spirit I feel like I can handle the time we are apart now.

 Yesterday I plowed back into financial and legal concerns. I worried about getting everything ready for our trip and for our early Christmas Eve that night. 

It was a bad day. 

I felt discouraged and worried and stressed, and I cried on and off all day.  

I realized that I hadn't taken the time to study and read my scriptures.  

 I wasn't taking time to feel the spirit. 

What a stark contrast it was from the day before. 

I am learning... 

I have to take time for spiritually things- 

not just that it is good, 

but that I HAVE TO, 

that I can't survive and function if I don't!

Blessings Just Realized from an Answer to Prayers Two Years Before the Accident

Blessings Just Realized from an Answer to Prayers Two Years Before The Accident

"How grateful I am that I felt inspired two years ago to start taking my two oldest boys out for lunch once a week. It meant an extra hour of driving for me and having to pull them out of school. I often had to miss things or rearrange my schedule to make it work. We ate at restaurants that weren't always my favorites, but we developed a friendship that is really helping us get through this crisis. Love my boys! It was so worth it. Take the time to build lasting relationships with your kids. Drop the unimportant stuff and just do it. You won't regret a minute of it. - Dec 13, 2012

I recently wrote an article about how I got the inspiration to do this with my son.  Prayer is a powerful parenting tool.  I have also learned that God blesses your life over and over if you will just turn to Him for answers instead of trying to do it all on your own.

The power of Prayer in Parenting a Teen

Here is an excerpt... (to read more go to the link above)

"Sometimes when you’re parenting a teen, you have to dig deep for ideas… And I have found prayers to be the most powerful tool.  My oldest son was a sophomore in high school when our relationship began to suffer. He had the ability to drive, and with his busy school and extra curricular schedule, we rarely saw each other. I felt he was not pulling his weight at home. He felt overly controlled and tension developed. After a semester of this, I began to worry as I saw our communication degrade.I didn’t know what to do..."

A life void of trials would be one void of growth: Written 2 weeks after the accident

Fear of Trials and Difficulties can be Crippling...

"A life void of trials would be one void of growth. Trials take a rough hewn stone and polish it smooth and brilliant.  We want to be brilliant, yet we desperately desire to avoid the painful and uncomfortable process of getting there. I have found that accepting pain, hurt, and difficulties as learning experiences has given those struggles a purpose and an end result.  This enables me to learn, accept and move through them.  Fighting against the polishing only makes it take longer.  Accepting it as the will of God, allows Him to help me get through it." - May 5, 2014

November 25, 2012

After we finished medical school, I found myself living the life we had always dreamed of.  We had four healthy children, a beautiful new house, brand new furniture, new cars, and my husband had his dream job.  

Everything had worked out just like we had planned.

I should have been happy and fulfilled... 

but I was not.

I felt a heavy weight on my heart.

I felt the doom of an impending trial.  

I became consumed with the fear that my fairytale world would crumble apart.  I desperately did not want to give up all that I had worked for and sacrificed for so long to acquire.

I remember a time when  I was visiting a good friend and in desperation I finally asked her, 

"Do you think it is possible to be righteousness enough to avoid trials?"

I remember her response, and it helped me to understand the purpose and importance of 
trials in our lives... How they teach us, 

shape us, 

refine us and,

help us to be the kind of people our Heavenly Father wants us to become.  

I wanted so desperately to avoid the big trial that I felt was coming my way.

That conversation helped me to understand that I needed to go through it.

Remembering that has helped me these past two weeks. 

I am grateful for that conversation that occurred almost 10 years ago.  My friend did not know the impact that she would later make on my life.  I have been touched by how many people have come forward with things that Scott did for them or said that really made an impact on them. I know he often felt discouraged because he thought he wasn't making a difference. These experiences have taught me that we never know the impact we can make, so we need to do all we can to reach out to other people and follow the spirit when it prompts us to act or say something. This has taught me to stop being afraid and to just reach out.

My Thoughts After the Funeral: Nov 16-25, 2012

Excerpts from face book posts the first two weeks after the accident...

At 18 months I went back and read these entries.  Knowing the emotional struggle that was to come, it is amazing for me to see how much I was LIFTED, ENABLED, and CARRIED through the initial shock of Scott's death.  I understand now how much he was allowed to be present.  I remember our home feeling like a sacred place... it was as if we were surrounded in a bubble of light... I'm so grateful that the day of the accident, I chose to turn to the light.

Nov 16, 2012 (6 days after the accident)

"My children are my best friends and my boys my pillar of strength."

"We are driving to Omaha for Scott's funeral and we just passed Kansas City. What an amazing journey this has been and continues to be. 

The sweet peace of the gospel has comforted 

our saddened hearts. 

The memorial service in Springfield last night reflected who Scott is and shared his feelings about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Tender mercies have been bestowed upon me and my children and we have grown in unimaginable ways... ways 

that could have never happened without this experience. 

Truly the Savior's atonement takes away the sting of death 

and fills us with hope, love and direction.

Thank you for your prayers and feelings of sympathy. You have followed the savior and mourned with those that mourn and stood with us who were in need of comfort. May The Lord bless you for your compassion and love. Continue to pray for us."

Nov 24, 2012

We are just leaving the cemetery this morning.  Another hard hurdle over. We are going to the temple later this afternoon. Tomorrow we will head home. 

It is amazing to me the peace the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to me. So many people in my situation would feel utter dispair and emptiness... that all was over and their love one was no more.

All I felt was comfort..,

The sweet assurance that Scott was still the head of our family. 

That as I listen to the Holy Spirit, he will be able to lead and guide us  

That he is still there and that we will be together again as a family if we will all try to do what's right and keep our covenants.

Nov 25, 2012

Sure glad I have my kids and the assurance that we will all be together again some day. 

I went to the temple Tuesday night and took the boys yesterday. 

It was good to feel the spirit there and be reminded of what is important...

 family and doing what is right.

Before the Accident

I think God has a way of preparing us for really hard trials... 

I know that He has promised that He will not give us more than we can handle, and sometimes, I think He helps us handle things through spiritual promptings.  

If we are listening, 

those promptings can become

 tender mercies later on down the road.

Scott and his dad had been at a Mercedes driving class in California since Wednesday.  The class finished Saturday night. They were to fly to Omaha, spend the night, and then Scott was going to fly home Sunday morning.  That Saturday night was a warm November evening, and so I asked my kids what they wanted to do.  Unanimously, they announced that they wanted to walk the Galloway trail together and get ice cream.  This was something I had done with my four children frequently for the past several summers.  

As we walked I watched my children as if from a distant place...

I remember feeling so peaceful and happy.  They were skipping and goofing off, and I thought how lucky I was to have 3 teenage boys and a preteen daughter who were content and happy to spend their Saturday night with their mother and siblings.  The thought came clearly in my mind, 

“If something happened to Scott, you would be okay.

   You could be happy.  This would be enough.”  

I brushed it aside, thinking nothing of it...  

When we got back to the car, my husband had texted... 

“luv u, taxing.” 

It was only a short while later that the plane crashed.., 

but I didn’t find out about it until the next morning.  

When my mother-in-law called to tell me they had not landed in Omaha, 

immediately I remembered the prompting that had come

 into my mind the night before.  

I knew that the Lord prepared me for that moment.  

I knew they were both gone.

For a brief instant, I was faced with a choice...  

There was a dark easy way. I could see myself crumbling and falling apart. I saw family stepping in to take care of my responsibilities, I knew I could just quit and shut down. But then I could see the destruction that would happen to my children, and I knew that there would be no escape from that path. 

Then I turned my thoughts to the light, and just that quickly the choice was made. 

I began thinking of how I would tell my children, how I would gather them around me and tell them that their dad, their hero, would not be coming home.  I knew what I needed to do, and so...

when we found the article on the internet that confirmed my fears, we immediately knelt together in each others arms and prayed.  

I didn’t pray...

for them to be safe, for it to be a mistake, for some kind of miracle to save them.  

I prayed...

that we could have peace, understanding, and acceptance. 

I prayed... 

that we would have direction andthat Scott will still be allowed to influence us andthat we would be able to feel his presence. 

I prayed...

for the ability to cope and get through this difficult trial until we could be reunited as a family again.  

It was a day filled with shock and disbelief, but it was also a day filled with peace. 

Peace that was possible because 

I had been prepared to turn immediately to the Lord.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.