Write at the Heart

We were SO excited to take our kids to Disneyland. I read article after article on preparing for that day. I packed the bag with ALL the essentials. We got up early, ensured the kids looked cute for the billions of pictures to be taken, loaded everyone up, and drove the 20 minutes from our hotel. We parked, got the stroller loaded, down the elevator, and out to the shuttles. We were so close! We’d done so well! And then I noticed one of my sons wasn’t wearing shoes. How did I miss that! I asked WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?? He looked down, surprised, and said sheepishly, Oh, I just forgot. Yep. Forgot to put on shoes. To go to DISNEYLAND. Where shoes are KINDA important. We ended up buying him $40 Mickey Mouse Crocs at Downtown Disney, the CHEAPEST shoes we could find. 😂 In the hustle and bustle of life, I take care of a lot of things. But I’m guilty of something way too often... forgetting to pray. THERE. I SAID IT. Way too often I sheepishly look down and say, oh yeah, I forgot. Now before...

After Christ’s visit to the Nephites, word spread fast! “And it was noised abroad among the people immediately, before it was yet dark, that the multitude had seen Jesus, and that he had ministered unto them, and that he would also show himself on the morrow unto the multitude.” (3 Ne. 19:2) Yep, people were talkin’! And they didn’t just sit there; they acted! “Yea, an exceedingly great number, did labor exceedingly all that night, that they might be on the morrow in the place where Jesus should show himself unto the multitude.” (19:3) They knew when and where He would be. So they did everything they could to be there! There was no time to waste.  Guess what? We know when and where His prophet will be this weekend. Do we “labor exceedingly” to be there? When people gathered to see Jesus again, there were SO many that they divided up into 12 bodies, and the 12 apostles divided up, each teaching a section, each “minister[ing] those same words which Jesus had spoken—nothing varying fr...

Have you ever had ongoing struggles with something, despite your efforts, and you’re like, am I just not PRAYING hard enough?! I wonder if Nephi had similar thoughts as he walked to his home, “much cast down.” He’d tried and tried to get people to listen without much success. Did he think, maybe I'm just not a good missionary anymore? Where are the angels, the hundreds of converts? It happened before, so where is it now? Maybe I've just lost it! Am I doing something wrong? Or maybe he was doing everything right, and the Lord’s definition of success is different than ours. During Nephi’s pondering, God tells him, “Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word... thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments" Hel. 10:4 “I have beheld”! I SEE YOU. I SEE what you've done. I SEE that you're trying! I KNOW YOU. You’...

The movie “The Iron Giant” makes me cry. Yep, the animated one about a kid finding a giant alien robot. The robot had lost his memory, so a boy teaches him about life and humans, and the robot is curious, gentle, and friendly. Eventually his memory is triggered when he is attacked by the military. He instinctively converts to what he was actually built for- a weapon of destruction. The boy desperately reminds him that he doesn't have to be that way, “You are who you choose to be!" The robot has to make a choice, and I won’t spoil it for you, but trust me, it gets me every time. And those words ring so true, “You are who you choose to be." I know it's easier said than done. But I do believe we all can choose who we really want to be. We can make excuses and wallow and tell ourselves it just isn't possible, that it's too hard, or not in our programming. But what kind of life would it be if we didn't have that choice? No matter where we came from, there is no...

I made peach freezer jam yesterday, and I gotta say, I am feeling pret-ty darn proud of myself! It turned out amazing! Just call me Suzy Homemaker! While I know freezer jam is actually kinda easy, it IS time consuming. The peeling, pitting, lots and lots of stirring, waiting, more stirring, more waiting. My 8-year-old was super excited to help me, and she did some great stirring in the beginning, but after so much she got bored and gave up. But then came the reward for my efforts- delicious jam! I think about the process it took for those peaches to become jam, and I think about Alma the Younger’s amazing conversion. His story is one of my favorites!! I love any story where someone chooses to completely change for the better. “And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, tha...