Sunday Inspirations August 24, 2008

The truth is I've been feeling fairly inspiration-less the last few days. I struggled to think of something solid I could write about, and couldn't even hold out hope for Sunday School when all the kids woke up feeling under the weather.

It was my second week of the month to teach the young women. Last week the lesson was on agency, this week it was on obedience. After giving them a challenge last week, and promising a treat for those who followed through, I could not fail to show up. Seeing none of the kids were feverish or throwing up, I brought them to class with me.

The challenge given last week rang true through most of today. I asked the girls to take a moment to really, sincerely stop for a moment and analyze a choice they needed to make. They were to look at which choices they could make and recognize the decision as being full of trust in the Lord and His ways, or to choose the ways of the world.

The girls came up with some remarkable insights. One had to choose between a movie that was PG and PG-13. Another realized her family hadn't done Family Home Evening in quite some time, and chose to put one together and got her family to join in. One had a heartbreaking decision between following what might be best for her family and not talking to her estranged mother, or giving into some enormous pressure. There was a lot of prayer over that one.

I thought back over my week, and a lot of the decisions I had to make. Perhaps the hardest was the simple choice to go and teach my lesson this morning. I had not slept well, my kids were feeling sick, and an opressive spirit was hanging over my head. Yet I knew I needed to give this lesson. Not for the girls, for they could have had the lesson from someone else. This lesson was for me, to be a reminder of why obedience is so important.

Because I did this, I was blessed. I listened to the testimonies of some remarkable young ladies. I showed my children how important it is to follow through with the tasks set before us, even when we're not feeling 100%.

We left for home after the first meeting, and spent a few hours tending to the ill. After putting the baby to bed I thought I'd try to catch up on a bit of sleep. After a really solid five-minute nap the kids told me someone was at the door. It was one of my young women. She had brought over a surprise for my kids. The blessings were still coming.

We don't always know why we need to obey the Lord. But one thing from the lesson has not left me for the last several days: our agency was given freely by our Heavenly Father. He gave us the ability to choose for ourselves if we will obey Him. Obedience is the one thing He will never demand from us, yet it is only through choosing to obey Him that we will find the greatest freedoms.

Clear as muddy water? It doesn't matter. It only needed to make sense to me.

In any case, though this was not the Sunday I had hoped for, it is the Sunday I needed.