Sunday Inspirations July 5, 2009

My post today will be short and (hopefully) sweet. Short because my head feels like some one's put a vice around it and if I don't go and lie down soon we'll all be in big trouble.

I knew from the moment I got up this morning it was going to be a rough day. My older son was in an awful mood, my youngest was clingy beyond words, and my headache began a mere half hour after after waking. Add to this today being fast and testimony day for our church and I knew my own mood would only grow worse (as my sugar levels drop, so does my attitude about life).

I spent the first two hours of church (we have a 3 hour meeting block on Sundays) volunteering in the nursery today, which I didn't mind at all (neither did A, haha), but as the time came to a close my daughter's temper became increasingly volatile. I thought, "Uh, oh. Sacrament meeting could be tricky today." Oh baby did I underestimate that one.

Tempers were flying with every single one of the kids. My oldest was distressed about things that wouldn't even happen for a year or two (like going to junior high) and after asking permission to go to the bathroom disappeared for over twenty minutes, J wouldn't leave ANYONE alone and got upset when I told him to please stop, B was in a corner under the bench crying because J wouldn't let him color in his (J's) coloring book, and I swear I took A out of the room about five times because she wanted EVERYTHING that EVERYONE ELSE had.

The last time I took her out of the chapel and into the cry room I kept her there. The room was aptly named. Both of us stayed in there a good ten minutes and cried.

I found myself thinking, "Is this worth it?" Knowing my kids were in a bad mood, knowing my headache would only grow worse as the day went on, knowing I could have simply packed everyone up and headed home, why on earth did I keep us there!?!?!

My answer came in one simple thought: because it counts. My Heavenly Father knows how HARD today was on me. He knows (and probably wouldn't have blamed if I had) I could have gone home. But I didn't. And that counts.

The kids obviously didn't get much out of the meetings today. Not even I, multi-tasker extraordinaire, didn't get much out of the meetings today. But I went, and I brought the children with me, and THAT COUNTS!

Take some time to think about it the next time you feel like going to church isn't worth it, because it's at the times it's the hardest to go that I think it counts the most.