Little life lessons on healing, strength, and peace.

Sometimes the best reaction is not having one. Throughout life, people will gossip about you, tell lies about you, deceive you, hurt you, use you, disappoint you, fail you...but God never will. He is perfect. People are not. Each day we have a choice...we can let others rob us of our peace and happiness or we can seek out the Prince of Peace and eternal happiness to heal our hearts and help us find joy. (Easier said than done, but I'm working on it.) Lesson #1 We are all Little Red Cabooses The other night, I was cuddling up with my 4 yr old reading a bedtime story. It was a story I've always loved, a story about strength, a story about coming to understand our individual worth. It was the story of The Little Red Caboose. If you haven't read it for awhile, I will give you a short synopsis.

In the beginning of the story, the Little Red Caboose is feeling sad that all the children wait to wave at the beautiful steam engine, coal cars, oil cars, and colorful freight cars, but nobody sticks around to wave at him at the very end of the train. As the train proceeds up a tall mountain, it starts to slip backwards on the tracks because of the heavy load. The Little Red Caboose has to hold tight to the track with its brakes and when he no longer can carry the weight from the other cars--two big, strong, black engines come to the rescue behind him and help him push the train up the hill. In the end the caboose realizes his importance and all the children now wait for the Little Red Caboose to wave and cheer him on, for he has used his strength to help the train over the mountain, but not without the help of the two big, black engines. For me this was a huge reminder that we are all Little Red Cabooses. We each have our own strengths to help the train get up the hill but sometimes we need to also rely on the big black engines who represent our Heavenly Father and Savior. When we have mountains to climb, when the load is too heavy for us to bear, and we don't have the strength to do it alone, they bear us up and push us along with their strength. Lesson #2 Each of us get hurt, but healing is possible.

After Nick and I were done reading the story of the Little Red Caboose, he made a little yelp as he turned over onto his side to go to sleep. He has been learning how to ride his new bike and has fallen off several times, but last time he fell, he scraped his elbow. A scab has now formed and he had snagged it on his pillow. He wanted me to pull it off but was scared it would hurt. He asked me why he had a scab and how they formed and I explained that when we get an owie the blood dries and creates a scab to heal the skin and form new skin underneath. I thought about our conversation before going to sleep. I thought about how we get comfortable with our scabs and scars not even realizing they are a reminder of healing going on underneath or inside. Sometimes we want them to just go away as to not be reminded of the pain they caused or we don't want them snagging open again or brought to our awareness again. But in order to heal, and become new like the skin underneath, we have to face our fears and overcome them. Does this mean our fears will go away? Not neccessarily, but with time and the help of our Savior through the atonement we can lay our hurts, burdens, pain, and disappointments at his feet, since he has already born them for us, and he will carry them for us. "Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me, enough to die for me, oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

Last Friday, Nick and Maya's birthmother was in so much pain she couldnt move or walk. She hurt her back and will probably need surgery. I felt so sorry for her and was very worried about her so I decided to take her up some meals so she didn't have to worry about cooking for a few days. As I was driving up to her house in SLC the thought came to me that she needed a blessing and fast. She lives in SLC and I didn't know who to call upon for a blessing for her...my husband was with his scouts camping at Utah Lake and my brother in law who lives in SLC was at my cousins reception in Highland, so he was not close to call upon. Our birthmother did not have the phone numbers to her bishop or hometeachers on hand and it was also a Friday night with not a lot of people at home. As I turned onto her street, what do my wandering eyes appear? Two missionaries on bikes with their scriptures and gear! I pulled over and asked them if they were heading to an appointment just then and they told me they weren't. I asked if they might be willing to give Rachel a blessing and help me carry in all the food and they were happy to do both. As we got the door I could hear Rachel sobbing in pain. I've never seen someone so happy to see us. The kids and I hurried and sat down on the couch and the Elders immediately gave her a blessing of comfort and healing. After the blessing, one of the elders asked if he might share a thought...a thought that was truly inspired. One that she needed and so did I. He pulled out a picture of Christ in Gethsemane and talked about Him taking upon our sins and our pain. How He knows exactly what we are going through and is with is in our pain and sorrows. He is the only one who can truly know and understand how we feel and what we are going through because he has already carried our burdens and will continue to help carry them. It is uncomprehensible the great sacrifice, excruciatingly intense pain, and matchless love that he has born for us to be our Savior. I am so grateful for Him, we are so blessed through him and by Him. I am so humbled by His tender mercies, and I am so grateful that when I forget he lovingly reminds me...in ways that speak to my sometimes hardened, prideful, heart and in ways I can understand. Messages that are meant for me, and meant for you if we will only listen and pay attention when he tries to send them through the Holy spirit. May we have the faith to follow Him and let him heal us.