A Sunday Lesson

I had the wonderful opportunity to teach all the Young Women in our ward today. With all the snow that fell yesterday I thought we would have a small group, but not so. The one's that faithfully come were there, faithfully. I was happy to teach, thinking I had something great and life-changing to tell the girls. HA! When I thought I was doing good I would stutter and fall. When I relied on what I had prepared through inspiration, and bore simple testimony, I was blessed with the Spirit. Did I "wow" them, and bring tears to their eyes? No. But it was still a good lesson. :)

We learned (or were reminded) of how we can create a "mood" in our homes. Of course focusing on our desires to increase the spirituality in our homes and our lives. The 2 things we discussed were our physical environment and our attitudes.

I tried (briefly) to find the scripture that says "cleanliness is next to Godliness". I am always amazed by the relief I feel when our home is not totally torn apart. If the dishes are done, and I can see most of the floor I feel so accomplished! On the other hand, when there is no safe place to step and the house smells funny because of the stack of dirty dishes and the overflowing trashcans (yes, it happens), I feel tight, anxious, and I tend to be snippy with my family. When the place is cluttered and messy and chaotic, there is no room for the Spirit. It gets crowded out. But if I make the effort to combat the daily dirt I can feel the change it brings to me and into our home. I am constantly working at being more organized and efficient in our home and the activities we do. There is a long way to go, but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Of course our attitudes are HUGE in creating a mood in our home. We tend to project our own feelings onto those around us. If we are happy everyone knows it, and it's hard not to share a smile. The same goes for a more sober or down right cranky mood, it can be very contagious. Writing about attitude and the whole "bloom where you're planted" issue can be a post all on it's own. Let me just say that a mother has an awesome responsibility to learn and apply self mastery in this area. If the Mom is happy the whole family is generally happy and easy going. When I'm grumpy, or angry, or sad, I am startled by how it affects my children and their views of the world.

So I ended the lesson with a challenge for the girls to write down one habit or attitude for them to work on and improve. Something that they can do this week to increase the spirituality in their lives and their homes. I had time to think about what I would work on but just couldn't narrow it down (I have allot to work on). When I issued the challenge to the girls my word to work on flashed like a neon light in my head:

Like I said, I have allot to work on, and nothing will ever get done if I don't START! It just keeps piling up, like snow that is never shoveled and so gets deeper and deeper. How will this improve the spirituality in my home? I have few ideas, but the answer isn't clear to me. I'm okay with that! I trust that this is inspiration from the Lord, and that if I do my best to practice it I will be blessed in great ways.