Feeling loved, tender mercies and inspiring thots...

So, on occasion, I get discouraged, feeling like I haven't made a positive impact on my extended family. I so want to share with them how I feel about the gospel, but I'm just not sure they are interested. In fact, I have been told by several of them they are definitely not interested. It makes me question my ability to influence my seminary kids when I don't feel like I have had a lot of success with my own extended family. The past few days I have had a little bit of a pity party for myself, questioning myself.

Then yesterday, at the end of class, a young girl handed me a letter she had written me. It was a full page telling me how I have influenced her and that this is the first time in a long time that she not only wants to come to seminary, but she is excited to come to EARLY MORNING seminary. For those who live outside UT it isn't a big deal to go to seminary at 6:00, but in UT the kids have a choice and it sometimes makes it a little harder to come early. Anyway, she made my day yesterday.

Then this morning, I opened up my email and had a beautiful letter from Lauren telling me how much she loves me. WOW! Lauren, one of the people who has so positively influenced me in my life, is writing to tell me what I have done for her....

I wish I could find a word, just one word, that no one has ever used before to express how much I love my kids. But the one word isn't there and so I go on and on and on just wanting each of them to know what they mean to me and what they have done to make my life so wonderful. OK, in one word...how about...CHERISH...I know it's been used before, but it is the closest thing I can come up with. To cherish something is to hold near and dear to your heart and put it above all else. Yep...cherish...that sounds pretty good.

Lauren sent me this quote. It fits so many of the women I know, espcially my daughters, my mom and my friend Mary Kay. I love them all..no, that's not enough...I CHERISH them all.

Thanks Lala,

"I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived. "-Sister Hinckley