Mistakes & Miracles

Oops. 

Do you ever get paralyzed because you are afraid to make a mistake?
Do you run and hide when you make a mistake? Or blame it on someone else? Pretend it never happened? Convince yourself that you meant to do it anyways?
That's fear talking.

Over the past year, I have learned three very important principles relating to miracles and mistakes.

Because of our Savior Jesus Christ, It's okay to make mistakes... try to fix them, and learn from them too!
One morning, I sat at breakfast with my children, pondering how I would get them to stay at the table long enough to actually fill their bellies. Appetite regulation (the balance between eating too much or eating too little) is one of the first things to disappear when there is a lot of stress in the house. The invitation came into my mind to turn on Daniel Tiger and discuss it with the children. Daniel Tiger has helped me speak with my children about the emotional challenges of growing up, but today's episode was for me.
It's okay to make mistakes... try to fix them, and learn from it too! 
We learned the song and practiced singing it every time someone made a mistake. It changed the atmosphere in our home from "I don't want to" to "I'll try." We discussed the importance of our Savior, who helps us clean up the mistakes and learn from them. Sometimes  Often, my children make a mess too big for them to clean up by themselves, so we practiced asking for help cleaning up mistakes. Parenting seems to be making mistake after mistake while you try to do the near impossible task of encouraging your children to grow into happy, healthy, productive, respectful, compassionate adults. I learned to ask the Savior to help me clean up the mistakes I make as a parent, just as I taught my children to ask for help cleaning up their messes.

"Your honest mistake is someone else's miracle."
Around this same time, I was struggling with making the Sabbath Day a delight for me and the children. As a young stay-at-home mom, my workload is no different on Sunday than any other day of the week except for the fact that we attend church instead of another errand. My children were squirming, the quiet activities we brought for them no longer holding their attention, and worship services were becoming a chore. In counseling with my husband, we determined that the success of our Sunday needed measured differently. On Saturday night, we told each other one small thing that would make Sunday feel like Sunday to us and made those wishes our priorities. One Sunday, my wish was to be able to hear the prayers spoken over the sacrament. When the time came, my daughter was noisily squirming in my lap and I was unable to hear the words. I felt so disappointed- the one little thing I'd asked- 45 seconds of quiet from my children - had not happened. And then suddenly, I realized that the young priest had made a mistake and needed to say the prayer again. His mistake, leaving out one word of the ordinance prayer, was my miracle! A voice came into my mind, speaking clearly the words: A mistake is someone else's miracle. Please tell that young man how his mistake helped you. After the meeting I sent a note to the young man via his mother letting him know how his mistake was my miracle.

Making mistakes into miracles is a choice. 
I was making pancakes with my children one morning. They were measuring, scooping, and stirring very well. My youngest daughter (not yet two years old) was mixing the dry goods, my 4 year old was beating the eggs, oil, and milk together. My 6 yr old son was observing. I went to get the cinnamon. My youngest saw me in the spice cupboard. She looked around, found the garlic salt someone had left on the counter the night before, and heartily shook some into the bowl.
I froze. I had a choice to make.
My daughter had made a mistake. Her intentions were good, but her actions ... It was so tempting to yell and scream at her for the waste. But I didn't. Instead I hummed Daniel Tiger's song to myself and said to my children, "Uh oh! I don't want to eat garlic pancakes. How can we fix it?" My 4 year old suggested throwing it away and starting over. My 6 year old suggested trying to skim out the garlic powder. Neither way felt like a miracle. So I asked them, "How can we turn this mistake into a miracle?" As we pondered, I realized that I knew from my 20 years of baking experience that the ingredients (and the proportions) in the bowl were almost identical to my recipe for biscuits. Garlic pancakes sound disgusting, but cheesy garlic biscuits are something else entirely. BINGO! Miracle found. I added a little extra baking powder to the bowl and set it aside. I got out a new bowl and we mixed up another batch of dry pancake ingredients, with cinnamon this time. After breakfast, we shredded cheese and cut the butter into the first bowl, making a set of lovely garlic biscuits for lunch.

I invite you to practice these three fear-defeating principles into your life this week. Please share with me your experiences, and any experiences you read about in the scriptures that apply.


Further reading:
https://www.lds.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/be-not-troubled?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/do-not-fear?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/blog/turning-our-messy-complicated-lives-into-something-holy

The Maker's Mark

Evolution, Creation, Paleontology, and Time...
A can of worms to the God-reverencing, homeschooling family with a child who loves dinosaurs. So  many different competing theories and emotionally charged accusations.
But what if it didn't have to be that way?



What if we could see with God's eyes?
What if the whole purpose of leaving fossils in the ground was to help us learn how to ask questions? A learning opportunity for His children to learn a little more about what He does?
A chance to look at the scraps of his creative process and figure out for ourselves how He did it?

God is a creator.

If God created all things, doesn't it make sense that it would all bear His maker's mark? That things would follow the patterns of His design preferences?

We are created in His image. The perfection of His creation. His masterpieces.

But more than that, we are His children.
This one fundamental truth changes everything: I am literally a Child of God. And He loves me. Say it to yourself every day and feel the truth of it work inside you.

And like every good parent, He wants us to become as He is. He doesn't intend for us to sit on a shelf and become dusty- He wants us to become as He is- to become Creators of wonderful things. And that means He invites us to learn about this workshop: Earth from Him and from our own experience.

This begins a short series of posts compiling my thoughts. I welcome your well-intentioned thoughts. I don't know everything, but God does.

Readings:
Isaiah 40:28  "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding."
Mosiah 3:8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
Pearl of Great Price - two additional scriptural accounts of the creation and early years of the world.
You are Special by Max Lucado