Becoming as a Little Child: Selflessness

Nearly two years ago I wrote a post titled "Becoming as a Little Child: Prayer." I had hoped to kind of do like a series of posts of my feelings of ways we can become more like children as Heavenly Father encourages us in Mosiah 3:19 and other places as well. Clearly I haven't done another post like that since, but it has always been nagging at the back of my mind. Lately an attribute of children I have given some thought to is their selflessness. This may seem a little strange. Children, especially young children, at times don't seem all that selfless. In fact, they can be extremely selfish. Their thoughts are often on how to get what they want and need as soon as they want it. They need to learn and be taught how to think of others and understand other people's feelings. So why do I think we need to emulate the selflessness of children? I feel that young children truly embody what it is to be selfless and to have charity and compassion on others in a way that as adults we have lost. Often times when a young child truly wants to help someone, they are doing it out of pure love and concern. They haven't yet developed the mentality that "if I do something for someone, they will do something for me." Or "I did good so I deserve good things." They do things to help others simply to help others. I have started to see this happening in Colson's behavior. Occasionally we will be in a group with other young kids and someone might get hurt or upset. There are times where Colson will come to me very concerned that something is wrong. He doesn't know exactly what he can do yet to help or fix the problem, but I can see in his face that he wants to make things better. He really loves to try to help people. He's not doing things in the hopes of getting something out of it. He is just trying to help and show concern because he cares. I think children have the purest form of selflessness there is. And I want to try to serve others in that way. Sometimes I have really wished that someone would just recognize what I do and give me a pat on the back. But I don't need that. I just need to love as Christ would love and serve as He would serve. As we do that we will find more joy in life because we will feel the love of our Heavenly Father as He continues to use us to bless His children. My challenge to all who read this is to find opportunities to serve others and do it joyfully with no thought of praise or reward. Seek to have charity to our fellow brothers and sisters. It doesn't have to be something big. But try to love someone with all the love that Christ and Heavenly Father have for them. I promise it will fill you with great joy and peace.

Share Goodness

So a few days ago I was looking back at all the things I had written on my blog in the past. As I looked into the year 2013 I found that I had written a lot of posts that were about scriptures I had read and impressions and thoughts I had on gospel things. It has been a while since I've done something like that. I'm not entirely sure why I stopped. In the past few months I know Elder Bednar has encouraged us all to share goodness. I have wondered how I could do that. I'm not too fond of using Facebook and social media anymore except to update anyone interested on what I have to say here. So I didn't feel like posting things there. And I had thought of using this blog as an avenue to share goodness but every time I thought of something recently it just didn't seem right. But reading through those old posts made me realize that I don't have to write something super grand or something that will "go viral" or "trend." I just have to share my testimony. I want to start doing that again. So I'm hoping to be led and guided by the spirit as I seek to learn even more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and share some of those things with others.

We Have A Star

So I guess Colson is famous now. Not really but he was cute enough to get the attention of one of the local newspaper photographers. We were playing at the park with some friends and he came up and asked if he could get pictures of them playing. The picture ran in the paper the next day on Saturday. On Sunday we had some neighbors say they had seen it in the paper so they cut it out for us. Now you can all enjoy it too.

Farm Animal Days

So the American West Heritage Center up here in Cache Valley usually holds a Baby Animal Days event around this time of year. It gets pretty crazy with tons of people showing up to see all the fun animals they have. We were out of town when they hosted it last weekend but we were excited to go to their significantly less hectic Farm Animal Days this last Saturday. They still had most of the same animals and activities to do as with Baby Animal Days minus the long lines and crowds. We had a blast. The only thing that could have been better was it got really windy while we were there. Colson wasn't a fan of that so much but he loved seeing the animals and being able to hold and pet some of them. He held baby ducks and chicks and got to pet goats and donkeys. We took a fun little train ride and then rode a wagon down to where they now have a few bison roaming. We also saw pigs, cows, horses, and peacocks. It was a fun little family outing.

I sure love living in Cache Valley. I love all the things there are to do and see. I love watching Colson's face light up when he is excited about something and animals definitely excite him. I love my family and all the fun things we get to do together. I hope you enjoy our adventures too.

March Happenings

So March was a pretty fun month for us. Clearly busy too since I didn't take time to write anything for the whole month. But we had a lot going on. Ben and I started out the month celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. We decided this year to do something a little more than just go to dinner so my family took Colson overnight while we got out of town for a weekend. We started out by going ice skating, then out to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The next day we went and checked out the new Museum of Natural Curiosities down at Thanksgiving Point. They have a ropes course through the top of the museum that we did that was so much fun. It was kind a weekend of conquering fears I suppose. Or adrenaline rushes... something like that. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of either the skating or the ropes course since neither place was really safe to take a camera. But we ended our trip by doing sealings at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple where we were married. It was a really great weekend and we were grateful to my family for taking Colson for us. He got to go the the aquarium and from the pictures they sent me it looks like he loved it. Now I want to go. The next weekend we got together with a lot of friends to celebrate Pi(e) Day. Pretty much just an excuse to make and eat pie some other time besides Thanksgiving. There was tons of pie and it was all super yummy. It was a fun time. We finally got some snow again for a day so Colson and I bundled up and went out to play. We built Colson's very first snowman. We put it right by his bedroom window and now he asks about the snowman every time we are in his room. Which is funny because when it had a face on it he was scared of it. But we enjoyed another chance to get out in the snow. Colson went on his very first bus ride recently as well. He loves watching the buses. We rode up to play with some friends at a park. He thought it was so cool. We have loved getting outside now that the weather is warmer again. We have pulled out the shorts and have just been loving getting out. I know I always mention the river trail by our house but it is honestly our favorite thing. This year we have already seen all sorts of animals come out. I may or may not be "guiding" Colson to love animals. But he really thinks they are great and loves to listen to and watch for birds. He just loves them all. Birds, ducks, dogs, bugs. We have even seen some rock chucks and snakes starting to come out. Colson loves it. We even got a book on owls from the library that he loves to look through to see pictures of animals. Pretty much Colson is adorable. This month has just been fun for us to play and laugh together. He still loves to help around the house and he loves his friends. He especially likes to help cook food. He loves when I let him help mix food like pancakes or muffins. I love being Colson's mom and watching him explore the world around him. He is so great. He definitely makes our home and family so fun. He can always bring a smile to my face. Hopefully some of these pictures of him will bring one to yours.

Colson at the aquarium. I imagine his face just being in awe.

Happy 4 years to Ben and me!

These are the pies Ben and I made for our Pi(e) Day celebration. Yummy!

Love this boy and love the snow!

Here's our snowman

Waiting for the bus

So excited to be riding the bus!

Going for a walk with animal friends Owl and Wolfy

Colson loves the river trail

Throwing rocks has become one of our pastimes.

Colson was enjoying watching this duck by the zoo.

Throwing rocks with Daddy.

And Mommy.

Once upon a time Colson really liked egg salad. And he looks like such a big boy here!

I mean really liked egg salad.

Like really really all over his face liked egg salad. I love my silly boy.

He loves to help Mommy make treats. Especially chocolate ones.