as they can become.

a walk in the woods.
with BIG trees that were once little trees...
and little trees that will someday be big.

i am POWERFUL.
i want to be a positive influence for good in my family, my community and my world.
life is good.
there is strength in positive energy.
faith, hope and charity are truly the answers to a happy life and home.
i always want to ACT and not be ACTED UPON.

ninja.

i am really into positive and negative energy.

i believe that positive energy motivates and inspires.

negative energy depresses and frustrates.
I crave UNITY and hate CONTENTION.

i believe God wants to fill us with inspiration and hope {not a reference to obama} and energy.

i believe Satan wants to fill us with doubt and despair and worry and a desire to numb out or escape.

Just as light is stronger than darkness, positive energy is stronger than negative energy.

i heard the example once of a man who saw a stressed out mother being too rough with her children at an airport.

he simply walked near the mother and her children and lovingly smiled at them-- projecting his positive energy.

the mood was changed. 

the mother was more kind.  the children happier. 

positive trumps negative.

you can eat those.  they taste lemony.
eating them teaches babies to eat everything they see.

i TRY to be that person...  i am that person sometimes.

but, what do i do in that moment?
the moment when i'm standing in front of a little twerp that i gave birth to and despite all my positive energy they are determined to be cranky, positive sucking, stinks?
what do i do when i'm on the phone with Eeyore... a person who is determined to prove that life has delt them an unfair deal?
what do i do when i happily announce my grand plan for the day and meet with a wall of groaning, complaining despair?
what do i do with really mean people?
i FEEL like negative energy is stronger sometimes.
i FEEL like people have power to make me mad. 

when i feel my heart being filled with anger, contention, and pride.

i want to yell, "You are MAKING me negative when i'm trying so hard to be positive."

but, i don't believe someone else can make you negative!

i don't believe it even as i feel that happening to me!

i feel my POWER being sucked out by my own angry thoughts.  

what do i do in that moment?

I FOUND THE ANSWER!!

{insert singing by heavenly hosts}

wait for it...

when you feel negative thoughts about someone else coming into your mind-- you replace them with an image of what they CAN become!!!
when your situation is bleak-- think of a future time that can be better!

replace judgement and despair with HOPE and GRATITUDE.

{i've had a yellow hope sign on my mantle for the past few months.  after the last debates i shuddered as i looked at it, and then i laughed.  i wonder how many of my friends saw that sign and thought it was a subtle obama endorsement?  ha!  Christ coined HOPE before Obama did- both hope and rainbows, by the way.}

one of the great paradoxes of life is that the most POWERFUL, TRANSFORMING truths are often the most gentle and simple.

last Saturday, a modern-day prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, gave a beautiful talk about seeing others as they can become.

You can read it- here.

He is talking about sharing the gospel.  

i share the gospel every day by how i live my life-- my greatest converts will be my children.

i want them to believe in Christ because they KNOW HIM through me.

i want them to FEEL HIS LOVE every day in my home. 

true disciples of Christ are missionaries every moment.

President Monson retold a story about a young missionary.  

This missionary had been able to share the gospel with many people.  

He led his whole mission on the amount of people he had baptized...

Brother Tanner asked [this young missionary] what was different about his approach—why he had such phenomenal success when others didn’t. The young man said that he attempted to baptize every person whom he met. He said that if he knocked on the door and saw a man smoking a cigar and dressed in old clothes and seemingly uninterested in anything—particularly religion—the missionary would picture in his own mind what that man would look like under a different set of circumstances. In his mind he would look at him as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white trousers. And the missionary could see himself leading that man into the waters of baptism. He said, “When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.”

We have the responsibility to look at our friends, our associates, our neighbors this way. Again, we have the responsibility to see individuals not as they are but rather as they can become. I would plead with you to think of them in this way.

WE HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SEE INDIVIDUALS NOT AS THEY ARE BUT RATHER AS THEY CAN BECOME.
THIS IS A POWERFUL PRINCIPLE!!!

I picture my sweet, sassy little girls teaching their own daughters someday.

I imagine what Christ would do if he were standing right in front of them at that moment.

{and my face always changes to a smile while my mouth fills with gentle reminders and encouragement.}
I want to be like HIM with them.  I know He is helping me.

I picture my boys as missionaries.

I picture them older, with their own strong-willed children, calling me on the phone to apologize for any grief they have ever given me.  

{i told ellie yesterday that she'd better be awfully sweet to me or she would have to raise a rascal kid of her own.  she quipped back with a smile, "then you must have been a rotten kid yourself, mom."  she's sure smart.  i told her i was a delightful child and that is why i got all delightful children...}

it is so fun to try to picture others as they can become.

i have a feeling that if we could even picture them AS THEY REALLY ARE, we would be humbled and inspired.

i believe that we are children of God and as such we each have a spark of divinity within us.

we have great potential.
can YOU see the tree in the acorn?

today, i'm going to love that part... to see individuals as they can become.

that is positive power that can transform.

i can see myself-- with God's help, someday becoming a woman that radiates love for others.

Someone that is cheerful and inspiring.

Someone who can calm the storms and strengthen the feeble knees.

Someone who can validate and motivate.

How i want to be that kind of mother... and wife.. and friend... and missionary.

Mothers/wives do not need to be faultfinders (like i wrote about here).

We need to be visionaries!!  

Christ can make BLIND men SEE.  and blind mothers SEE as He sees!

i know it.

this is a great work.

a couple funny stories about sunbeams...

we had some friends over for dinner yesterday.  my friend said that she had the phone on speakerphone when my husband called with the invite.  she asked if she could bring anything for dinner.  todd said, "I think we've got it all.  We have ham and potatoes and vegetables and dessert."  They said goodbye and hung up and her 3 year old burst into to tears.  When her mother asked what was wrong she said through her tears, "I don't want to eat vegetables!!"

as i was tucking leah and lily into bed last night, i said a quick goodnight to lily and cuddled into bed near leah.

after a few minutes i heard lily in her Disney channel, mock-teenage, whiny voice saying-- "Mo-om.  What are you doing?  It's not fair.  You only gave me ONE cuddle and you are giving Leah-- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven-teen, twelve teen, six-teen, twenty... 100 cuddles.  It's not fair."

we've been trying to get her out of the thumb sucking habit.

she does pretty good at falling asleep without it, but at first, she wouldn't even try.

for the first couple of days, i told her that she could choose not to suck or i would help her.

a couple of times i just held her hand so she couldn't put it in her mouth.  {mean mom}

She said to me once as she started to tantrum, "Mom, if you don't let me suck my fumb i'm going to scream and cry."

i said, in my calm mother voice, "That's OK if you cry, you just need to learn to fall asleep a different way.  you can do this!"

she stopped crying and said in shock, "Mom!  i thought you don't like crying?!"

i love that girl.

life is good.