Christmas musings

One of my family's Christmas traditions is to try to think of a present to give to Jesus during the month of December--not a literal gift of course, but something the He would want us to do, or become. We would write these down and then on Christmas morning open them and try to remember if we had given our gift well. It was great because it brought the focus back to Christ first thing in the morning. Today my mom sent out an email about our "gifts to Jesus." She is so amazing--she had a hip replacement a week ago and she took the time to painfully sit and send out this email to us about trying to notice the hand of God in our everyday lives (as President Eyring talked about last conference). It was just what I needed to hear today as I've been feeling like a single parent this week (wow do I respect single parents). John has been studying till 7:30 or 8:00 every night plus he leaves at 6:00 in the morning. So I was feeling especially lonely and worn out tonight when one of my good friends from the ward just called to check up on me and see how I was doing. It meant so much to me and I think God knew I needed a friend tonight. He also helped keep me safe on the wet rainy roads today and He watched over my girls and kept them safe--with only one minor tongue bite today. Oh, and my favorite was having my Esther look me in the eye and tell me she was "berry sorry" about not listening to Mommy while bathing and could she please have a story? It was the first apology that she has done all by herself with no prompting. There is nothing sweeter than my little girls and I thank God for them every day. So for the rest of the month as my gift to Jesus I will try to notice and record all the ways God touches my life every day.