happy easter day...

As soon as Brighton woke up this morning, she wandered into our room and exclaimed, "Happy Easter Day!" And...it has been a happy day.
We attended church, took naps, watched "The Lamb of God," ate a yummy dinner and colored Easter eggs. (My egg was the champion of the traditional egg war)
In Sacrament Meeing, Sister D'Addabbo spoke. She reminds me so much of Grandma Loveland, so whenever she speaks I feel a special kinship to her. Anyways, she shared an experience from her life of a time when she was caring for her aging mother. She still had many children at home and the demands were very taxing on her emotions and mental capacities. She began to feel angry and resentful, to the point that she didn't feel worthy to hold her temple recommend. She went in and placed her temple recommend on the bishop's desk. He lovingly asked her to sit down and tell him about her concerns. When she was done expressing her feelings, he simply asked her if she could remember when her children learned how to walk. She did. She recalled the time her oldest child took his first steps. It was especially memorable to her because he began walking on his first birthday. She told the bishop how he took several steps in a row before falling down. Then he asked, "When he fell down, did you spank him really hard?" She was appalled! Of course not! She lovingly picked him up, hugged him, stood him up and helped him to gain his balance, then backed up and held out her hands to him while saying, "Come on. You can make it!" The bishop told her that when we fall down, the Savior is there on the other side of the room, ready to help us up and offer encouragement and love. He told her to put her recommend back in her wallet, then to go home and do something really special for her mother every day. She followed his counsel and with the help of the Savior was able to overcome her feelings of resentment and regain her feelings of love an appreciation for the amazing woman who gave her birth.
I am thankful for a loving Savior who willingly suffered for my sins and is there to lift me when I fall. I have a testimony of the atonement and resurrection. He lives again!