I wrote a little bit about our “summer expectations” back HERE. I used the word “expectations” rather than goals because my girls were too dang slow to make their regular summer goals so I decided to set up some expectations instead. You know, give them a little of my medicine. Ha! I would highly recommend that every now and again to get some booties in gear (including my own).

One of the things on our list was to read the whole Book of Mormon before Grace left for college in the beginning of September (little did we know she’d be heading to China…). We aimed to read it in one month, starting July 1st, but we knew that was pie-in-the-sky big so we gave ourselves a little longer window since we knew the reunion and all that hoopla may fuss us up a little bit in the reading category.

We read our hearts out. Really I should say we LISTENED our hearts out because the majority of it was listening on our scripture apps on our phones. We listened for hours on road trips. We listened on the beach in California. We listened on walks and during errands. Sometimes that listening filled up the air around us with such beauty it was almost tangible. Lucy asks the best questions and Claire perked up with some of her own and we had some pretty good conversations from little parts that worked their way into our minds and our hearts more poignantly. And other times, of course, that listening got some wicked eye-rolls and stomping.

But we stuck with it.

It was hard. Which made it extra rewarding when we finished that thing on August 18th, sitting in our family room at home. We were so excited! I hope all that reading will help them remember they can do things that they think are impossible in the onset. Things that push them and make them think and grow in ways they knew they could, and how great it feels to accomplish a tough goal. Isn’t that always just the best feeling? Loved that we got to do it all together as well. Something I will always remember…hope they do too.

I loved sitting there in our family room together reading over that last chapter in Moroni where it promises: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

I hope those girls of mine will take that promise to heart and ask for themselves about that book just as I did all those years ago (a story they know well, kneeling by my bed with a wicker headboard in my tiny bedroom pouring my heart out to God to help me gain my own belief in the words in that book). I hope our summer reading will be one of the seeds that will plant more of a love of that book in their hearts. But more importantly that it helped plant a more firm love of their Savior and of their God. And the love He has for them. Unconditionally. I hope as they read it more and more they will continue to find the light that will guide them on their way just as it has guided me in so many ways.

Similar Posts

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *