Become as a Little Child

One day, I was walking around Downtown Park City, Utah with my best friend, Zoey. We were wandering around all over the strip mall, and I noticed that there was a big building that, in huge letters, read "FAMILY TREE CENTER". I was ECSTATIC! Being a missionary for the FamilySearch Library in Riverton, Utah, I was so elated to see this tiny little building woven into all of the little shops of downtown. I told Zoey that we HAD to go inside. We went into the center, and were greeted by a sister missionary. She introduced herself, got to know us a little, and asked if she could give us a short tour. Of course I said yes! We were introduced to different paintings on the wall, and a massive tree that was"growing" inside the building, with its branched intertwined with the things in the room. (Like so...)

We spent a few minutes at each spot in the room and learned a little bit about each thing. We then came to a painting that I had seen many times before. In fact, if you are "Mormon" (or religious in any way), I am almost positive you have seen this painting before. It is titled "Christ and the Children" by Harry Anderson.

I had never paid too much attention to this painting before. I have always really liked it, but it wasn't my favorite. I always liked the religious paintings that were more majestic looking, for some reason. I looked at this photo expecting the sister to tell me something along the lines of  "Christ loves everyone, but he always calls upon the children to see first." I had heard that many times, and I know that Christ loved children, which is very tender to me. But what that sister missionary said definitely changed my perspective on this painting. She told us what I expected her to, that Christ loves the children, but then she also pointed out something that I had never noticed before. There are children in the front that are all happy to see Christ, but in the background, there are adults just looking at Him. Maybe they are thinking it is strange that the children love him so much, maybe they are longing to be near him as well... Whatever they may be thinking, each one of those people have something in front of them, holding them back, if you will. (The woman with the vase, the men with the donkeys.) Whereas, the children have Jesus Christ as the first thing before them. For example, the little girl with the vase behind her, and Jesus in front of her. In Mark 10:14-16, it reads, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." We must become as a little child in order to enter into Christ's presence. How do we become as a little child? Children are innocent. Children are have a willingness to learn. Children are humble. Children are accepting, and full of love.

I know that if we have a desire to one day be in the presence of our God, and to feel His presence around us even today, that we must try our best to become as a little child. It is easy to have anger outweigh the love you have for someone. It is easy to be stubborn, and not want to learn. It is easy to judge people by their appearance and past experiences. Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father do not want this from us. In Mosiah 3:19, it says, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Become as a little child. I promise you, to be in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is incomprehensibly wonderful. It is true when everyone says that we are to be examples to the children around us, but more importantly, we must let those little ones be an example to us.

(Jean A. Stevens, the First Counselor in the LDS Primary General Presidency, gave an AMAZING talk titled "Become as a Little Child". If you have the time, read it!)

Just a little smile:

Here are a few photos of my most favorite kiddos in the whole world! :)

Yours truly,

Heather

Most Embarrassing Moment

Once upon a time, I was a senior in high school. I attended Paradigm High, and it was really a great school. We were in my most favorite class in all my high school years called "RISE", which was what Paradigm called a "Core Class", where we learn leadership skills and such. Well, we were doing a scavenger hunt, and we were outside in the back of the school where the previous clue had led us. There is a little valley in the back of the school that fills up with water when it rains that the students call "Paradigm Lake". It was summer, so thankfully it wasn't all soggy. We had to run down into that valley, and up the other side to reach the fence on the other side to get the clue. My whole team started sprinting across the field to get to the clue as fast as the could. I  really...really hate running, but I was falling behind so I just decided, "It's downhill, it will be easy." So I started running. About 5 steps in, I hyper-extended my knee. OUCH. That being done, I launched myself across the field. No, I didn't just fall, I flew. I flew right into the grass, head first. I don't really remember much after that other than opening my eyes slowly and seeing a bunch of legs running toward me, and my head felt like it was cracked in half. My vision finally focused, and I started laughing because before, it looked like there were twice as many legs running toward me. Then I started laughing even harder because I just pictured watching myself dive down that hill. That must have been SO flipping hilarious. But then my head started throbbing when I laughed, so I started crying instead. I'm not sure how long I was out on the ground, but I'm sure it wasn't too long. To add to the fall, Tony, being the one watching me as I threw myself onto the ground, he told me that I landed head first, and my head bounced off the ground a couple of times. Boy, I'm glad that I was unconscious at the first knock on the head so I couldn't feel the other two... (at least not that I could remember.) He also said that he laughed for a second, until he realized that I wasn't getting up.
Meanwhile, everyone was circled around me and laughing not-so secretly, and asking if I was okay, and what happened. Yes, because I wanted to answer all of their questions right then...
I was still laying on the ground face down because I was afraid that if I got up, I would pass out and/or throw up, so I just laid there. I told them I was okay and that I would just lay there for a second, so they read the clue that lead to the next place to find the next clue. Once they had found out where they were going to go after this clue, a kid in my class asked, "Are you going to get up, of just lay there to get attention?" I wanted to stand up and puke all over his face, but I refrained. They just stood around me talking, and then moved on, after asking if I needed help to go to the office to get some help. Tony offered to stay back with me, as he helped me up. He put my arm around his while he carried me to the office, since it hurt like a mother puma giving birth to walk on my sprained knee.
I think the electricity in the school was about to blow up the building, or something, because the lights were so darn bright.Before we went into the office, I remember Tony setting my down on a chair, and with his big beautiful green eyes, he looked into my eyes to see if my pupils were the same size. He said it was hard to tell, so we went into the office. He told them what happened... The office ladies tried not to laugh. Tony asked to stay with me, but they told him he needed to go back to class. (Rats, I could have gotten some cute, quality time with my love...) He agreed, (that was his favorite class too, so he probably wasn't too heart broken to go back.) kissed my forehead, and left me to the ladies. They checked my pupils and told me that I most likely had a concussion. They put me in a dark room, with some ice packs for my knee and head, and told me to not sleep. Oh boy, I wanted to sleep so bad, but apparently, right after you get a concussion, you aren't supposed to sleep, so I just sat. It was the most fun I had had all day. (It's times like these when I wish there was a "sarcastic" font.)
Well, anyway, that is my most embarrassing moment. I do lots of things to embarrass myself, but I really don't get embarrassed much. This one definitely takes the gold.
To read another embarrassing moment that is CLOSE second to this one, just click here, and read that if you haven;'t already.

Now, I wish you a great day, free of embarrassing moments!

Yours Truly,

Heather