Joy: Day 6

Thank God for the joys of family life. 

I have often said there can be no genuine happiness

separate and apart from a good home.  The sweetest influences

and associations of life are there.  Life cannot be fully successful,

no matter what goals we attain in the material world,

no matter what honors of men come to us in our lives,

if we fail as fathers, mothers, and children.

--Ezra Taft Benson

Growing up, I wouldn't have considered my family especially close.  Sure, my brothers and sisters and I learned to co-exist together, but it often seemed there were as many arguments and frustrations as there were quiet and/or enjoyable times.  However, now that I can look back on those years--and now that I see where we have ended up--I would have to say that my family is pretty close.  When we get together and hang out now, we (mostly) enjoy each others' company.  Sure we still have moments, few and far between, of power struggles and other disruptions.  But, overall, we enjoy spending time with each other and quite often talk, text, facebook, or e-mail one another.  We all know what's happening in our siblings' lives and find joy in encouraging, helping, and just talking with each other.

Today, I had the opportunity to text with my mom about a party we're going to throw for one of my siblings in December.  Recently, my older brother successfully defended his dissertation and, therefore, will graduate with his PhD in December.  After 6 1/2 LONG years of moving their family every summer for his studies, not to mention late nights, grant proposal writing, etc., he and his wife (and their 4.5 children) certainly deserve a celebration!  And, I can't help but share in their joy.  Over the years of his hard work, we have prayed, fasted, encouraged, cheered, and tried to do what we could to help them reach this point.  Just this past summer, while he was interviewing for a very-good-for-him-and-his-family position, we fasted and prayed for him and his family.  He got the job, which brought his family within a 12 hour drive of us--where it had been a 3-4 day drive before.  Talk about joy!  When you invest your heart in something like that, how can you not feel joy in his success? Thus, being able to FINALLY plan this party brings me a lot of joy!  Not to mention, it's a lot of fun to come up with a bunch of ideas to be sifted over and finally (eventually) presented in a fabulous event!

Another joy I have been experiencing lately is that of helping my inlaws prepare for their mission.  In a little less than a month, they will enter the MTC--on my 10 year MTC-entrance anniversary--and after a week or two will head out to the Baltic Mission, which is the same mission I served in!  They get to serve in my favorite city!  Over the past few weeks, I have been helping with Russian lessons, sharing (over and over) memories of the city, and shopping with my mother-in-law for her missionary wardrobe.  The joy I have felt in sharing in their preparations has been amazing! 

As part of sending my inlaws off, I have wanted to prepare a Lavtian dinner for them before they left.  A few months ago, I searched online for recipes and began to prepare the menu.  I bookmarked a few recipes, but managed not to bookmark one of them.  This past Sunday, I was reviewing the menu and realized I couldn't find that ONE chicken dish I planned to make.  I remembered a bit of what was in it, but no internet search could pull up the ONE recipe I had my heart set on.  Having been touched by Devn Cornish's conference talk on prayer and his story of the quarter for chicken, I asked for help in finding that ONE recipe.  Yeah--it wasn't very important and I could always make something else.  But, for some reason, that recipe was important to me.

Today, that prayer was answered.  By looking on a site I'd seen 1000 times in my previous searches, I clicked on one recipe that I was sure wasn't it--but then it was.  It brought me joy to have such a simple, insignificant prayer answered.  Knowing that no matter how small I am, how small my request is, Heavenly Father is aware of me brings me joy.  I am so excited to share this dish with my inlaws and have found joy (once again) in planning their send-off dinner!