Wood Run

This week has flown by in a blur of color and activity! At the end of the week we had rain clouds threatening, but decided to carry on with our plans anyway! Saturday afternoon Chad and the kids went down to the river to cut and bring home firewood. You see we only have a week before we celebrate another graduation and we hope to have a fire on Friday night for Naomi and her friends. The only trouble was that we had no firewood, so we fixed that problem.

When they got back they began cutting and splitting the logs, and it started to rain. The rain got heavier, and heavier until, everyone had dripping coats and they decided to call it done for the day. We hung all the coats in the summer kitchen where they could drip quite freely if they so needed and then we sent everyone off to get warm and dry. Yet, you know what? Everyone was smiling. Not only had they been working hard together, and with purpose, but they had been doing so under less than favorable conditions, and yet they were all smiling - at least after they came in. The photos of them working are pictures of concentration and keeping the rain out of their faces. Everyone pulled their weight and worked so well together and it brought joy to their hearts.

Today, in Primary class the question was asked, "Why does the Lord ask us to do hard things?" The answer of course, is so that we can learn something about ourselves. My children learned through their own experience that it is possible to work in the rain. It is possible to cut and split wood in poor weather. That knowledge, that they are capable of doing work even when it is hard, will stay with them, and as they grow into adulthood they will know that they CAN do hard things! What a blessing it is to know that we CAN do hard things and come out better for having done so.

The smiles on the faces of my family members was richly rewarding. Not only do we now have the wood that we need, but we put forth the effort to obtain it and as such, we will enjoy it all the more.

I have had a number of hard things to face, just like most people, and I don't anticipate that life will be easy from henceforth either, but I am so grateful for the things I have learned about myself from my own challenges. As I have endured, I have grown and I like myself. As a result, I am content to be me. Each and every child of God will be given the opportunity to learn that they too can do hard things, and sometimes those things get progressively harder, but as we learn and exercise our capacity to press forward, we come to know ourselves better. This leads us to love ourselves, and the more we love ourselves, the easier it is to love others.

What a blessing it is to stretch, to do hard things, to work together, and to grow together. What a joy it is to do so as a family.