Bunny Attack

Molly doesn't like bunnies.

She met her first bunny as a wee little pup, and it scared her. The bunny was twice her size. She ran to me for protection. But then the bunny ran from her, and... someone clicked in her little puppy brain. She chased it out of the yard, and she's been a proud bunny chaser every since.

So today I was working at my parents, when all of a sudden Molly went ballistic. She was barking her danger bark, and running BACKWARDS across the kitchen like she was trying to get away from something. I followed her gaze, and there was my mom with her arms full of some semi-realistic rabbit Easter decorations that she was putting up.

To be fair, these things are clearly terrifying...

Molly launched herself across the room at my mom barking her head off. Her hackles were actually up--the hair on her back was standing straight up. I guess she thought Mom was bringing those vile creatures into her house, and she didn't appreciate it? Mom held one out to her to show her it wasn't real and Molly tried to snap its head off. (Fortunately Mom has faster reflexes than Molly!)

Once Mom had all her decorations set up, I tried holding Molly up to the bunnies and reassuring her they weren't real. She finally seemed to get it and she calmed down. I wish I knew what was going through her cute little dog brain! She is funny sometimes.

Granny Power

When Trevor and I first moved in with Granny, we were really good about checking the weather every night so we'd know if we'd need to get up early to shovel the driveway. But this winter has been so dry that we gradually got out of the habit. So this morning as Trevor rushed out the door to a work meeting, we were shocked to discover 3-4 inches of snow outside!

I told Trevor I would take care of it. But it wasn't 8 o'clock yet, and when I checked the temperature, it was 4 degrees outside. I decided I'd wait and let the sun come up a bit before I shoveled. Granny was still asleep anyways.

I went downstairs and got ready for my day. I decided to put a full hour of work in before I did the driveway. But just after 9, I heard the front door close. I threw on my coat and gloves and ran outside to get the driveway shoveled. I found Granny out there bundled up, shoveling off the sidewalk. I started shoveling the driveway, but she looked up and insisted she didn't need any help. She thought the driveway would melt--she just wanted me to go brush the snow off my car. So I came down and helped her finish the sidewalk, but I couldn't convince her to go in! She is a powerhouse. I kept saying that I would take care of it, but she wouldn't have that. When the sidewalk was done, I switched to brushing off my car. I told her to go in, but the next thing I knew, she was on the other side of my car brushing away.

When we finished that, she drove her car around the block to charge it (a light got left on last night and she was worried about her battery). I tried to hurry and shovel off the driveway as much as I could while she was gone. Three or so inches of snow is a lot and I was afraid it wouldn't melt. Well, Granny came back and pulled into her garage. She lowered the door behind her. I thought she was going to give in and let me finish, but soon she emerged from the front door and told me that as long as I worked outside, she would too.

So, we just quickly scraped off the snow on Trevor's side of the driveway so he'll have an easier time when he gets home.

The woman is an energizer bunny! I hope I am like her when I'm her age.

Fall like an Olympian

Have you been watching the Olympics? Our favorite event is figure skating, but we've had fun watching as many as we can.

These people are literally the BEST in the world at what they do. It's amazing what feats their bodies are capable of.

But you know? Even Olympians aren't perfect.  Sometimes they don't land their jumps. Sometimes they fall. Even the best people in the world fall some times! And when they do... they have to get right back up and keep going. No time to mourn, no chance to take a breather and feel sorry for themselves. They've got to get right back up and finish their routine.  They can't be shaken by what just happened.

That is such a great parallel for life! As we fall and make mistakes, we shouldn't beat ourselves up. Even the best people (with the lone exception of the Savior Himself) fall sometimes. We should aim to fall like Olympians--pick ourselves up and keep going. Don't let the fall shake you into doubting yourself. You still got this!

Imperfection

I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, and life as an imperfect person in an imperfect world gets me down sometimes.

In the worst moments, I get into a sort of spiral. I get discouraged by my weaknesses and failings, and I get sad, and then I feel guilty that I am being a drag to the people around me because I'm sad. When it gets bad enough I just want to go crawl into my bed and pull the covers over my head and not speak to ANYONE, because I'll inevitably make mistakes and hurt people sometimes and disappoint people sometimes. The weight of that can be immobilizing.

But I'm learning to recognize where those feelings come from. Satan loves to poke at our weaknesses. He wants us to believe that we aren't good enough, that our weaknesses reflect our inherent worth, that we can never be better than we are, so why try?

The Savior doesn't work like that. The Savior will help to identify our weaknesses and ways we need to change. Then, He helps us make that change! He helps us see how to improve. Through the power of His atonement, He heals our imperfections and helps us become better than we are today.

Ether 12:27 tells us, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

The Savior always brings us hope, never despair. He gives us a hand up and shows us a better way. His call is a call to action.

Satan likes to kick us while we are down. He wants to isolate us and cut us off from our loved ones. One of his tricks is to get us to freeze in our tracks, to stop us from doing the good that we can do.

Elder Holland gave a great talk about this last conference. I guess it's time for me to review it again!

I need to remember Paul's words too: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

God of Miracles

Trevor and I are taking the church's Personal Finance course (part of the Self Reliance offerings) and we are loving it so far!

This week, we studied the principle of exercising faith in the Savior. (We begin each class by studying a gospel principle, and then we connect that principle to finances.) Part of our homework was to go home and study certain stories from the scriptures, including Daniel and the lion's den, and Elijah and the widow of Zarephath.

What struck me as I read these stories is how easily we mortals can be blinded by our own wisdom. God is all powerful. He created the world and it does His bidding. He knows the end from the beginning.

But sometimes, I think we forget that. Sometimes I find myself falling into the trap of not trusting His word, because I can't see how it will come true.

I look at the story of the widow of Zarephath. Her country was in famine. She only had enough food left to feed herself and her son one last time, and there was no hope of more food coming. She was prepared to cook one last meal, and then starve.

And then Elijah came to her. I don't think she knew him before this--but he came and asked her to feed him some bread. She told him of her desperate circumstances, but he told her--go and make him a little cake first, then feed herself and her son. If she would do this, her food supply would last her until the famine ended.

How much faith did it take for her to act on his word? But she did, and that little bit of food she had left miraculously never failed. She and her son survived the famine.

I look at her example and wonder, would I have her faith in that situation? Or would I rely on my senses and my past experience and say that of course, I couldn't do this. I hardly had enough food for one last meal and nothing he did would stretch it to make it last longer. If I lacked her faith... I wouldn't have received the life saving blessing she received.

I will never know what I would do in her place, but I can do my best to follow her example in my life. I can work on trusting the Lord, even if with my mortal eyes, I can't see a path before me that leads to the end He's promised. I am ashamed to look back and acknowledge that I lost faith in His promises to me that I would find the right man eventually and get married. It took so much longer for Trevor to appear than I expected that my faith faltered. But he did appear, and I would have been so much happier if I had just trusted in God's word all along. I need to remember that for my challenges in the future! I may not see the way to get through them, but God does, and if I rely on Him, He will lead me.