Another Blessing

Tony's worked for the county for nearly 4 years, and has never had Sunday's off. For all of 2007, except for maybe 3 Sundays that Tony was able to get off, or we were on vacation during, Tony has had to work.

I would take the kids to church, by myself, and that was challenging, to say the least. Sure, it would have been much easier to skip church, telling myself how hard it was to take the kids by myself, wallowing in self-pitty, but what kind of mom/woman would I be if I didn't teach my kids, by example, of what the Sabbath is really for? It's amazing how a mom can learn to tune out all the noisy kids, still take care of their needs, and still be able to listen to, and learn a little something from, the talks. :) Thankfully my sweet Emma would just sit next to the table in the Relief Society room when it was my turn to teach. She was such a good baby . . . but it was also a great day when she was old enough to go into nursery! :) I learned a lot about myself during the past year. I know what my priorities are, that I know what's most important in life and that as I live as my Heavenly Father would have me live, that He undoubtedly gives me the strength to do it.

With Tony working in law enforcement, he doesn't have the best of influences there, so his only spiritual source would be here at home. I have always wanted him to be our spiritual leader, to really step up and lead our family, but with all the people he works with and around telling him that the ways of the world are more fun, easier and better, it's been really been hard, on all of us. I have tried my best to make sure that the spirit is always in our home, but being the only one that was really trying got to be exhausting and frustrating sometimes.

Since we've moved, the ward that we're supposed to go to starts at 12:30pm and that's the time that Tony has to leave home to get to work. So we've been attending the 8:30am ward. For those of you who know us, we are NOT morning people by choice. We've been making it, but it hasn't been easy. I've been so proud of Tony - he hasn't grumbled at getting up early to go to church . . . he's been great, helping me get the kids up, fed and ready. AND, he's been going to his priesthood meeting, which he used to sit in the hallway during because he said they were so boring. He even gave the Family Home Evening lesson this week for our family. I'm so super proud of my man :)

I have been praying, HARD, for the past 4 years that Heavenly Father would bless our family with this one simple request, to allow Tony to have Sundays off so that he could become the spiritual man that he needs to be, and that we need him to be, that Heavenly Father wants him to become . . . and this past week that blessing was granted. Tony's new days off are Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. When Tony emailed me his new schedule, I honestly cried! I can't even express how grateful I am. I'm so excited to see him grow, to get a calling that he'll be excited about and for him to feel more of Heavenly Father's love around him than he's felt for a long, long time. He's such a good man and I'm so excited to see what else Heavenly Father has in store for our little forever family.