Sunday Sharing

Just today Gabby came up to me when I was outside and said, "You know how I used to be able to skip 4 bars on the monkey bars?  Now I can only skip two or three."  Of course I had to know why.

"Because I slipped one day and almost fell," she said.  "Then there was that other time I did fall."  


But it was what she said next that was remarkable.  "I'm going to practice now so I can get it back," she said.

A while later she came in the house to show me her red hands, not to complain, but to show me how hard she'd been working, "and I almost got it," she said.

That's Gabby.  She is very real about life, both the fears and challenges, but she's all about pushing through to the goal.

Recently I read this quote:  "Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence." (Buddha)


I was interested in the word, "compounded," because I recognized it from another familiar quote: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things...Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one..."  (2 Nephi 2:11)


When I think of things being "compounded," I think of different things being combined, or things having more than one purpose.

So whether you call it opposition or chaos, both have a purpose, even a duel purpose.  In other words, it's not just about getting through, it's about getting through successfully.  It's about challenges bringing about growth and purpose.  It's about stormy days bringing lush, new growth.

Life is, by nature, compounded.  All the elements and forces and lives that come together on this planet create a very unique human condition for each individual.  All those elements and forces combine to create love, life, success, and amazing growth and progress.  They also create destruction, fear, pain, and failures.

The compound purpose is both challenge and growth because you can't have one without the other.  I'm impressed that at age 10 Gabby knows that.

As we've worked in the past year to bring Gabby into our family, and to become a family through all the changes, we certainly recognize the potential to view all this change as chaos.  Also, the closer we came to becoming a family, to actually finalizing Gabby's adoption, the more it seems the challenges have increased.  The past few months have been especially difficult.  There have been health challenges, work challenges, parenting challenges, and even financial challenges.

A few weeks ago, Tim and I felt our own relationship feeling the pressures of all the challenges.  In one of those, "What in the world is going on?" conversations that lasted several hours, we made decisions to refocus our energy on to what matters most:  our love, our faith, our family, our children, and our goal to take our family to the temple to have Gabby sealed to us.

The last few weeks have been very different--not without challenges, but with new purpose and focus that has kept us moving forward.  Some days when the purpose dims, and our hands are looking a little worn and red from trying, we follow Gabby's example and keep working, because, "We almost got it."

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Tuesday, August 16th:  The day Gabby is sealed to our family forever and ever and ever!
Thursday, August 18th:  4th Annual Random Acts of Kindness Day

For more about LDS temples see here.
For more about the importance of families see here.
For more about our 4th Annual Random Acts of Kindness Day see here or here.