"I Am A Child Of God"

I realized something tonight. Something a long time coming, that I really wish I had let myself understand long ago.

I am REALLY lazy. Not just a little, but DANG, that lady is lay-zee! capital L kind of lazy.

Don't get me wrong. I am busy every day. I try, often unsuccessfully, to keep my house in decent shape, my kids clean and well groomed. I work in the yard and try to keep a garden, do laundry and mop the kitchen floor, and it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day for what I need to get everything accomplished.

Although all this stuff matters, it doesn't come even close to the most important things we should be doing every day, the stuff, ironically, that I ususally put aside or put off to the very last minutes of my day. The answer is simple, as is everything in the Gospel: scripture and prayer, the two most simple, most amazing things you can do to change your life.

Yet how often do I stay up until the early hours of the morning with a good book, or just mindlessly watching tv, then scramble to read a few verses, realizing just as I put my scriptures down for the night that I read the exact same thing the night before? Or worse, as I close my eyes I can't even tell you what I read just a few moments before. Its really very pathetic. And completely pointless. Althought going through the motions is better than not trying at all, I know I can do so much better!

Tonight while I was putting Pooks down for bed, I was singing her favorite song, "I Am A Child Of God." As I sang, I kept thinking about the changes to the song that President Kimball made in the 50s. "Teach me all that I must know" changed to "Teach me all that I mus do." DO. It doesn't help anyone to just know something, but it matters what you do with that knowledge.

So why is it so hard to do something so simple and easy that you know will change your life for good? I don't have an answer. It just is. Its the same with every Gospel principle. Is it really that hard to take an hour out of you month to visit someone? Just one HOUR? What about four to go to the temple? Four hours out of one month. That is less than 1% of our month, doing the most important tasks we have been given in this life. I guess its all about perspective. And sacrifice.

I'm going to be better about STUDYING, not just reading my scriptures, and having family scripture time. Even though the girls are so little, I would rather them never have a time in their lives that they don't remember having family scripture study. And Family Home Evening too. Its just so easy to stand aside and let this life pass while you're mopping the kitchen floor. I don't want to look back and realize that all I taught my children to do is math and laundry. There are much more important things to be taught, and this is my watch.

The lazyness stops now. Oh, it will be hard. Very hard. But my family is worth it. And maybe for once I will be able to say that I am not just a Know-er of the Word, but a Do-er.