Love One Another

Posted by Chandra June 05, 2020

Love One Another

Now that we are starting to see the pandemic quiet down and the quarantine restrictions start to lift, we have a new challenge. Eliminate racism. We have been bombarded with Black Lives Matter messages and have been urged to speak up! It’s energizing and empowering but also a little scary and exhausting. Protests have hit the streets and while most remain peaceful, a few have become violent and some people have reduced themselves to looting and burning cop cars. It’s discouraging to see these types of inexcusable acts on the news. But for every bad story, there is a thousand filled with hope. I took some time to ponder my role in all of this and prayerfully prepared a discussion to have with the kids regarding racism and how we are all created in the image of God. The first great commandment is to love God with all our hearts and the second it like unto it, love our neighbor as ourselves. Period.

As I was wrestling with feelings of overwhelm, I reached out to friends and we had a fun week socializing! The Lords family came over and the kids laughed and played for hours while we Moms were able to chat. Jill invited us over to swim and to celebrate Erika’s birthday and her backyard never disappoints! Erika held a women’s discussion at her house once night and we were able to gather, talk about current events, eat treats and play games. It was just what I needed!

And it was my Dad’s birthday!!! We missed seeing him (and, coincidentally the rest of the family) on his actual birthday, but we made up for it the next day. My mom is still a little hesitant to let us inside so we sat in the hot hot hot backyard. But I’ll take what I can get! I love my dad so much and am so thankful for the loving way he raised me. He never ever ever spoke an unkind word about anyone! He loves the black community and black culture, especially jazz. He is tolerant, generous, and forgiving. I scored in the father department and I’m so grateful to live close enough by him that I get to see him, hug him, and learn from him on a regular basis.

On Friday, I took the kids to Baby Beach and it was not so fun. Jack threw a clump of sand which hit a nice old lady in the back of the head. She was extremely forgiving but I made the tough choice to make him apologize. He was humiliated and reacted to those feelings in typical 5 year old fashion: wailing, running, hiding, crying, hitting... I asked the woman if she wouldn’t mind I use her as a teaching tool to have Jack apologize, no matter how many attempts. She graciously agreed. It took about a half an hour, prayer, and patience. When he finally looked her in the eye and said, “I’m sorry for throwing sand at you.” He collapsed on the ground and started crying immediately after. When we got to the car, I told him how proud I was of him and how he was a good boy. He said there was “voices in his head“ telling him he did the right thing and I was able to explain to him that it was the Holy Ghost testifying of his good works!

My major mistake of the day was not bringing any food. My kids were so HANGRY. My thought was that as soon as they were hungry, we would leave. But they were having so much fun at the beach that they just fought through it. Everyone was behaving badly. It was very embarrassing. And as soon as I got the kids all loaded, Josi showed up with her kids and I felt badly that we were bailing! Doh! Mom fail.

We stopped by Kari’s to pick up a LEGO, then drove through In N Out and all peace was once again restored.

Being a mother right now, in these times, is not for the faint of heart. I rely so much on the Prophet’s guidance, the everlasting atonement of Jesus Christ, and the powerful witness of the Holy Ghost. Daily scripture study, prayer, and pondering is crucial! And even when I do my absolute BEST, there is room for failure. I make mistakes all. The. Time.

But, I LOVE my children. I will always work hard for their happiness, even if it means crying at the beach to teach them a lesson on forgiveness. Even if it means having the tough conversations about racism, sex, or civil unrest. I was taught by the best how to parent wisely, and it is my eternal privilege to execute this profound responsibility to the best of my ability.

Cute drawing that Jack did for me. He's always so proud when he colors something.

Tanner brought this giant blow up screen home from work. Now it's sitting in the garage that we just barely finished cleaning out and organizing.

See our nice clean garage? It was a lot of hard work, mostly by Tanner who had the most organizing to do. We filled up 2 garbage cans and now it's so much better!