Today’s Talk: “Trust in That Spirit Which Leadeth to Do Good,” Henry B. Eyring
Definition of Atonement- “to cover” Definition of Succor- “to run to”
It started to rain again. I heard the clouds of commotion start to rumble in the other room-a mixture of screams, tears, and so…much…crying… I couldn’t take another untangling of who did what to whom and when. Leaving them in the proverbial rain to duke it out, I ran for cover. Racing up the stairs before one of those five kids under six could find me. Safely in my room without detection, I shut the door, walked directly to my closet, and reached for the Girl Scout cookies not even my husband knew about. Exhale…everything would be alright. Nothing that a cookie for mom couldn’t cover.
I woke up this morning to the moist air and gentle smell of another kind of rain. I love this rain because of how I feel when I am cozied up and protected from it. To feel so vulnerable to a million raindrops falling down in chaos and then have it all stop. Just like that, I step under the cover and I am protected and secure, curled up with a good book and a beautiful view of rain trickling down the window pane. Rain reminds me of my humanity that brings me to the divine.
I wonder if there isn’t two lessons God wants me to learn from life’s rain. He sent me to a world full of clouds and commotion. Still God runs to me to offer His cover to curl up under, His good book and a beautiful perspective of the beauty of the storm. God tries to call me away from the cookies that only provide a fleeting escape. After I have warmed my hands by the light of His fire, He encourages me to give that same comfort to others. Only then might He join me out of the rain because “He also feels the comfort [I] give others as if [I] had given it to Him.”[i]
Sometimes I still need to remember to run TO my children when life sends in the rain, not run AWAY from them to the cookies. Sometimes I forget that the greatest way I can comfort my Savior is by comforting His children. Then accepting His offering to cover me rather than accepting the cookie the world offers.[ii] He runs when life sends the rain. He runs TO me.[iii]
I was born and raised in Alberta, Canada and California and promised every childhood friend I would never raise my family in Utah…until I fell in love with the most amazing fourth generation Orem boy. Now we are raising our kids in the house he grew up in and we love it. I am an estate planning attorney and marriage educator but I really want to be better at those half-baked talents like speaking Spanish, playing the piano, and making dinner every night! Read more about me at mormon.org