President Thomas S. Monson
"This is our one and only chance at mortal life-here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and non-existent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey-now.
If you have children who are grown and gone, in all likelihood you have occasionally felt pangs of loss and the recognition that you didn't appreciate that time of life as much as you should have. Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather that dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future.
If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will-to your surprise-miss them profoundly."
Because I am a perfectionist when it comes to having my house clean and organized, I have always had a struggle with this. I have a hard time when I have to make the choice between playing with my kids or cleaning the house. I have to admit I love to organize and clean my house. I like how my house looks when it is clean. Reading this made feel a little guilty, because I have complained about how tired I am, because I have been raising kids for almost 23 years and have a long way to go still. But I have loved every minute of it and I am glad I still have a few more years to go. I would not have it any other way.
2 comments:
thanks for sharing Maria!!! i know Jakob is only 5 but with how fast time is flying by I feel like I'm going to blink my eyes and he's going to be leaving for a mission. it scares me how fast time flies!!! i am the opposite of you...i HATE cleaning and organizing...so if I had to choose play or clean, I always choose play!!!! Unless people are coming over and someone other than family actually will be seeing my house!! It seems like I only clean it up when people are coming over! :) Oh well...we have an abundance of fingerprints/footprints, piles of laundry, toys, etc....in fact, Brad just took all of the kids toys and put them in the garage. ALL of them. It took about 24 hrs before they even realized they were gone!! Brad was just so sick of the toys everywhere! So funny.
Miss you guys!!!!!!!!!
I've never doubted your love for us, but reading this was so cool because I got to learn something new about you and read about your feelings of being our mom. Being with you the last, almost, 23 years has been so great. I could never imagine a better person to be my mom. Thanks for everything you've done for us up until this point. I'm excited for the future; I love you so much.
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