Awake and Arise!

For the last 4 days, I have been unable to sleep. I am in the process of writing my thesis for my master's degree, dealing with 2 children, age 2 and under, having teen-agers (some who live at home and some who don't-can't decide which is worse), trying to keep my house clean (which is a useless task, thank you very much), laundry,trying to recover from a cancer scare (see previous post), writing teaching curriculum for a university lab course as part of my master's program, getting ready for the holidays, laundry, dealing with the flu running rampant throughout our family, laundry, going to my brother-in-law's father's funeral (which was one of the most beautiful and loving services I have ever personally attended, laundry---well you get the picture. I do a lot of laundry. For some reason, my body feels that it doesn't have time to sleep. However, it allows me time to think about my life, goals, and what I am doing now to get where I want to be someday.

As I attended Mike Loveless' funeral, I decided I want to be remembered as he was: always loving life no matter what it throws me, missed by all, compassionate, excited, empathetic, so in love with my spouse that it would be difficult to distinguish us from newlyweds (and might nauseate those around us), and wanting to spend time with my family more than anything else in the world. What a wonderful man I had the privilege to meet. (Sorry Marci, I stole a picture of Mike and Andrew from your blog.)

As Ezra Taft Benson said (April conference 1986) "we must cleanse the inner vessel, beginning first with ourselves, then with our families, and finally with the church." I have been pondering this idea for a long while now, starting with the wake up call 5 years ago in my car accident that should have killed me and didn't. I think I am ready to "Awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell . . .awake. . . [and] put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust" (The Book of Mormon, 2 Ne. 1:12,23).

I will commit to do better in my personal life to put the essential things first and then the important ones. I will take time to formally talk to my Father in Heaven everyday, not just in my heart as I am busy doing something else. I will spend time one on one with my children and not begrudge the time it takes that I could be doing something else that is the busy work of life and if that means laundry can wait, then so be it.

This is a record of my personal commitment to myself. What will you commit to?

Now I know this is not a sunrise. It is, however, the sun setting on the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York. I felt it was just as appropriate since that is the place where The Book of Mormon was found by Joseph Smith that included my title for this post!