cheeziz

i finally got around to reading the march ensign the other day.  there was a great article by a mom with an 18-month old suggesting using the nursery manual as a family home evening guide with your little ones.  david and i decided we would start that with pace on sundays instead of a usual bedtime story.  we haven't been the most consistent with fhe as a married couple (consistent as in we haven't had fhe together since our first year of marriage...), so we are looking forward to starting this with pace.

we have family prayer with pace, church on sundays, we look through a "church book" with him--church clip art to keep him occupied at church, and recently we started reading the illustrated scripture stories with him (thanks, mom!).  my mom sent these out to us, and we've started reading the book of mormon stories with him during breakfast.  pace is captivated by the pictures, and we read an abbreviated version of the captions.  all in all, i think we have a pretty peaceful home, but we haven't really pushed a huge "jesus exposure" yet.  

so the other day pace and i went to the distribution center to pick up the nursery manual.  the primary manuals were on the back wall, and we had to walk past the wall of photos of the first presidency, paintings of jesus, etc.  as we are walking, pace runs up to harry anderson's painting of Christ in gethsemane, points, and says, "cheeziz!"  and then runs to another painting of Christ and points again, and says, "cheeziz!" 

this simply warmed my heart.  my little boy recognized a painting of the Savior.

when i told david about it later that day, he said, "oh--we read the story of king benjamin's speech today at breakfast, and that painting of Christ in gethsemane was one of the pictures in the book!  i told pace it was jesus praying."  [i have been helping a friend with iv antibiotics every morning, so i've missed breakfast time as i'm at her house from 7-8].  how neat that pace remembered and applied what he'd seen that morning!

i am excited for the home evenings where we can testify to our children that Jesus didn't just pray, but that he prayed specifically for them, knows them by name, and wants them to remember him in their thoughts and actions.  i am excited for the time when we can discuss the plan of salvation, and the mercy and justice it brings to this earth.  i am excited for the easter sundays when we'll get to share our excitement regarding an empty tomb.

I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.

On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.

Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.

On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross.

On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.

On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

-Elder Wirthlin, Sunday Will Come, October 2006 General Conference