Life's Lessons

Needless to say, it's been a true adventure having a daughter. When Brenda and I decided to have our first child, I felt that the combination of many years of babysitting and having a sister fourteen years younger than myself had prepared me for what would and could come. I was wrong.

This picture is what happens when you change a newborn girl in your lap and while, admittedly, it isn't as bad as being sprayed in the face by a newborn boy, it's not enjoyable regardless. We laughed and laughed when this happened and have had similar cause for laughter since.

Have you ever had a friend, a really good friend, urinate, defecate, vomit, or fart on you? How about all of them? How about many of them simultaneously? Have you ever had a friend scream continuously in your ear for a whole hour, half of and hour or even ten minutes? Brenda and I have had all of these and more from our daughter. Now the reasonable person would ask why would anyone have children knowing that they would go through all of that.

The answer is the Life Lesson that I hope to be able to instill in my children and I hope to be able to live through myself. The reward at the end is directly linked to trial required to get to it. The greater the sacrifice, the beautiful and joyful the reward. Though Brenda had to suffer the worst morning sickness I have ever known and come within a heartbeat of death in the end, I will be forever grateful, because she gave me this beautiful girl. For every dirty diaper, there is a special smile. After every vomit, there is a tiny reaching hand hoping for comfort. These blessings are obtained by obedience to the law of families.

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--

And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. [D&C 130:30–21]