sundayness on a monday. || my testimony

we taught sunday school yesterday and this story stood out to me: 

"it's easy to say, 'the time isn't right.' but there is a danger in procrastination. years ago i worked for a man in california. he hired me; he was kind to me; he seemed to regard me highly. i may have been the only latter-day saint he ever knew well. i don't know all the reasons i found to wait for a better moment to talk to him about the gospel. i just remember my feeling of sorrow when i learned, after he had retired and lived far away, that he and his wife had been killed in a late-night drive to their home in carmel, ca. he loved his wife. he loved his children. he had loved his parents. he loved his grandchildren, and he will love their children and will want to be with them forever.

now, i don't know how the crowds will be handled in the world to come. but i suppose that i will meet him, that he will look into my eyes, and that i will see in them the question, 'hal, you knew. why didn't you tell me?'" (elder henry b. eyring; ensign, nov. 1998)

well shoot, henry b. i guess i'll share:

my testimony is humble and sometimes i feel like it's a bit inadequate. but it's mine.

i believe that my heavenly father is your heavenly father. and he is just that, a father. he rejoices with us over the small victories of life. he feels sad and broken-hearted when we defy him. he loves helping us out and will always meet us more than halfway. he genuinely wants to hear from us and is overjoyed when we turn to him or catch him up on our life...no matter how long it's been.

we are his children. and he loves us all the same -- fully, completely, this gospel has taught me how to love and how to accept others as well as myself. i know that no one is fit to judge another person as we all walk imperfectly. 

i believe that nothing is a happy-accident or a mistake. people are strategically placed in our life and trials are there to refine us. no matter how mucky or overwhelming they may seem. he has plans and blessings for us, big ones, that he so badly wants to give us but we must earn them. we must seek them out and put in our effort.

i believe that reading my scriptures in the morning and saying my prayers helps my day go a lot more smoothly and gives me perspective. 

perspective that helps me to remember that this will pass and that no matter how mucky the day may seem, i have a person looking over me who loves me more than i can comprehend. 

perspective that helps me remember that the crazy-aggressive man who just cut me off on the freeway who i so badly want to give the bird to is, in fact, a child of god and is loved so, so much so...maybe i should just let this slide? 

perspective that helps me to love myself a bit more and quiet all that negative body-talk or self-doubt.

i believe in being wildly curious but, more so, i believe in just letting some things be. let happy times be happy and hard times be hard and not complicate things by asking so many questions. 

i believe in the forgiveness and in grace. i believe that the atonement can refine us and uplift us and enable us. and i firmly believe that we are never too far off. i like to believe that those who have wandered and choose to come back will be greeted as if they never really left at all; a how was your day? what do you want for dinner? type of exchange. maybe an endearing nickname, too? 

and finally, this might seem a little counter-intuitive, but i believe in believing in something that is greater than yourself. for me and my family, it is the gospel of the church jesus christ of of latter day saints. and boy, do i believe it. for others, it might be a flying potato salad with supernatural powers. there is just something so comforting about the belief that this life isn't it.

oh, i also believe in pink lady apples every morning and country music in the summertime, but who really cares about that?