Once upon a time...

Matt took Emily and Zach to church today and I stayed home with Zoe, Eleanor, and Kate. It was pretty quiet around here, especially when all 3 kids napped for 2 hours. I worked on scrapbooking for awhile and watched the birds. We now have a blue jay and a gray jay around. I didn't even know gray jay birds existed.
I found a couple of cards that were given to me and Matt on our 1 year anniversary, so I dug out the 1997 scrapbook (which is actually a 1996-1998 scrapbook) to put the cards in it. I flipped through the book and it was fun to look at the cards that Matt and I had given to each other before we were married and during our first few years of marriage. And it was neat to read about the different things we did together with no children! It's hard to believe such a time existed. I am so thankful to be married to Matt. When I read this paragraph from Sister Cheryl C. Lant's conference talk, "Righteous Traditions" today, I thought about my own conversion to the gospel when Matt and I decided to get married.

"Our personal conversion comes as we begin to live the way the Lord wants us to live—steadfast and immovable in keeping all of the commandments, not just those that are convenient. This then becomes a process of refinement as we strive to make each day a little better than the last. Thus our traditions become traditions of righteousness."

This is exactly what happened when I married Matt. Instead of having one foot planted in the gospel and one foot in the world (from the age of 16-21), I stuck both feet in the gospel and it has been a process of refinement ever since. My testimony, choices, and traditions have become solely focused on Christ and the gospel because of that change. I am so thankful that my personal conversion happened before we had children and that our righteous traditions are in place as the children get old enough to notice. What a blessing and what a difference that makes in our children's lives! And of course it is a blessing in my life as well.