Sundays

I woke up this morning, fully intending on only going to church for only one hour, at which point I was going to come home to watch the AFC Championship Game between the Colts and the Jets. I rationalized this decision all morning long! The Colts are Wade's favorite football team, I'm supporting my little brother by going home early and watching. Rationalization is a funny thing! Trying to make ourselves feel better about something you know is not right! Long story short, I ended up staying for all of church, and I'm really glad that I did!

There were a few things that happened throughout the meetings that made me ponder and reflect.

There were three or four people sitting on the bench in front of me, and then on the bench in front of them was one guy sitting by himself. The people sitting in front of me were whispering, and in the middle of them whispering the guy in front of them turns around and goes, "Sh..." and puts his finger to his mouth. I was like WHAT?! Did you really just do that? How old are we? I wondered how they would react to someone "shh"ing them. Suprisingly, the person in front of me was totally cool about it, he was just like oh yah, no problem. Sorry. I doubt I would have responded as nicely as he did. It kind of annoyed me that he turned around and said “shhh” in the first place. Even though I had no right to be annoyed! They really should have been quiet. BUT I couldn't believe he had the audacity to actually tell them to "shh!!" like he was their mom or something! The speaker's topic was reverence. Kinda ironic right! Haha!

The closing song was Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel. The chorus goes like this:

Put your shoulder to the wheel; push along,
Do your duty with a heart full of song,
We all have work; let no one shirk.
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

So as we're singing the very last verse, again, one of the people in front of me sings:

Put your shoulder to the wheel; push along,
Do your duty with a heart full of song,
We all have work; DON'T BE A JERK!
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

Pretty humorous! It made me laugh! So Sacrament is over. At this point, I rationalized, I will go to Sunday School, and then I will go home and catch the second half of the game. It will be the most exciting part right? Sunday School was awesome! I was so glad I stayed. It's funny because the things I learned were definitely things I needed to hear! At one point we were talking about Satan trying to tempt Moses, and 4 different times Moses tells Satan to leave! It didn't matter how hard Satan tried, Moses was strong and told him to leave. How hard was Satan trying to get me to go home and watch the dumb football game?

Towards the end of the lesson, I overheard someone say, I can't concentrate. The game is on, and I just keep thinking about that. At least I'll get to catch the last half hour after church. If other people were at church when they wanted to be at home watching, surely I could stay for one more hour! I needed to be where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there!

In Relief Society, the lesson was on anger. Once the teacher introduced the lesson, I was so grateful that I decided to stay for all the church meetings today! This last week and a half has been especially trying for me! It has been really really rough! The whole coaching ordeal (if you don't know what I'm talking about check out the posts below...) has been a trial to say the least! And to be quite honest I haven't dealt with it in the best way I could. I've been angry about a lot of things that have happened! So a couple of quotes that I thought were really good from the lesson!

"Anger is a mannerism that we show when we react to something we have no control over."

" If we desire to have a proper spirit with us at all times, we must choose to refrain from becoming angry."

"Anger doesn't solve anything, but it can destroy everything."

As I sat pondering many of these quotes, I realized how durastically different my week would have been had my reaction to the situation been different. It would have been a MUCH less miserable week for me that is for sure!

My mom sent me this quote, "What cannot be remedied must be endured." This is so true! I couldn't fix the situation of being suspended and not being able to coach for a game. So, as painful as it was, I watched 3 boys’ basketball games on Friday and accepted the punishment of not being able to coach/watch my own teams play! I endured.

Some of you may be like, what's the big deal, it was only one game? You're being a little dramatic about the whole situation! But I guess the biggest thing was that I felt like I was punished and have to suffer consequences for something that was not deserved. That is one of the worst feelings! I was angry most of the week. Looking back, I wish I would have responded a little bit differently. The last week probably wouldn’t have been as miserable as it ended up being! So I will attempt to be better. Instead of being angry when things or situations don't go my way, I will try to find a more productive, positive way to deal!

I can’t even begin to explain how grateful I am that I did not go home and watch the game today! There were so many things that I needed to hear and learn! Look at all of the things that I would have missed out on had I left after Sacrament Meeting! I mean the only thing I would have remembered from today would have been the guy turning around and telling people to “shhhh” and not to be a JERK! :) I would still be angry about everything that has happened over the past week. I would not feel at peace with the situation, as I do now. And who knows, maybe if I would have gone home and watched the game, the Colts would have lost? Who knows? I’d like to think I had something to do with their win today! :) haha! But I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend church—not for just one hour, but for all three hours and the many things I am able to learn in the process! :)