I’m not gonna lie, I usually crash and burn on Mondays. They are not my forte. I’m usually overwhelmed by it and I miss Daniel Cakes after having had him with me every waking moment over the weekend. So Mondays usually suck. But not today and I’ll tell you why: I prayed.
I don’t always share spiritual experiences, but I felt like I needed to document this. I want to remember it.
I was asked to give a talk on the 24th on “increasing your faith”. It sounded totally ambiguous to me and nothing came to mind when I heard the topic. I even did a half hour of looking around on lds.org to help find other talks for inspiration. And I was coming up empty. So then it was Monday morning, this morning, and I had all three boys home because of midwinter break and a talk to write and a house to clean, laundry (of course) hanging over my head and blah, blah, blah, I was stressed before I even got out of my bed.
The morning was a little foggy and weird because I was up off and on starting at 5 am because of Ray, but I did get to sleep in a little because I didn’t have to rush out the door to get boys to school. I was going about my business, making breakfast, feeding Ray, putting in a load of laundry and wondering when I could find a few minutes to dedicate to study for my talk. I finally got Ray down for a morning nap and stopped and knelt by my bed. I very realistically prayed. I told the Lord that I didn’t know how I was going to do this because I could never carve out more than 15 minute increments to dedicate to anything during the day and that I needed help. I asked for the Lord to help me write this talk …. and fast. Really. I know everything is supposed to be on the Lord’s time table and I should submit to Him, but I was very seriously just telling him what I needed help with and asking for Him to bless me.
I sat down on my bed with the laptop on my legs and searched and read for about 15 minutes and I was so frustrated. I was not finding what I was looking for. I had to stop and change the loads, make lunch for the boys and go potty. I did those things and came back to the laptop. And then it worked. I found a great talk by Dallin H. Oaks that really got the ball rolling and that was it. Everything clicked. I don’t even know how it all worked out, but I wrote the whole talk, the whole thing and did so much around the house too. I got it all done and more. It made me think of this talk I heard about mothers and how they would be blessed and “made more than you are”. Today I felt like that was true.
I looked around at 4:30 pm and realized I had accomplished more than I have been able to do in over a week. Here’s the list of accomplishments:
- washed and folded three loads of clothes
- wrote my whole talk
- rearranged Ray’s nursery
- made breakfast, lunch and dinner before 4:30 pm (had all day beef stew going in the oven all day and ready to eat at dinnertime)
- picked up the front room, my room, the kitchen and bathroom
- gave Liam a bath
- got the boys to do their chores
- swept the kitchen floor
- cleaned my craft area downstairs
- fed Ray 4 separate times
- cleared off the dresser in my room
- called Eddie Bauer about my ruined coat, then fixed my coat and washed it.
- saved the bouquet of dying flowers Daniel brought home for me a week ago
- checked and sent emails
- helped Noah read a chapter and a half of the Book of Mormon
Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot to others, but for me, that was miraculous. I felt such an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude by the end of the day that I had to kneel and thank my Father in heaven for hearing and answering my prayer so obviously and immediately. I didn’t think it could get better …. then Daniel called me at 4:45 pm and told me he was coming home early. I seriously almost burst into tears of joy. My cup runneth over … really. best. Monday. ever.
Wow! That DOES sound like a lot of accomplishing. I was reading your list of things you did and I got to the fourth item and was thinking, I don’t think I have done more than this in any one day. Ever. So congrats and I am so proud of you!! I hope you have many more days like this one.
Wow, is right! Good job. A good reminder for me too to make sure to start my day in prayer. It really helps so much. And to think… Your best Monday ever happened in Michigan, in February. Pretty awesome.
Today is Monday. I have not done half of what you list. Maybe I should try the prayer thing. Can’t hurt. I believe everyone should consider Pascal’s wager (see Wikipedia).