 Thanks to my mom, (who posted this song on Facebook yesterday) I have something beautiful to share with you today and the story behind the origin of this song makes it even more precious. I have always loved the group, Lady Antebellum, and I have especially loved Hillary Scott's voice. It is tender and beautiful as is she. As I read this article about her experience with a miscarriage and writing this song, my heart wept for her. I have never experienced a miscarriage myself, but when I think about my four children, I cannot imagine the sorrow and hurt that fills your soul when you lose a child. It doesn't matter if you are barely pregnant, extremely pregnant, or if the child has been born and taken his or her first breath-- losing a child is heartbreaking. My sincerest sympathy and love goes out to everyone who has had the unfortunate experience of losing a child. Any time you experience pain and sorrow, it is hard to function through those feelings. Sometimes we want to lash out at God and say, "How is this possibly something that is good for me?" It's okay to feel that way. God understands. As a parent He watched His only Begotten Son bleed from every pore and cry out in agony. He had to stand by and allow His Son be spit upon, forced to wear a crown of stinging thorns, carry His cross upon the torn up flesh of His whipped back, and then be nailed to that cross. All the while knowing that He had the power to stop it all, but He couldn't. Because of His love and because of His Son's pure love for us, it had to be done. And so we can take the example of our loving and gracious Father in Heaven and apply that to the tragedies that occur in our own lives. After the anger and hurt subsides, we can hopefully come to a place where we can recognize that each of our trials can teach us valuable lessons. If we allow ourselves to be tutored by His Spirit and humble ourselves to the point where we can say with sincerity, "Thy Will Be Done," that is when our hearts can truly begin to heal. "Thy Will"- Hillary Scott and the Scott FamilyI’m so confused  Photo cred: lds.org Here is a little video snippet with Hillary sharing some of her thoughts on the song...  "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news..." Those are never words you want to hear. Especially when they come from a publisher that you have signed a contract with. The ups and downs of the publishing world I suppose. I read those words in an email that I received yesterday and surprisingly, I was not as upset as I thought I would be. I felt more relief than anything. Now Jenn and I can really move forward with our journal idea. It has gone from being published this Christmas to next Christmas to next Mother's Day and now, I have control over when it will be published. My hope is to go back to our timeline of having it ready for this Christmas. Is it possible? Absolutely. Anything is possible. Is it going to be challenging? Absolutely. But Jenn and I are believers in the phrase "We Can Do Hard Things." This turn of events have been interesting for me. As I have thought about the journal and what the next step should be, I have realized a couple of things... 1. I have not had a desire to work on it. I don't know if that is because I have been busy with other things, or if the universe was telling me that this little hiccup would happen, or a combination of the two. Whatever the case may be, my desire has been re-ignited and I am looking forward to really digging into this project. 2. As with my own memoir, I have no idea what I am doing. Jenn and I are in a world that is unfamiliar and that is scary, but I do know this...THIS JOURNAL IS AN INSPIRED IDEA and it was placed in my head and my heart for a reason. As we move forward with this project, you can bet that we will be calling on God to help us every step of the way. So, now the real work begins. There will be a lot of praying, researching, and pondering. We may have to ask our friends for help through a Kickstarter Campaign. We will definitely need help spreading the word so that news of this journal can reach beyond our immediate circle of family and friends. But this project is in the hands of a loving Father in Heaven. He knows the best way to proceed and I have full confidence that He will help us along the way.  
There is also one other Father who has always been there for me; someone who has helped and continues to help me become the woman that He knows I can be. That man is my Heavenly Father and He loves me more than I could ever imagine. And you know what? He loves you too. He created you in His image. He sees your full potential and wants you to allow the Atonement of our Savior, His only Begotten Son, to work in your life. He sacrificed His Son so that we could have that wonderful gift of the Atonement that helps us become the people that He knows we can be. He loves us unconditionally and with our Heavenly Mother by His side, watches over us and sends His angels to surround us and lift us up. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me because I see His love in everything around me. He has given me my life, my family, and this beautiful world in which I live. I love Him and will continue to serve Him and testify of Him and my Savior, Jesus Christ, for the rest of my life. My Heavenly Father Loves Me- BYU Ambassadors and friends
 Photo Cred: Pixabay 
Because we will be having this awesome experience, I decided that today's song should be one that will put us all in the "pioneer mood." It is one that is always used when talking about pioneer experiences and whenever I hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing it...wow. Just wow. Come, Come Ye Saints- The Mormon Tabernacle ChoirThese brave men, women, and children have always held a special place in my heart. The sacrifices they made were amazing and I am blessed to have pioneer heritage in my family. My ancestors suffered and did some really hard things and as I have found journal entries and read about their experiences, it has solidified in my mind that if they could do these incredibly hard things, then I can definitely do the hard things that I am required to endure.  Photo Cred: www.lds.org   I love Sundays. I love being with my family. I love attending my church meetings and visiting with my friends there. But most importantly, I love partaking of the Sacrament. It is a time for me to reflect on the past week and think about things that I did well and things that I can try to improve upon. It is a time to remember my Savior and the sacrifices He made on my behalf. We have been trying really hard around our house to make sure that Sundays look a little bit different than the other days in the week. We want to send our Savior and our Heavenly Father a sign that we love them and that we care about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Are we perfect at this? ABSOLUTELY NOT! And I have proof . Please enjoy a little video I put together of how we spent our Sabbath Day last week. (Don't let the first part of the video shock you. I didn't have my hair did yet. Just keepin' it real. :) So there you have it. A little glimpse of what the Sabbath Day is like for the Ogden family. We have a lot of areas where we can improve, which is good. It is good to have goals. As I mentioned in the video, we are working as individuals and as a family to make the Sabbath Day more about our Savior and doing the things that He would have us do on the day of rest that He has provided for us. I will close this post with a song that hopefully will help to put you in the mood to focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ on this fine Sabbath Day. Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee- Mormon Tabernacle ChoirI hope you have a wonderful Sunday and that you are able to feel how much our Savior loves you today and everyday.   Photo Cred: lds.org  Photo cred: Pixabay Parenting is hard.Think about it. You are in charge of another human being. That human being depends on you to keep him/her safe, fed, and loved. You have been entrusted to take care of this beautiful child of God. You, an imperfect being who makes mistakes, and sometimes just does really dumb things. Oftentimes those dumb things go unnoticed. But thanks to phones with cameras, the internet and our good old pal, social media, sometimes those dumb things go viral and the whole world witnesses just one moment of parenting stupidity. I am not going to isolate one particular incident because unfortunately I have seen too many. I have also heard and read enough negative, and flat out mean comments to last two entire lifetimes. I will not be a contributor to the negativity. It helps no one. Here's my comparison. Indulge me if you will...Parenting in this day and age of social media feels a lot like being Mrs. Jumbo in Disney's "Dumbo" movie. Here you have sweet Mrs. Jumbo who has waited and waited for her beautiful baby to come. The baby finally arrives and he is adorable. No doubt about that. All of the other ladies are oohing and gooing over this precious little bundle.  {***JUST TO BE CLEAR. ALL OF THE IMAGES FROM THE MOVIE "DUMBO" ARE COPYRIGHTED BY DISNEY. THEY ARE NOT MY PICTURES. I FOUND THEM ON VARIOUS SITES ON THE INTERNET AND I AM WRITING THIS TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE KNOWS THAT I AM NOT CLAIMING THESE PICTURES AS MY OWN. THEY BELONG TO DISNEY.} Then something happens. As soon as the precious bundle doesn't look like he is "supposed" to, these ladies start to turn.  PHOTO CREDIT: DISNEY Their true colors fly and they begin to share their opinions in a very unkind and harsh way. Then, when Mrs. Jumbo gets upset and tries to protect her baby, these ladies turn even more mean and shun her.  PHOTO CREDIT: DISNEY Parenting in this age of social media is a lot like this. Because of social media, you constantly have millions of "ladies" looking over your shoulder, judging you and your child, and believing that because you are doing something that they don't agree with, you must be doing it the wrong way. If a camera happens to capture a mistake, big or small, then these "ladies" take it upon themselves to belittle you and make sure that the whole world knows that you are an unfit parent. Unfortunately I have been on the "ladies" side of the stall. I have looked at images, watched videos, and read stories and thought to myself, "They are doing it all wrong. If they would only do it this way, their child would be better off." Maybe my speculations are true and maybe they are not. Obviously if there is some form of abuse involved then ABSOLUTELY their way is not the right way and something should be done to prevent them from harming their child more. But who am I to judge a decent "just trying to do their best" parent on how they are parenting? I am a very imperfect parent myself and I spend my days praying very hard that I don't screw up these beautiful souls that God has sent to me. Who am I to say someone is doing something "wrong?" I don't know them and I don't know their child. I can't see what that parent sees and more importantly, I have no right to tell another parent how to raise their child. One more comparison and then my ranting should be over, but who knows. Once the mama bear gets started... I don't remember any of the ladies in "Dumbo" having a child of her own. So here they all are, having never walked that parenting road on their own, telling Mrs. Jumbo how things should be and what she should do. Come closer...I want to tell you a secret...You will never know what it is like to do any sort of job, unless you have actually done that job yourself. My point is this...Being mean and saying nasty things to someone is never cool. But it is especially uncool to say those mean things to a parent who has just lost their child in a tragic accident that may or may not have been prevented by something done differently. It is also uncool to tell it to the parent of a child that may have some special need that you are unaware of. YOU DO NOT KNOW. YOU CANNOT KNOW unless YOU live with that child day in and day out. How about we exercise a little bit of compassion in moments of tragedy? Or try to extend a helping hand to that mother who is close to tears because of the massive tantrum that her child just threw in the middle of the grocery store? In social media land, we get the smallest sliver of information and turn that sliver of information into a giant Redwood tree. We see one small, isolated incident and think that the parent has to be unfit or how would that ever happen? I lost my daughter at Disneyland once. She was 4 at the time. Does that make me an unfit parent? I literally turned my back for 1 minute and she was gone. I guess I should have been watching her better, right? I should have kept my eyes on her every single minute that we were there, never looking at anything else, or at the other 3 children that I had with me. Then she probably would not have gotten separated from us in a place where thousands of other people were walking around us. I cannot describe to you what that moment felt like. If you have ever lost a child in a huge place like Disneyland then you can relate. My heart stopped beating the moment I realized she was lost. It felt like an anvil had dropped from a thousand feet above me and struck me right on the head. My feet felt like they were filled with lead and I could not run around fast enough. My brain went blank and I could not for the life of me remember what she was wearing. How would I ever find her if I couldn't describe her to people? It was the longest 5 minutes of my life. Fortunately for me, it was only 5 minutes. Some very kind people had found my little girl wandering around and took her to some workers. I am also fortunate that the people who found her were kind and loving people and not a predator who would have gladly taken her under his/her wing and swept her away.  I still feel sick to this very day thinking of all the possibilities that could have happened. To all the parents out there who have ever made a dumb mistake, big or small. I've got your back. I feel your pain. Hang in there. You are doing your very best. It will all be okay. To everyone: WE HAVE TO BE KIND. If a child is in a situation where they are being neglected or abused then yes, we must do everything in our power to make sure that the child can escape that horrible situation and do all that we can to make sure that those who are responsible for the abuse are brought to justice. However, if we cannot fix those situations, and even if those people are not brought to justice in this life, they will not escape punishment from God. And I guarantee you that punishment will be a thousand times worse than anything we could inflict here. But, if you run across a situation where a parent just had the worst day of his/her life because of a mistake that they made, PLEASE, I beg you. Don't make things worse. Don't contribute to their already guilty conscience and gut-wrenching sadness. Step back. Put yourself in their shoes. Try to imagine what that person just went through and good golly Miss Molly, JUST BE KIND. Ask yourself what you can do to help. And (just as a side note), if you are that parent who has just been offered a hand of help from a stranger, don't be so quick to anger. Most likely they are not questioning your parenting skills, they are just trying to help you keep your child safe. KINDNESS- PASS IT ON. End of rant. Thank you for indulging my raging mama bear post. May we all be a little better at loving one another.  If you follow my blog, then maybe you have read some of the recent posts that have been written by a few of the most AMAZING people I know!  Just in case you have missed one or two, here is a list of the guest posts that have been written. I highly suggest you take some time to read the words they have written. You will leave with inspiration tingling in your toes. You Can Do Hard Things Five beautiful and incredible women who have done some very hard things in their lives. After having them share parts of their stories with us, I am left craving more. This is where you come in. :) If you are interested in being a guest blogger for my |
Photo cred: HEA Photos
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