The Church is True

And here’s another way I know it:

Yesterday we had testimony meeting, which just happened to be amazing. I love our ward. Testimony meetings are consistently meaningful and non-rambly I really think we’re in the best ward in the whole church right now. Josh and I sat down in Sacrament Meeting (in our usual place behind the Greens because they are our favorite family to watch during Sacrament Meeting) and settled into the meeting.

The member of the Bishopric who was conducting shared his testimony of testimonies and how great it is that we have this opportunity to gather and share our faith building experiences with each other. This is the same guy who set me apart for my calling and I am wowed by his spirituality and the strength of this testimony.

Then Dr. Dave (another favorite member of the ward who you might remember for his wife's cookie recipe) bore his testimony about fasting. He made reference to Isaiah 58 and talked about his personal experience that helped him gain his testimony of fasting and specifically a joint fast. What amazing opportunity we have to fast together as saints and claim these incredible blessings! He spoke about how when you fast you are blessed with the power and ability to withstand temptation and greater ability to follow the path the Lord has laid out specifically for us. Josh was fasting and I was embarrassed that I had forgotten. I’ll definitely be fasting later this week to make up for it though.

The next 2 or 3 were “answers to prayers” type testimonies. The one that made me cry the most was when one guy stood up and talked about his wife who had been asked by another sister in our ward to help her teach at her pre-school. He choked up when he said that his wife is so great with children and it meant the world to her to have someone ask for her help with kids while they waited for the day they would “finally be able to have their own children”. He talked about how much joy it brings to watch all of the families in Sacrament Meeting and to feel like a small part of each of them (he and his wife serve in the nursery). I cried and thought of how hard it would be to have no children in my life at all. To not be able to kidnap my nephews, or to play with the Greens sitting in front of us. How my heart would break to go more than a week without hearing them laugh or cry or shout “look mom, I drawed this for you!” right in the middle of "reverent time".

I know that right now I’m not called to be a mom, but I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing children who remind me that it’s worth every single second of the waiting. That one juicy-dirty smile after the embarrassing announcement shouted through the chapel that he “needs to pee RIGHT NOW MOM!” will make it all OK.