Experiences with your children

I'm having trouble today. Nothing really specific, I just don't seem on my game. It's been like this for a week or so, just a general lack of focus. Not anything physical like a fuzziness in the brain or anything like that, just an inability to bring my full focus to anything that matters. This is, of course, a problem. In fact, it is causing a considerable stupor of thought as I try and write this.

However, that doesn't prevent me from knowing and seeing the many, many blessings I enjoy in my life on a daily basis. While I may not be able to see (or perhaps not have noticed) a specific example of the hand of the Lord affecting my life through some remarkable experience, that doesn't prevent me from counting all the blessings that I occasionally take for granted.

Today I am grateful for my children. They give my life a special joy that grows and changes each day and grows more powerful as I learn more about them.

We have a lot of young couples in our ward; many of them are having their first children. I love listening to them when they finally have the chance to give their children a a name and a blessing. It is such a wonderful time as a priesthood holder and as a father to perform an ordinance for a member of your family - for a child that is a outgrowth of the union you have with your beloved wife. The emotions are powerful when you bless your children and the Spirit can be very strong. It is a choice experience.

What I have learned, however, is that kind of experience is just the beginning! Later, when your children have grown and developed and you know them so much better, you get to baptize them, then confirm them. Nothing you've experienced before then can compare. Then later, if you have a son, you get to give him the priesthood. Unless you've had the experience you cannot imagine how wonderful a blessing it is to again be involved on such a personal and spiritual level in such a momentous event in the life of your child.

I can only imagine what it will be like to ordain my sons as Elders or to watch them become sealed to their wives, or to stand in as a grandfather as my grand-child is blessed, or baptized, or....so many things to look forward to, and so many memories to cherish.

Today I am grateful for the ever growing joy I feel for the blessing my children are in my life. I am grateful that the joy I feel will continue to grow as I continue to strive to know my children better, and that the joy can continue to grow for as long as I can possibly foresee.