We were in JoAnn's the other day

Saturday Morning we were on our way to school for a few hours and we stopped at JoAnn's to get some pipe cleaners for Mom's lessons in the library. We were in line and I noticed what appeared to be a Mother and her 20ish daughter come through the store and head towards the back area. They just seemed happy and happy to be together.

A few minutes later though, we heard a commotion in the back of the store and some screaming. The mother and daughter ran to the front of the store screaming and the mother collapsed on the ground near the front doors. Near as I can tell they had just received a cell phone call telling them that the grandmother had just died. They definitely acted like it wasn't expected. It was really nice to see the other customers and staff come to their aid and try to help them.

I've been thinking about their reaction to the bad news, and how they were dealing/or not dealing with the sudden reality of what was happening. I think the scriptures call it weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. For me it seemed so strange - maybe not strange, but outside of my experience. I think my testimony of the gospel helps me see the whole thing from a different perspective. Maybe part of that is my Patriarchal Blessing. It talks about the turmoil and happenings of our times and about me meeting and dealing with people who are suffering this way. And that my testimony of the gospel and my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation would allow me to give comfort. Some would find relief and hope in that, and others would not listen, would get no relief, and would even curse God.

I read the following on a lady named Chris's blog the other day, she was talking about some of the criticisms that the Edward's have received for choosing to campaign as a family and to take their kids on the campaign road.
"The implication that she would be a better mother somehow by waiting patiently at home, baking cookies, wearing her apron and waiting to die. And she should do this for YEARS. Push down her own will and desires so her children could have proper memories of her. As if there is some good parent manual of how to die and leave your children behind.
We all say, or think, if I were dying I would do this, whatever this might be, in a heartbeat. I’d quit my job, stay home with my kids, travel the world, bake cookies, never yell, always smile, sing songs all day. I’d be perfect. So that my kids could have a perfect memory of the perfect me. I would live my last years out to the fullest. Like that insipid country western song that was popular a few years ago.
Which always causes me to wonder, well why aren’t you doing those things now? And the most simplistic answer is because it isn’t you.
Elizabeth and John Edwards have built their lives in the public eye. Have built a life around public service. Why wouldn’t they want to share this with their children? Why wouldn’t she want her children to see that even when she was terminal, that this was what was important to her? Why wouldn’t she want to impart this legacy onto her children? To not share this with her children would be to deny who she is."

I thought this was good insight. Why aren't we doing those things NOW? Live so that whenever we are called home, our family and those closest to us or who should be closest to us, will have no regrets. It will be OK, if we and ours are secure in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's when we or they are NOT secure in the Gospel that the sorrow enters in. This is abundantly clear time and time again in the scriptures as parents and children fall away from the truth. In the Book of Mormon and in the Old Testament this is cyclical. In order for it not to happen to our families, we have to break the cycle and individual conversion is the key. The Spirit does not withdraw from us, we withdraw from it. We do it by distancing ourselves from spiritual things. From Church, from reading the scriptures, from attending the Temple, from praying on a regular basis.

Vickie went to a fireside Sunday by the 5 Brown's, siblings who all attended Juilliard and studied piano. One of the sisters talked about how when she went there, she didn't find time for church, or for reading the scriptures, etc. And she really felt like she had lost her testimony. At one point she was home, and began to read the scriptures and attend church again and regained her testimony. She talked about how important it was to read the scriptures everyday, if only just a little.