Astonishing

I think the thing I love most about kids is their sense of wonder.  Everything is exciting.  Everything is beautiful.  Everything is a blessing.  If we go for a walk, they have to stop and smell the roses.  And look at the rocks.  And throw a few sticks.  And pet a few dogs.  And chase a few cats.  We don't get anywhere quickly.  I used to get annoyed by it, but then I started to realize what I've been missing out on.  There are wondrous things all around me, if I stop to take notice.

Kids can even turn chores into playtime.  Take the other day.  I've been putting off and putting off raking the leaves in our yard.  I really don't like that job.  We have a decent size yard with five maple trees and two apple trees.  Our neighbor has some aspens that border our yard, so we get to rake those tiny, super annoying leaves, as well.  It's just a lot of work, and I really don't enjoy work.  A few days ago, however, I'd figured that we had put it off long enough.  There was snow in the forecast, and leaves and snow don't go very well together.  So I gathered the kids, who were very whiny at first, but actually started right in.  The work went relatively fast with all of us helping, but they just weren't listening to how I wanted them to do it.  I wanted the leaves to end up in the garden area, but the kids just kept raking them into this huge pile that was nowhere near the garden.  They wanted to jump in them.  "It's just going to make it harder to get that big pile to the garden!", I kept saying, but they didn't care.  "What's the point in raking leaves if you can't jump in them?"  I was slightly annoyed.  I didn't want them to jump in the leaves.  I wanted to get this dumb job over with.  So we finished everything but the big pile.  They begged me to take pictures of them playing in the leaves, which I didn't feel in the mood to do.  Finally, they talked me into it.

We actually had a really good time after this, taking silly pictures and serious pictures and pictures in between.  Had I stuck to my boring guns, I would've missed out on a really fantastic time with my kids, and more especially, seeing my oldest daughter laugh and smile.  It was a fabulous time.

It was nine years after Christ's birth, in today's chapter, and the Nephites had been continually receiving Heavenly signs.  They had become so used to them, however, that they stopped noticing.

...and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished...insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds...(3 Nephi 2:1)

I've always liked that phrase:  less and less astonished.  I can relate it to myself way more than I want to admit.  As I have aged, I have truly become less and less astonished at the wonders around me.  I live in a beautiful place.  For work, my husband trains people from all over the country.  They come here, and he teaches them how to run their businesses.  During the evenings, he and his team are responsible for entertaining these franchise owners, and they will take them to dinner or hiking or up the canyon on ATVs.  He hears comments all the time about how lucky we are to live where we do.  A lot of these people live in very large cities and very rarely get to see wildlife or build a campfire.  I have deer that sleep outside my bedroom window, and I just get irritated by them.

...and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again...(3 Nephi 2:2)

Complacency is another of Satan's tools.  He wants us to forget all the signs and wonders that God gives us on a daily basis to remind us of His constant presence in our lives.  If Satan can get us to be "less and less astonished", it will be easier for him to get control of our hearts.

The word "astonish" is used almost fifty times in the Book of Mormon, in its various forms.  This tells me that Heavenly Father wants us to be astonished.  He hopes that we will never become complacent.  We need to not ever forget everything that He has given us and done for us.  We need to be astonished even by the little things like leaves to rake and mountains to climb and rocks to throw.  Just another way that my kids can be an example for me.

See what I mean?  They were even astonished by the leaf blower...

Click here to read what I read today: 3 Nephi 2