Voting and a Movie

Nov. 2, 2010

Cory and I were really pumped about this election. I think he's always pumped and maybe I'm just "interested." Not today. I couldn't wait to vote. We put Hannah in the stroller and Caleb walked with us across the street to Solera and cast our Ballot. What a great awesome country we live in. I always heard that, "every vote counts" this time it really looks like it does. In one State a Republican candidate is winning by less than 800 votes (out of an entire State!). Amazing. We met Connie, Patrick and Elena at Solera, cast our vote and then walked to the adjacent park. After a few hours at the park we got in the Grandma's golf cart and had lunch at her house.
Preface: Two Sundays ago I was thinking about some pretty amazing Mom's I know, like Lori Gabbitas and Amanda Pitts, and I thought about how they had tried to live and have homes that were Christ centered. I imaged them reading scriptures with their kids and taking every opportunity they could to talk about Jesus Christ, or the Church, or the Book of Mormon, or anything that would qualify as "Bearing Testimony Spontaneously" (Component 2 from David A. Bednar's April 2010 General Conference Address. Ensign, pg. 42). I decided to follow in their footsteps and work on having a more Christ centered home. I wanted to start with memorizing the 13 Articles of Faith. I certainly don't know them all and Caleb and Hannah don't know any. Last week we began with the first and every day, several times a day from Monday of last week until today I would recite it to them.
Today while Connie and I made lunch for the kids I told Patrick and Elena what Caleb and Hannah were working on. I reminded him of Joseph Smith, the first vision and how the 13 Articles of Faith came to fruition. Connie asked Caleb if he knew the First Article of Faith. He began to recite it slowly but steadily. I held my breath. Had he been listening? How much of it did he remember? I wondered and waited. He remembered all it. I felt so good and so did Caleb. I walked over to him where he sat at the kitchen table from behind the counter and asked him, "Do you feel good Caleb? Patrick?" They both answered, "Yes." I bore my testimony to the kids and told them each that I loved them and so did Heavenly Father and Jesus. The conversation was over but the feelings remained.
This is a good beginning to the goal.
p.s. We watched Flushed Away.