Slowing Down

This last week I have tried to be very careful with my time. I am aware that basically everyone in the world is crazy busy. I have felt myself running and running for most of my life. There are so many things I want to do and accomplish. Probably the most important one is to be a good mother. But I want to be a good mom in so many ways. I not only want to love and teach and treasure my children, I want to keep a nice, clean home for them that they can feel the spirit in. I want to do things that will given them an example to follow. I want to be educated so I have a leg to stand on when I stress their schoolwork. I want to take time for myself so that I can be my best for them. I want to have friends and do things away from everyday life so that I can continually be refreshed and reminded of what a wonderful life I truly have. This last week I decided to make better use of my time. One of the important aspects of that is that I decided not to fill every moment of it. I wanted to be careful to not overload myself and lose sight of important things. So I kept my house reasonably clean but didn't stress about every detail being perfect. I took Lila out to do fun things but didn't schedule an outing every day. I decided not to watch any TV. I went to bed early. I worked on my homework in small bits and kept up on assignments rather than scrunching everything into the end right before it was due. I was available to help out when others needed it and respond to promptings of the spirit. Now, I really only started this on Monday or Tuesday. Keeping it up long-term will be a completely different matter. But I ran across this Mormon Message today that made me hope that I am on the right track.

My life has been far from perfect. I have been whiny and mean and short-tempered and sad. I haven't allowed myself to be fully happy with all of my blessings. I am hoping that by making this effort I will be able to become a more grateful, happy, good person. And I am so glad that I have the gospel in my life to help me do it. I know that I can utilize the atonement in my life to heal my sadness and cleanse my sins. I know that I have divine potential. It's time for me to start trying to live up to it.