Best Effort

I love quotes. I love them mostly because they're quick, to-the-point, and inspirational. By the way, I'm looking for a great quote regarding learning that we can put in our office with our diplomas (well, with my singular diploma and with Jared's few that we've been able to afford to frame).

Anyway, the quote that has most recently been ringing in my head comes from the Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting in February of this year. It's actually Elder Holland reading a First Presidency letter from February 11, 1999--I guess I didn't pay much attention to this letter when it was read over the pulpit in my single-adult ward nine years ago. Jared and I had only been on our second date at that point so I must have been unable to apply it to my circumstances at the time. But now that circumstances for me have changed, the letter has ample relevance:

"We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church....However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform."

I've sat in tons of Relief Society lessons where the teacher says, "What are some ways that Satan can influence us?" Almost always a short discussion regarding distraction ensues. He distracts us by tempting us to fill up our time doing lots of good things, but leaving little time to devote our energy and our "best efforts" to eternally critical things. (I wonder where blogging fits in this spectrum for me...).

So lately I've been more mindful of my actions as I've really tried to give my best effort to my family. This Leadership Training Meeting reminded me that it is my duty to build up a righteous posterity. Now the question I continually ask myself is "what is my best effort?" This past week I received some sort of answer to this question in an unexpected way.

The other night the girls and I sat down to put our pictures in our Disney World scrapbooks. We ran out the door to attend FHE with some friends who had invited us over and when we returned home a huge mess on the kitchen table greeted me. I decided to finish up a couple pages I hadn't completed and I asked Jared if he wanted to choose some pictures for his book. Even asking him that question was hilarious to me, but he agreed and we sat together for a while after the girls went to bed.

Just to back up a bit, before ya'll start wondering what's happened to Jared, I had asked Jared when I was making the books if he would record his memories along with the rest of us. I wasn't going to waste my time making him a book if he wasn't going to participate. He was a good sport and said, "Okay. I'll do it." While we were on vacation he picked up his book a few times to record the details of the day and I got a kick out of seeing him out of character that way. Just picture no-frills Jared with his Mickey & Minnie decoupaged scrapbook that had a cute letter "J" attached with a ring & blue ribbon to the spiral binding of his book, recording his thoughts of the day. Hilarious I say. But I didn't want to discourage him so I didn't poke fun at the time. And I was just grateful that he was participating--the girls & I will love his book even more sometime in the future when we're reminiscing.

So here we were at the kitchen table a couple nights ago going through our photos together and each of us choosing pictures that highlighted our memories the best. (A little aside...I'm so into trying to create memories for the girls and our family right now. I think memories are so valuable and can accomplish so many things. Memories of good things and good times can give confidence and strength during the hard times. Memories created with a family strengthen relationships and invite the influence of the spirit. Memories can be defining moments in our lives.)

As Jared chose his first picture and was ready to adhere it to the page in his book, I called upon all of my self-discipline to stifle the outburst I felt coming. It became increasingly difficult for me to hold it in when he ran the adhesive tape runner across the back of his photo. The final straw for me was when after placing the photo on the page, rather than gently pressing and running his fingers across the edges to make sure it was secure, he gave the picture one big slap following by a couple small taps and with a look of confidence went on to choose his next photo.

He gave me many other opportunities to get in more feel-oh-so-good belly laughs--like pushing aside the scrapper's best friend (the paper trimmer) in favor of regular scissors:


then using his creativity to actually cut around the heads of those in the picture:


He really stepped outside of the box when I handed him a sheet of stickers and suggested he choose a couple to fill in the holes on his pages:


Even though Jared's scrappin' gave me my best laugh of the week, he kept at it until the job was done and his memories were preserved. Scrappin' isn't even remotely his thing, but I'm grateful he saw the value in it and gave his best effort.

I'm realizing that giving my best effort may mean many things:

*Like Jared and the paper trimmer, maybe I'll have to push aside the trusty old ways in favor of what works for me and my family.
*Like Jared and his creative cutting, maybe I'll have to get creative and seek for inspiration sometimes when I know things need to be done differently.
*Like Jared with the stickers, maybe I'll have to be willing to try things that feel awkward once in a while.
*And maybe I'll even have to persevere when others are laughing at me or being critical of the way I do things.

I never imagined that Jared's scrappin' would provide such insight into a searching question! Now that I have some answers and a few ideas, I'm off to make my best efforts of the day.