It's always those days that you don't want to go to church that count the most.

Today was a lazy Sunday morning that allowed Jason and I to sleep in till about 10 or so.  Jealous?  You should be.  Our kids came in and cuddled for a little while and then it was off to play.
We soon made breakfast, read the newspaper, and banished the kids to the basement to stay out of our hair, play.  We worked on Allie's talk for primary and finally decided to get ready for church.  This was after much debating in my head about whether or not to even go, the day was going so well at home, why ruin that?  We had to rush to get out of the house as our laziness had made us miss most of our get-ready-time.

We walked in about 7 minutes late to the first meeting.  This meeting is called Sacrament meeting because we take the sacrament, but we nearly missed it.  We believe that this is one of the most vital reasons we go to church every week and last week, we were too late to get to take the sacrament so I was not about to miss it again.  I signaled to one of the boys in my Sunday school class to come bring the sacrament out to the foyer and luckily, he saw me and we were able to partake. This was why we came to church today.

We went into the meeting after the boys administering the sacrament had sat down, and began to listen to the speakers. I wasn't completely tuned in but I did catch some stories from the first speaker's past about how Heavenly Father answered her prayers in her time of need.  It was the story of just when you have no idea of how things are going to work out, they do; and you know this help is from our loving Heavenly Father.  Her story showed the tender mercies of a Heavenly Father who knows us individually and knows what our needs are.  She explained that time and time again, He was there, listening, waiting, to give her what her and her family needed.  I remember thinking that I was really glad I came today because this story was why I needed to be here today.

After that meeting, it was time for Sunday school.  I have a calling where I teach the 12-13 year old youth their Sunday school class.  Last week, as I was planning my lesson, I looked ahead at next week's lesson.  This is not something I usually do.  This story is becoming a confession of sorts, isn't it?   I decided that last week's lesson tied really well in the today's lesson and as part of the topic of being self-reliant, that I should have the youth teach part of today's lesson.  This is also something I don't usually do either.  I ended up not teaching the lesson last week because in a fluke, only one youth showed up for my class, so I just stuck her in another class and took the week off.  I did however, get the assignments made to help teach this week's lesson out to the youth.  I wondered how well that would go over with them.

As I walked into my classroom, one of the youth assigned to teach was all kinds of prepared!  I was blown away!  He had the laptop out, had written questions and scriptures on the board, typed out papers with our names on them, and was handing them out.  As I sat and listened to him give his portion of the lesson, I realized that I hadn't taken the time to watch the video that I had assigned him to show the class.  It was a video about a boy who worked extremely hard at practicing his basketball skills and had acheived all kinds of accolades by the time he was 19; but decided to go serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints anyway.  This was so perfect because about a month before today, this particular youth had expressed he didn't want to serve a mission.  During this lesson, this youth said that he needed to put less priority on his goals of football scholarships in order to serve a mission! Again, I thought, this is why I needed to be here today. And then...

To top it all off, in the last and final meeting of the day, I was once again reminded of our Heavenly Father's love for me in a way that only I could have understood.  This also reminded me of a different time this past week when another reminder came of His love for me.  And it was then that I felt impressed to write down these experiences for more people to hear. May be this is why I was supposed to be there today.

I am in the middle of what could be a potentially big change in our life and I've been worried because, well, that's what I do best.  I've been worried that we won't have what we need when we need it.  I've been praying more fervently for comfort and peace during this time of change and it has come time and time again.  I know that whatever is in store for us in the next few months and in our lives to come will be guided by the spirit if I just allow Him to lead me. I know that He lives.  I testify of His love for you and me.  I know He answers prayers and will lead us if we follow His commandments and trust in Him.  This church is true! I testify of it in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.