beautiful children

on my nightstand rest a few of my favorite possesions.

i have a picture of each of my parents from their childhood, and a magical music box from mine.

yesterday i was able to have my parents to myself for a few hours of wonderful company & conversation after the boys were in bed & mr. o was working.

after they left, as i was going to bed, i looked long & hard at these precious pictures... and i saw them- my mom and dad! they were there, in the beautiful features of these sweet children. their eyes, brows, cheeks, teeth- it was them! how strange to see these children and know that they are my wonderful parents, and yet they didn't even know of each other, let alone their six daughters-to-be.

i love that girl and that boy, and i love everything about these pictures: their hair, their clothing, their smiles, my dad's glasses, and my mom's movie star signature across the corner of her portrait.

sometimes it's strange to think about how we grow and change.

i feel so blessed to have been raised by such wonderful parents. they define the words 'mom' and 'dad' in such a way that is impossible to describe, and i only hope my children will feel something similar to what i feel when i think of those words. because of them.

if only everyone in this world could say the same.

Family Gems
Family Prayer Is Powerful
Posted: 16 Mar 2009 01:00 AM PDT
“Family prayer is a powerful and sustaining influence. During the dark days of World War II, a 500-pound bomb fell outside the little home of Brother Patey, a young father in Liverpool, England, but the bomb did not go off. His wife had died, so he was rearing his five children alone. He gathered them together at this very anxious time for family prayer. They ‘all prayed . . . earnestly and when they had finished praying, the children said: “Daddy, we will be all right. We will be all right in our home tonight.”“ ‘And so they went to bed, imagine, with that terrific bomb lying just outside the door half submerged in the ground. If it had gone off it would have destroyed probably forty or fifty houses and killed two or three hundred people. . . . “ ‘The next morning the . . . whole neighborhood was removed for forty-eight hours and the bomb was finally taken away. . . . “ ‘On the way back Brother Patey asked the foreman of the A. R. P. Squad: “Well, what did you find?”“ ‘ “Mr. Patey, we got at the bomb outside of your door and found it ready to explode at any moment. There was nothing wrong with it. We are puzzled why it did not go off” ’ (Andre K. Anastasiou, in Conference Report, Oct. 1946, 26). Miraculous things happen when families pray together.”
James E. Faust, “The Lifeline of Prayer,” Liahona, July 2002, 68
Topics: Prayer