Mommy in Time Out

Today I gave myself a time out.  I realized it wasn’t fair to give my son time out for something that I had just done earlier in the day.  His face was surprised as he watched me set the timer.  He was curious to see if I would follow the same rules: no toys, no talking, and staying on the chair for the entire time.  

I looked out the window at the trees covered in snow as I sat in my chair.  We had our first big snowstorm this last weekend and it really dumped a lot of snow.  Several trees were knocked over at a local park, and one of ours even had an entire branch break off.  The storm was over now, however, and the sun was shining and the sky was blue; when just yesterday the sky was covered with what seemed like clouds everywhere you looked, even blocking the view of the enormous mountains to the east.  The thought struck me that I – and all of us – we are like these trees.    Life has its fair share of trials and hardships, frustrations, and disappointments that continually dump on us, “filling our branches” until we no longer think we can endure the weight.  Our view may be blocked by the “clouds” that surround us and things may look like they will never get better, and some of our branches may break off, but just like the tree still standing in my backyard, we can endure it if we wait for the sun to come out to melt away the snow and lighten our load.  No matter what our burdens or challenges are, the key is to turn to Jesus Christ, the son of God, and let him lighten our load.  He is always there to help us, but we have to turn to him.  He will always help us. Without this knowledge I don’t think I could make it through a single day.  I have many weaknesses and life frustrations that if I didn’t have a testimony of the Savior and his atonement, I would easily give up and say, “Why try?”  I am thankful for my testimony.  

As I sat there in time out, my son ran in to double check that I was fulfilling my time and he called out “I love you!”, as he ran back into the other room to continue his play.  Our Savior, Jesus Christ, loves and forgives us just as quickly as a little child.  I glanced one more time out the window as my timer went off.  The sun seemed to shine brighter, and big clumps of snow fell from off the leaves and branches…..I felt lighter already.