Learning to share

I often tell my children that we are a family and so we have to share and take turns. If you fight over something then you don't get it anymore because people are more important then things. We work together, play together and try to do as much together as we can because, while I know that we will have them forever, never again will they be ours in this same way that they are now.

I have tried to be an example of service and sharing, but I catch myself sometimes acting in ways that I don't want my children to act. Sometimes, I will save back some of the dessert for me for later, or take the larger piece of a meal. I will not play a game with them that I have time to play, because I really don't feel like it. I keep parts of myself and my things back. In looking at this over the last few weeks I have discovered that more then having the talk with my children about being unselfish I need to talk to myself. My children often surprise me with what they are willing to give or to share. Little things like my five year old giving everyone a piece of his pie that he had been saving, and not small pieces either. I watch them serve each other and I hope that they will always carry some of that with them.

Two weeks ago the Lord called Joseph as Bishop of the Raytown ward and today he was sustained. I am learning to share. Of all the things that I have a hard time sharing, my time with him is the hardest. I tend to be very jealous of his time and energies, but I will learn. Like I told the children today after church, it is a wonderful blessing from Heavenly Father to have him as our husband and father and now the Lord is asking us to share him with the rest of the ward. So, slowly I am learning to share graciously.