A Holiday// Easter 2015

I love holidays with my family, and Easter is no exception. Easter means General Conference, and family lunch, and a Easter egg hunt for Violet (and everyone else I guess), and usually a family nap. Today was wonderful. It was bright, sunny, with a side of delicious food and an excited little girl (and dogs) who were so ready to look and see what the Easter bunny had left.

But mostly I'm just full to the brim of thankfulness and peace that the Atonement of my Savior brings me. I get lost in being a wife and mother. I worry all the time about the things I fall short at, and I always have Violet on my mind and how in the world am I going to raise her to be a righteous daughter of God in a world full of turmoil, doubt, fear, filth, and degradation. I know the world is also full of good things, but it's so easy to see all the things my precious and innocent girl will be faced with at one time or another, and it truly scares me. I just want to protect and hold her but I know I have to teach her to do those things for herself. That's a lot of responsibility, and a challenge I am certainly up for, but I know how much I need help. How much I need to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to do the best job I can possibly do to prepare her for life.

I've had a few humbling experiences the last few years of life, becoming a mother however has been the most humbling of all. I need to teach her about things so much bigger then myself, I need to protect her against things that have successfully brought ME down at times, big things, that without help from my Savior and the power of the Atonement I would have never made my way through-things I'm still working through every day. I need this gospel, like I need air, and water, and sustenance. I need the Atonement, and so does my family.
As I work towards having the opportunity to be with my own family forever I lean on the Atonement more now then I ever have, and it brings me hope, peace,  joy, perspective, and love.

I guess that's how I've felt today.
Loved.

Happy Easter!