Learning to Laugh

I recently prepared a lesson on Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk from General Conference (he is an apostle in our church and General Conference is held twice a year when our prophet and apostles speak to the world) It was called "Come What May and love it." It really touched my heart because the point was that we can be happy even through our toughest trials. I loved this quote:

"If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness."

Then he gave some steps to help us do that:

1. Learn to Laugh

2. Seek the eternal

3. Understand the principle of compensation (the Lord compensates the faithful for every loss in His own way)

4. Trust in the Father and the Son

So I was thinking that I need to work on learning to laugh at the little frustrations that happen everyday in life. I am not good at that. And I pondered it for awhile, not knowing how to change. How do I just laugh it off? For some, like my sister Amy, it seems to come easy, she just laughs and takes pictures. And now that I have a blog, it is slightly easier. But still, I get really stressed when things don't work out the way I want them to.

Of course as life goes, I was tested that very day. Most of you know Noah, and you know he is NOT a mischevious boy. He rarely gets into things he shouldn't. And then yesterday, Noah came downstairs wanting to show me his "secret recipe". He had a medicine cup full of white goo- and there was definitely some Aquafresh toothpaste in there. I ran upstairs to his lab (or rather my bathroom) to find ten or more bottles sitting on the counter, obviously a part of his secret recipe. Shampoo, conditioner, my nice lotion, my nice shampoo, toothpaste, bodywash, facial wash, facial scrub. Then to top it all off, the floor was covered with Kix cereal.

I lost it! I started yelling and demanded that he clean the mess up and that he pay me $2 for compensation and do ten extra chores. Then I lectured him about how expensive all those products were and how we didn't have money to replace them and even if we did, how dumb that would be, etc, etc, etc.

I went back downstairs, chest heaving, heart beating, feeling frustrated and slightly guilty, but not knowing how to change. I prayed half heartedly. Ten minutes later I went to check up on him and find that he had smeared soap all over Amalie's head and Amalie is screaming. Nothing is cleaned up. More yelling and more lecturing occured. And I continued to feel guilty, but justified myself inside, putting the blame on my little Noah.

Later, he said, "Mom, I got out the pen marks on the door with my secret recipe." And of course, I felt bad- really he wasn't trying to upset me. He was even trying to do something good. But of course I lectured him again on the dangers of mixing chemicals.

I realized that I must laugh these little incidents off.

I thought of President Monson (The Prophet and President of our church) and his beautiful talk about "Finding Joy in the Journey."

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.
Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."

Thank goodness for little children who forgive so easily and love us with their whole hearts. We did eventually make up, and I am trying to laugh it off. I never want to look back and have regrets- I want to know that I did my best as a mother and that no matter what choices my children make when they are grown and gone, I did everything to teach them the way to eternal happiness.

*If you are so willing, please share your thoughts of how you shake it off, laugh it off and just enjoy each moment with your children.*