I Dare You To Eat It

Long time ago, my sister, Carolyn, taught me about “emotional dollars.” Her suggestion was that just like cash, we each have a limited amount of emotional dollars and they can’t be spent twice. If we choose to make wacky investments we can get upside-down. Sound familiar?

Yesterday was Hailey’s time to speak in our sacrament meeting. She gave a beautiful message on the blessings and opportunities of covenants…which I totally want to share here…but that may be over-the-top…still might ask her…don’t know for sure.      ANYWAY, after the meeting the congregation exited the chapel and helped themselves to a variety of cookies and brownies while chatting on the lawn and sipping ice water from paper cups. About at hour later, disposable table cloths were bundled up, a couple of garbage cans were emptied, three folding tables were put away, and we headed for home. When the eight of us sat down to a quiet Sunday dinner I was completely surprised to realize that I still had some emotional dollars! It had been a very big day, but I wasn’t bankrupt!!!

Suddenly, I was thankful for Hailey’s sensibility. Months earlier, when we were making the plans, I had asked this brilliant daughter what she would like to do for her farewell and it was her idea to NOT host an open house. I suggested that we didn’t have to host an open house on Sunday. We could host an open house on a different day and we could even explore different locations but Hailey was the one who said, “I wish we could just have a ward mingle.” She wanted to be able to serve guests a little treat and say goodbye before leaving on her mission, but she didn’t want to make it into a production.

When Mike heard about her idea he immediately phoned our Bishop to see if by chance there might already happened to be a mingle scheduled for the last Sunday in May. The simple answer was, “No, but would you like one?”  Mike, of course, said yes. The Elders Quorum took their turn to host and our family provided all the additional treats needed to accomodate the extra guests. Good family and friends offered to contribute and we had a very casual collection of nice treats that pleased all ages. And for the record, besides the misc. 12 dozen I ordered, I did actually bake the pumpkin chocolate chippers…but we must never speak of it again.

What I learned, once more, was that provident living has advantages that extend beyond finances. What we did, and what we didn’t do, saved some money yesterday. Much more important than that, what we did and didn’t do yesterday, saved some energy, and stress, and commotion. I felt like the minimal party preparations meant that I could fully enjoy the Sunday meeting and the thoughtful messages and lovely music shared during that special hour. My mind wasn’t focused on what still needed to be done or what was going to happen next. As the mother of the missionary I was able to enjoy the spirit of her faithful testimony amid the love and support of good family and the very best of friends. For me, the most memorable part of the whole day was what happened inside the chapel. The spirit of the Holy Ghost was there. Being able to really invest my whole heart and soul into that experience and opportunity…was worth its weight in gold.

Tags: from the mouths of babes, provident living, we're going to miss her

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.