His Flock

Saturday night we all accompanied Kaden to his first football game. It was all too apparent within just the first few seconds, that things were not going to turn out good for our team. I thought Kaden played amazingly but still, they got beat. BAD.

I knew that Kaden and his tendency to be intense, would not be happy.

I was right. He huffed and puffed and complained all the way to the car, all the way through our fancy dinner at the local Arby's and then as we drove home in the pouring rain and the pounding thunder, Kaden choked on some tears and asked me,

"Mom, do you think I came to the right family?"

A little over dramatic probably, for a lost football game, but I confidently assured him that he was in the right family. That we need him, want him, love him, cant live with out him.

What I didn't tell him is that sometimes, I wonder the same thing.

"Am I the right one for this job?"
"Am I the kind of Mother that they need?"
"Have I shown them everyday that their life has supernal value?"

Last weekend Scott and I learned that a family member had taken his own life and that another one was in the hospital after trying.

Life is just so hard. We have disappointments. Addictions. Losses. Depression. And....we sometimes lose the football game. We have all left the Garden of Eden and this really is the "lone and dreary world."

While we drove in the rain that night after the game, Kaden sitting next to me fighting his little boy tears, I felt sure that I need to redouble my efforts. To love. To forgive. To teach.

And I felt sure that Kaden is in the right family.

It is amazing to think that we have a loving Heavenly Father that knows the extreme heart ache and suffering of our two relatives and their immediate families but that he also knows perfectly, the small heart ache of His little son, who lost his first football game.  I know that he can sustain, comfort and guide His children in the worst of circumstances and that He can sustain and guide me, in parenting my own little flock of 5, even though His flock includes all of mankind.

Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you. God does not look on the outward appearance. I believe that He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf