Running Revelations

Last week I recieved answers to my prayers twice while running on my treadmill. Wow! If you can only imagine me trying to keep my balance and stay on the treadmill while clearing my tear-filled eyes enough to see.....hahaha, I'm sure it was a sight! Sobbing and running are not two things I would suggest doing together!

I was reading the November 2007 Ensign with talks from the October General Conference (trying to multi-task :)) while running on my treadmill on two different days last week, when answers to my prayers popped right off the pages. Tears were immediate and were not easily dried as I feasted upon the words of our current apostles. Not only did I recieve answers, but this experience also reminded me how mindful my Heavenly Father is of me and how much he loves me! Its amazing the different ways he uses to send us answers; who would have thought that they would come to me while running!? I knew something good would come out of my goal to run everyday! :)

As of late, I have been trying to figure out how to balance, organize and prioritize my life so that everything important gets taken care of on a daily basis. I have always felt like I could improve in this area of my life, but I have felt more of a sense of urgency to master this challenge ever since I became a mother ten months ago. I only have ONE shot at this, I don't get to go back and re-do or start over and with such a huge responsibility on my shoulders, its one thing I don't want to mess up! (I gather from Elder Ballard's talk this past General Conference that I might not be the only young mother struggling with this very thing).

Ever since I began to ask for some "divine help" in my struggle, the story of Mary and Martha in the New Testament and those things that each of them thought were important to do while in the presence of Christ has been on my mind quite a bit. This story is indicative of my struggle with prioritizing and balancing. For me, I can sympathize with both women. I can see where both of them might have thought what they were doing was the most important thing to do at the time and yet, Christ taught that one was not necessarily more important than the other but one was definitely more "needful".

I bought me the book "Mary, Martha, and Me; Seeking the One Thing That is Needful" by Camille Fronk Olson, so that I could understand this Bible story and Christ's teachings a little better. I hope that by understanding this story more fully, I will be better prepared to make decisions in my life when trying to prioritize and balance between "good, better and best". There is so much required of us, so many "good" things that need to be done, that sometimes I am overwhelmed while thinking about choosing between them all. I'm finally conceding to the reality that I can't do them all, its taken me a long time to admit it, but I realize now that in order to do so I would need two of me (at least), and unfortunately since that's not possible, I need to figure out how to get the "best" things done before the "good" things and then feel satisfied with what I have accomplished.

I'm sure I will write more on this subject once I finish the book; so far, its fabulous and one I would definitely recommend! Also, the two talks that contained answers to my prayers were from the October 2007 General Conference. They are titled "Good, Better and Best" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks and "Mothers Who Know" by Sister Julie B. Beck. (One of the first things that Elder Oaks does in his talk is make reference to the story of Mary and Martha; this is when the tears began to flow:))

If I could strive to be perfect in one area, I think that being able to pick the "best" out of all the good things in life and having an organized, prioritized life would be at the top of my list!