fight the bad guys

Today as we were heading into church George saw a man with a shaved head and started walking toward him yelling, "Trev, hey, Trevor." Then he second guessed himself and said, "Mom, is that Trevor?" I told him it wasn't and then he asked, "Is Trev still fighting the bad guys?" I said, "Yes." Then he looked up at me with those awesome, almost black eyes and asked, "Why does it take so long to fight the bad guys?"

I have been thinking about our conversation all day and am missing Trevor a lot. I also can't get Ephesians 6:11 out of my head. "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

How long does it take to fight the bad guys? I am not just thinking about bringing our soldiers home safely, though I do think about that all the time. I am thinking about the battle we all wage against the evils of the world each day. I attended the BYU Women's Conference a few weeks ago and was really touched by Julie B. Beck's talk about Nourishing and Protecting the Family. She talked about being intentional in everything we do and about developing a culture in our family. Then at one point she paused and then said, "FIGHT! Fight for righteousness. Defend your homes!" It was incredibly powerful and I hope I never forget the way I felt at that moment because the spirit testified to me of the urgency of her message and of my personal responsibility as a mother to defend my home, protect my children, and to fight for righteousness each day.

Favorites

George recently began to understand the concept of picking a favorite (prior to the last couple of weeks whenever he was asked his favorite he would reply, "All of them!"). This morning Darci was talking to George about his trip to the temple last week and she asked him what his favorite part was. He replied, "the lights."


This is the chandelier in the celestial room. It truly is breathtaking. Then after a few minutes he added, "The goats were pretty cute too." He was referring to the 12 oxen (symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel) that are part of the baptismal font.

create

I love to listen to President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

Draper Temple

George has been asking questions about the Draper Temple (cool video with interior shots) for the past year as we have watched the construction (we can see it as we drive up to our house and from our deck if you look at just the right angle).
He became especially interested once the angel Moroni statue was placed on top and we have driven up to look at the temple on a fairly regular basis. Recently George began asking to go inside and I had to tell him that because it is such a special building he would have to wait until he was 19 and getting ready to go on his mission. When I found out that there isn't a minimum age for attendance to the open house I decided to take him.
We went yesterday and when I told George that we were going to go inside the temple he told me, "Sorry, I can't. I'm not 19 yet. I am three." I told him that today was a special day for three year-olds but he was hesitant to believe me. Once we got to the temple he told everyone he saw, "I'm George, I'm three." and occasionally added, "That's my mom. She's 22." (Even though I have corrected George several times he insists that I am 22).

Prior to arriving at the temple for the actual tour we watched a short film about the construction of the temple but there was a bit of a wait so I let George play games on my cell phone while we waited. After about ten minutes two sister missionaries came in to start the film. They asked everyone to please turn off their cell phones and George said (very loudly I might add), "We were playing games on my mom's cell phone." He then continued to ask a series of unrelated questions as if he was the only person in the room. Sure is a friendly little guy but lately I have found myself pretending that I don't know him more and more often.
At the beginning of the tour they handed out an informational pamphlet with pictures of most of the rooms. George tracked our journey by using the pamphlet as a map and checking off each room as we came to it. At the end of the tour he pointed to the picture of Jesus Christ in the pamphlet and asked, "Where is Jesus' bedroom?" That was a hard one to answer. We then opted to go over to the chapel adjacent to the temple for refreshments where George snagged four cookies before I could stop him but honestly I felt he deserved them because he actually whispered the entire time we were in the temple which I honestly didn't believe he would be physically capable of doing. They have some great displays set up which is where George and I had our picture taken. And in true George fashion he is making one of his silly faces.

Learning to pray

Lately, we have been putting more focus on prayer and trying to pray before we eat and have a family prayer before bedtime. George has gotten so excited about these new events that he has decided that he wants to be the one to say the prayer. I have seen many kids go through this process during my life and generally the mom or dad will say a phrase and then the child will repeat it, creating a somewhat normal prayer. Well in true George style he has come up with something unique. When we tell him it is time to pray he folds his arms and says, "Georgie's turn, Georgie pray" (BTW, I think it is way funny that he calls himself Georgie). Then he begins to pray in a made up language that sounds kind of like a mixture of German and Chinese. When he is done he yells, "Amen."