Come What May and LOVE IT

At our wedding reception Richard and I danced to the song "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge. With all the the enthusiasm of a bride-to-be in the days before her wedding, I had Richard's ring engraved, on the inside, with those words. At that time, and of course still today, I have no doubts about our marriage surviving, come what may. But in our last conference Elder Wirthlin issued a higher law. It is no longer come what may, and survive it. It is

Come what may, and love it.

While listening to his talk the first time and then reading it again just a few days ago, I was so inspired I was sure I could heed that counsel.

Well today my good intentions have been put to the test. While the restoration man was thinking with all he had about a way to dry out our crawlspace, and the preschool kids were knocking on the door, Eli vomited all over me and the living room floor.

I sent the disappointed 3 year olds back home, the restoration man left for awhile and I cleaned up the vomit. But for some reason what really put me over the edge was that the apples I had been drying in the oven over night had crystalized to the cookie sheets and were ruined.

Love it?

Are you kidding me?

I pictured him saying "There is an antidote for times such as these: learn to laugh...The next time you're tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead." There really wasn't anything funny about throwing away the apple-mess. Or at least I couldn't see it at the time. But I forced a laugh just to break down the anger that was rapidly welling up inside. That helped.

Love it.

I went and picked up my pale toddler who was being very snuggly and decided maybe I could love it after all.

I do not mean to minimalize the difficulty of the trials I know people are experiencing that make my little struggles truly laughable. But the beauty of the gospel is that we can apply its principles to the minor aspects of our lives and the major. To those who are experiencing real difficulty, Elder Wirthlin has much to say with regard to coping and loving it.