For What It's Worth

This is where it all started. I remember this day pretty well. I had been very sick for the few weeks leading up to our wedding. Really sick. (Notice my collar a little loose around my neck - I lost over 15 pounds over those 2 weeks.) But on the morning of our wedding, it just seemed to go away. I felt great. My parents had flown in the night before to meet my future wife for the first time. That sounds weird to some at first, my parents meeting Chauntel for the first time the night before we got married, but I guess the pattern started there of just how things work with our family. Not everything is so traditional, I guess.

The wedding went fine. We were married 10 years ago in the Seattle Temple, with a ceremony that we believe will "seal" us for time and eternity. The concept of a "forever family" is important to us; how important we would never know until our family began to grow with children.

I remember something that our sealer taught us before we were married. He told us to never keep score in our marriage and to look to be selfless. I will say that it has been great advise; advise not always headed with me, but over and over with my wife. She is a peacemaker and keeps our home running with the Spirit of love.

As mentioned below the title of this blog, this is intended for my children. I hope at some point they they will look back on this and find love and counsel to help them through the trial of life. As the Lord has trusted Chauntel and I with children, they have brought the greatest joy and concern to us. The joys of parenthood have easily outweighed all the frustration and concern. Watching the children achieve, win, lose, learn - all the different scenarios that they go through have given me a deeper love and understanding of the joy and sorrow God perhaps feels towards me, one His children. I hope to be the Dad that I need to be in order to teach my children and equip them to make it through life's struggles. I hope they will treat others with respect, because they see me treat others that way. I hope they will look to serve others because they see their mother and I do that. As I find "snapshot" moments, I'll take the opportunity to post the moment and the lesson hopefully learned from it. We'll see how it goes. It seems as if there is a snapshot each day worthy of posting.