Mommy Payday

Today was what someone described to me as "Mommy Payday." Honestly the past couple of weeks my kids have been driving me CRAZY--working my last nerve! I promise, I don't feel that way very often, especially about all four of them at one time but holy cow! Just squirrely, not listening, trying to annoy each other, not focusing on homework after school, OBNOXIOUS! So, now that I have vented, Amanda was assigned a talk in church today along with several other 12-18 year olds; it was a youth sacrament meeting to introduce their new theme for 2010, Joshua 1:9:
"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."
Early in the week she actually had written most of her talk and I only asked her about it a couple of times (pretty good for me) and she was confident that it was all taken care of. I was grateful it was one last thing I didn't have to hound her for and as I listened to her practice, it sounded pretty good. Well, her talk brought tears to my eyes as she nervously shared her feelings on how that verse can help her, along with good family and friend influences, to be a good leader. At one point she said, "I am very close to my own mother. She is a great leader to me which makes me want to become a great leader, too." She said many other sweet things as well. She also got asked to help sing a special musical number which was a chorus of four girls and four boys. They sang an EFY Medley arrangement titled As Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth. The kids had arranged all the practices themselves and she got up extra early and got out the door on time to practice again before church. I have never heard/seen a more inspiring, touching, wonderful musical number. These kids nailed it; I don't think there was a dry eye in the chapel. My heart felt like it grew bigger just because my daughter was able to be part of that spirit-filled meeting. So many people took time to compliment her and at one point some of the parents of the kids who participated were talking and that is when one mentioned the phrase, "mommy payday." I am so grateful to be her mother. If I have to go through two more weeks of nerve-wracking behavior and even take away said child's cell phone privileges again to get another payday like that, bring it on!