"Crosses of the World" Adventure

2 Nephi 9:18 reads "But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever."  

I used the scripture as the foundation of an unexpected family adventure.  It will take a while for me to type it all out, which is why it isn't done.  So rather than continue to tell myself that I'll get around to doing that, I'm just going to summarize and let you watch the slide show.  I'm sure that I won't be able to explain it all as well as when we were actually participating in the adventure.  Please accept my apology and maybe you'll be able to hear about our experience in person another time.

Crosses of the World:  jealousy, immodesty, anger, greed violence, pain, drugs, alcohol, divorce, etc.....

Rocks represent the crosses (burdens) of the world we each must carry while here on earth.  The girls gathered rocks to begin the adventure.  I then read the scripture above & we each made our own list of "crosses of the world".  We all had similar lists with a few things that maybe a 7 year old wouldn't think of.  We shared a couple from our lists and talked about them.   We then put our rocks ("crosses or burdens of the world") in our back packs and went for a hike.

We stopped 3 times on our hike.  Each stop consisted of consuming one snack while we talked about spiritual things we can do to help us endure the crosses of the world.  We then would unload 2 or 3 rocks from our back packs & gave them back to the Lord by tossing them into the water or the side of the trail.

Our first stop was about service.  We then looked for garbage while we hiked & collected it.  We also served one another while exploring the trails.  The second stop was about scriptures.  I likened them to a recipe given to you from your mother and how silly it sounds to call her & ask her how to make that specific recipe when you already have it written down & given to you.  The directions and answers are in the scriptures Heavenly Father has given to us to guide us here on earth.  The 3rd stop was about following the prophets.  We were almost out of rocks by now and eager to get to the end of our adventure.  Our 4th and final stop was about prayer.  Just as we need physical nourishment (snacks) to keep our bodies full of energy to get things done, we also need spiritual nourishment (service, scriptures, following the prophets, & prayer) to give us the energy to allow Jesus Christ to lighten our loads here on earth.  Even though doing these things may seem like a lot of work, we actually feel lighter & happier despite the crosses we are sometimes required to bare.  We then threw the rest of our rocks in the water, finished our snacks & enjoyed the rest of the time just thinking about our experience.  It was a wonderful afternoon and hopefully an adventure that the girls will remember when life is hard.

I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for answering my prayers & guiding me, through the power of the Holy Ghost, in nurturing my family.