*This post was written the beginning of January 2018, just realized I never published it.
It's been more than a little while on here. But I wanted to share some thoughts from today. Last week our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, died. After school today I took the kids up to Salt Lake to Pres. Monson's viewing. I was debating whether or not to take the kids. The hassle or how to handle waiting with them for a long time, possibly in the cold. Would they even be quiet when we got close?
I started thinking when I was a child and remember my mom taking me to Pres. Benson's viewing. He is the first prophet I remember as a child. I remember waiting in line in a stairwell and finally getting to the room with a lot of flowers. I remember one of the flowers said from Ricks College and thinking I didn't really know what that was. I don't remember really seeing the prophet but just being there. As a mother now with 3 young children, I realize the effort that it took to do that. And why? I can't speak for my own mother's motivation. But for me, what I see as an adult looking back, was her expressing her testimony to her children. And today I have a testimony of living prophets and hope to teach that to my own kids. I then started thinking about other personal experiences with prophets. I remember being a BYU student attending a devotional when Pres. Hinckley spoke. I remember the feeling I had that overcame me when he walked in the Marriott Center. I knew he was a prophet of God. I remember attending the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Concert in the Conference Center and Pres. Monson coming in and that exact feeling overcame me, he also was a prophet of God!
So I took the kids and if nothing else I hope they remember they went. And hopefully one day they will also know that their mother has a testimony of living prophets.
"Let us examine our lives and determine to follow the Savior's example by being kind, loving, and charitable." - Thomas S. Monson
