How God changes the world for good!

E.T. Sullivan wrote" When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts.Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home out of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies!" ( The Treasure Chest)




I have thought about this a lot but even more intently since baby Eden arrived. There is just something that happens when a helpless, new, innocent, pure baby is in your arms. The sound of their breathing, the rise and fall of their little chest and the delicious sound of their little grunts and moans. And is there anything more precious than when a baby erupts into a little cheerio yawn? I could go on and on about how easy it is to pass on a good nights sleep to just stare and admire this little piece of heaven lying in her crib.

The fact is that babies change people, and change them for the better. Tenderness, care and love spill out of the most rugged people as they cradle that helpless little body. God knew that he would be able to reconnect and touch the lives of His children here on earth by allowing them to care for, raise, worry over, teach, love and even discipline his little one's. After all isn't parenthood a small glimpse of what our Father in Heaven experiences everyday? The exquisite joy that a parent feels when their child chooses the right and the bitter suffering that comes with poor choices. I now know without a shadow of a doubt how much my parents love me and my siblings. The famous phrase that we all heard growing up " You will never know how much we love you until you have children of your own." was often followed by our "oh, brother" and rolling of the eyes! But, it is TRUE! I also have a greater understanding and appreciation for my Father in Heaven and for all that He has done for me and given me so that I might know who He is and of His infinite love for me. I also have a greater desire to please Him and bring Him as much joy as I can and try and limit the suffering and disappointment I might cause Him.



"Behold your little ones. Pray with them. Pray for them and bless them. The world into which they are moving is a complex and difficult one. They will face heavy seas of adversity. They will need all the strength and all the faith we can give them while they are near us. And they will also need a greater strength that can only come from a higher power.They must do more than just exist. They must lift the world! And the strength necessary to do so can only come from what we will teach them and from their testimonies and knowledge of God.

How much more beautiful would the world be if every father looked upon his children as his most precious assets and if every mother saw her children as the crown jewels of her life." Gordon B. Hinckley

Are we not blessed beyond comprehension as parents? After having tried and waited for 8 years to have children of our own I can now say that we are so very blessed to have these little ones in our hearts and homes. I am a better man, husband and human being because of my babies! And hopefully both I and my children will be a force of good and happiness in this world.