up all night

I spoke in sacrament meeting today.
I started talking about building stronger families.
I also talked about how, in order to have the Spirit in our homes, we can not have contention.
Where there is contention, there is no spirit.
Proverbs 15:1
A soft answer turneth away wrath.
We need to teach our children to love us, not to fear us.
This is a jumbly condensed version.
I can't imagine ever fearing the Savior.
He teaches love unfeigned.
I went camping this weekend.
(I didn't really want to)
It was about building stronger family unity and memories.
We had a GREAT time!
It was worth it.
While we were there, a woman told a story.
She said that she went camping for three weeks this summer with her family.
(She said the accomodations weren't as nice as ours--gasp!)
She, along with her family, and hundreds of others, were performers in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York.
She and her husband were asked to mentor a group of young single adults.
At the end of their three week tour, they had a testimony meeting together.
She said that the spirit in that meeting was the strongest that she has ever felt.
There was one young woman in particular who was in that meeting.
It became obvious that she was reluctant to bear her testimony.
When she finally did take a turn, she talked about being afraid to do the wrong thing.
She related an experience during the pageant when she had torn her costume.
She had to take it to the costume staff very late at night to have it mended so that it would be ready for the next days rehearsal and performance.
She was afraid to go.
The young woman took the costume to the sewing staff and felt bad about it.
She went back the next morning, and learned that they had been up well past 3:00 a.m. mending her costume.
A woman returned it to her with a big hug, a smile and a piece of candy.
The young woman in her testimony said 'this is like the Savior.'
We are human, and do wrong everyday.
We bring our broken lives to him, and with his help we fix what's broken.
He's already been up all night, sweating drops of blood for us.
He's already been through that so that we can be whole again, with his help.
I love Jesus Christ.
I love that we can be 'fixed' through him, and that he'll be ready waiting with that hug and sweetness.