A Perfect Plan

Tonight Rich and I were in the temple to seal together a couple and most of their children. It was a great experience, but I was feeling slightly frustrated beforehand because we were missing one son. We had not been able to get that endowment done and couldn't include him in the sealing. I was hoping to do the whole family, so it was kind of bugging me. During the sealings, the sealer said something interesting. He was doing some Danish couple sealings for another family, and he was butchering the names. None of us spoke Dutch, so we couldn't help him. He pointed out that it is good to have the problems. He said that if we came in and everything went perfectly, we would go out so proud of ourselves for getting all the work done, thinking how great we are. Instead, we are imperfect and there are problems, so we remember that the Savior is the one who is perfect and who made all this work possible with His Atonement. The work is accepted, even if our efforts are imperfect, because of the Savior. That really made me feel better.

Later, I thought of that concept in relation to motherhood. It is the same thing. Often, parenting can be so painful and so humbling. We see our weaknesses up close as we lose our tempers or handle things poorly or whatever. However, if we didn't have the problems, we might think we are so great and that we have it so together. We might never rely on the Savior and on His Atonement. We might never turn to the Father and benefit from His infinite knowledge and wisdom. It really is a perfect plan, weaknesses and all. And the great thing is that the Savior makes up the difference so that our imperfect efforts are good enough. Wow! Don't you just love the Gospel?!