Started In a Barn

Merry Christmas 2015! I love this time of Christmas! Hearts seem to be softened and brought closer to each other, friends and family. This year was a special one for me because it was my first one back home with my family after my mission. I was gone for two Christmas'. Today has been a day of reflection on the past Christmas' and while I have loved being home with my family for this great holiday, there is still a part of my heart in Washington, especially with all the families that become my family while I was there. I love that place!

I have had these ideas going through my head over the past week but each time I have tried to write them it never came out quit right so bear with me! Of course, with Christmas times comes so many traditions. I know for my family we have a lot of traditions through out the month of December and on Christmas Day. It was different this year with all of my older siblings being married it was just my parents and my two younger brothers. We didn't stay up as late as we usually do and the boys weren't quit as excited to get up to see what Santa had brought. It was a good day though to spend with my wonderful family!  As the sun started going down tonight the boys and I bundled up and headed out to do chores. Since coming home from my mission I have found new love for doing chores. There is something good with being outside in the air and especially during the winter,  the snow, feeding the animals and getting feed ready for the next morning. I haven't been home to help with chores for a long time so it was fun to be back to where I had grown up feeding. I love my families farm!

A few weeks ago I had come across an article in a magazine about Christmas. The author talked about taking time to think about the Saviors beginning. Not to focus on what would come in his life but on his beginning. He then invited the readers to turn their thoughts to their own beginnings and compare them to His. Tonight as I did chores I thought about his beginning in a manger. It was not extravagant in any way and wouldn't have been the place anyone would have picked for anyone to be born, but what that stable scene would come to mean to everyone who would ever live on the earth, is the real question. His beginning would lead to a life of example, mercy, and grace. And it all started in a stable! Now, I know what the barn on my families farm means to me. It is a place of learning, hard work, and family bonding. Some of my fondest memories are found working out in our barn, working with animals or hauling hay, or a number of other chores. It was the sight of numerous beginnings, for baby calves, working new show steers, or training a colt. I know that for me it was a place where I found God's love for me and his awareness of my life. It has become a sacred place. I believe each of us have places where we can connect to so many beginnings in our lives, teaching and sacred moments. As we take the time to ponder on the lessons we have learned in those places, we will find that the Lord is willing and waiting to give us many more new beginnings. It is interesting that Christmas is so close to the New Year when we make new goals for the upcoming year. I would suggest that Christmas be that time that we set new goals for ourselves and have a new beginning. There is no better day than Christmas to set a new goal and have a new beginning! I know that it is because of Jesus Christ that we can have new beginnings! I also know that as we communicate with our Heavenly Father about our desired new beginnings we will find strength beyond our own to accomplish those that are for our improvement! That is the beauty of the enabling power of the Atonement! It is become Christ was born that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father, because of the life he lived! He was born so we can be born again and be made new!