First off, Happy Grandparents Day to those of us who have joined this beautiful club. 😍 It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?! Whether it’s your day or you are honoring your sweet Grandparents, how do you plan to spend it? Today, I’m helping out my daughter Rachael while she teaches her Sunbeams, a Sunday School class for three-year-old 👦🏻&👧🏻 at Church. They are the sweetest, most innocent little children and so eager to learn. Rocket is loving her new class since she just turned three and is especially excited that her Mommy is her teacher. ☺️ She said she’s happy that Ill be there too today. 😊 I ♥️ being my 🚀’s Grandma!
As I ponder on this day the valuable lessons I’ve learned from my dear Grandparents, my mind is filled with so many beautiful memories. I especially love the few bits of video I have with them as a toddler. It’s not like today where everything is captured instantly at the touch of our smart phones. This film 🎥 is a throwback to an Easter Sunday spent with both my Grandma Osmond and Grandma & Grandpa Davis. My Grandfather Osmond died when my Dad was just a few weeks old so I grew up knowing him through his photos each time I paid special visits to my darling Grandmother Osmond’s home. As she showed me the few pictures that she had, she would always tell me about their love story. With a beam of pride in her eyes, she would say affectionately, “He loved my long red hair and isn’t he so handsome! Your father George looks just like him!” 😍
We have all learned incredible pearls of wisdom from our Grandparents, but in addition to knowledge, my love for knitting, crocheting and crafting were learned traits from Grandma Osmond. She used to make beautiful afghans and took the time to sit and teach me how to crochet them. I made some very special ones for my Father and Mother. My Dad wrapped himself in his until the day he passed away, it touched my heart deeply! And after Mom’s passing, the blanket I made for her came back to me. She didn’t use it as much but showcased it on her couch in the living room and told everyone who visited her that I made it for her. 😉♥️ I treasure her Afghan and have placed it in the library of my house now. I enjoy wrapping myself in it once in a while as I read and I can feel both my parents love through it’s warmth.
You may not know, but I am a voracious reader. Grandma and Grandpa Davis, and of course my own Mother’s love for literature, rubbed off on me 😉 big time! I’m so grateful that every time I went to see my sweet Grandma, she would sit with me as we read so many different kinds of books together. She always made them animated, exciting and interesting! It’s no wonder I have a designated quiet reading room that I use to wallow in nostalgia and explore all sorts of good writing. ✍️ 📚 I also use a special chair that I sit on with my grandchildren to read some of my favorite books to them. 😁😘 My Davis grandparents were both teachers, and their two children were teachers, too. Mom homeschooled my eldest brothers Virl and Tom who were born deaf and helped all of us keep up on her schooling as we toured all over the world. In ALL of our houses, she had my Dad paint on one of our kitchen walls to turn it into a chalkboard. I can’t tell you how many times I sat eating breakfast as we diagramed sentences. 😳🤣 One thing both sets of Grandparents had in common though was their love for daily scripture reading which they would say was the most uplifting and important material we could ever read!
When we were young, both GRANDS were the glue that kept us together and the oil that separated us when we children were not so grand to each other. 🤨 Particularly, when we got into quarrels. 🤣 Grandma Osmond would often say, “Forgive and forget, love each other!” Grandma Davis also believed that contention should be resolved prior to going to bed. 🛏 She subscribed to the notion that we should never dwell in the past, always seek for a happy future... and that we should choose our paths wisely.
As I said last week, sometimes forgiving is easier said than done. Have you ever made a mistake that for a long time you simply cannot let go of or forgive yourself? Or maybe there’s something difficult to forgive someone else of, especially if they’ve done something that really hurt you or someone you love? I know how difficult it is but it really is so important to forgive. God tells us to do this so that contention doesn’t cloud our soul or especially canker it. Bitterness and resentment hold us back from sweet embraces and reunions and can actually work overtime to even make our bodies ill. Grandma Davis once said to me, “When someone has done us wrong [and all of us has had that happen], it can create an on-going grudge that puts a dam between us.” Then she would say to me, “Remember, Marie, we don’t swear in this family and we should never create any kind of dividing wall like that either.” 😉💖
It’s important to keep reminding ourselves that if we keep forgiving others, even when we feel its difficult, the Lord says He too will forgive us of our sins. Pride, animosity, hatred and mistrust arising from bad blood over the years—mixing these in with built up anger, can block us from understanding why our Savior suffered, died and shed His own blood to atone for our own sins. Justification is never the answer… giving it to the Savior is!!!
Family friend Jeffery Holland says:
“It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ. To be tied to earlier mistakes is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist.”
He adds, “Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever.”
The apostle Paul taught the “miracles of forgetting and forgiveness” best:
“... This one thing I do try to focus on daily is to, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13–14)
The blessings of His Atonement are so immensely great and real, so much so, that on this Sunday, let us not WALLOW on what others have done to hurt us, or perpetuate our pride by pointing out other people’s misdeeds. Let us use our Saviors atonement to erase from our minds the mistakes of yesteryear, for this is a crucial part of the repentance process. Let us instead press forward to the miracles, relationships and other great events that lie ahead. Get past what has hurt us and leave it behind us. Forgive and forget... it’s time to turn to a new page in our life’s book. After all, we are the authors that are responsible for documenting our earth’s journey. We can’t start the next chapter of our lives if we keep reading the last one over and over again! So on this #Happy #Sunday, let us honor the wonderful legacy of our Grandparents leave us with great wisdom. I would absolutely love to hear some of your stories that made your Grandparents so GRAND to you!