I love reading bluesdad. While my husband does drive a great big pickup truck, and my kids have occasionally drawn on tables (but not with my knowledge or blessing!), I am not offended by him at all; I like how he encourages me to ponder life.

I was just reading this post and as I started to comment I realized that what I wanted to say was probably about as long as a post and so I thought I might as well just make it one.

Tonight for family scripture study we were reading in the third chapter of Mark. Jesus enters the synagogue and there is a man with a withered hand. He proceeds to heal him, even though it is the Sabbath. The Pharisees are watching him (maliciously, it says) and rather than being happy for the man because he has been given a new lease on life, they are happy that they found something with which to accuse Jesus with, it being unlawful to “work” on the Sabbath.

We talked as a family about how we often find ourselves looking for and accentuating the negative in others rather than feeling compassion for them and doing things to ease their burdens. Lately it has come home forcefully to me about how I have been so very negative with my own children. I want them to be successful and happy in life, but rather than being encouraging about what they are doing right, I pick at what they are doing wrong. By accentuating the negative, I am actually contributing to their burden rather than easing it. I can see how that negativity has impacted them as they are not very confident in certain areas of their lives.

Thanks, Blue's Dad, for being humble enough to share a not-so-proud moment. It is these painful moments that define and refine who we truly are. Hopefully from them we can learn to be more compassionate and bring hope and healing to those around us. Hopefully we can learn to be more like the Savior who “saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”