I'm not sure how others feel about the whole bedtime routine stuff with there children but most nights I absolutely love it. It's my chance to get one on one time with my children that I sometimes don't get during the day especially now that I have 2. During this time is when Rome and I have had our best talks. Pillow talk with a 4 year is seriously the best!
Every night we try to read scriptures and pray as a family then me or Keegan (usually me since Keegan works late) will take the kids to bed and have personal prayers and read a story and then I enjoy singing a song or two to them before they go to sleep. This weekend Rome has been in Utah with his Grandma and Grandpa Doty and cousins and Keegan has been working overtime so it's just been Quinton and I at night. Tonight after I read scriptures and said prayers with Q I decided to sing Joseph Smith's First Prayer, one of my favorite hymns!
I fell in love with this song on a church history trip back east I went on with some class mates right after high school. One of the last stops we went to was the sacred grove where we were given the opportunity to bare our testimony. The opening song for the testimony meeting was Joseph Smiths first prayer and I couldn't even sing along because I was bawling through the whole thing. The spirit was so strong there and testified to me that Joseph Smith was and still is a true prophet of God, among many other things, but that's another story for another time. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I still get a lump in my throat every time I sing that song.
So I was holding and rocking Q as he sucked on his binki and was beginning to fall asleep. As I started to sing his eyes popped open and his binki fell out of his mouth as he gave me one of the most precious smiles I've ever seen from him. The sweetest feeling came over me. His eyes did not leave mine and he continued to smile through all 4 verses and so did I. He fell asleep a few minutes after I was done singing but I kept him in my arms not wanting this moment to ever end. I couldn't help but sit there and stare at his perfect little face and wonder what he felt or thought of at that moment I was singing. Has your baby ever been in his crib or somewhere alone and been smiling and giggling at something?!? Ever wonder what or who there're smiling at?!?! I wished for a second he could talk so he could tell me what he knows or remembers about the spirit world. I have so many questions and things I want to know. Babies I think are the closest thing we have to heaven. I believe the veil between us and the other side is so thin for them. If only they could tell us!!!
I'm so grateful for Heavenly Fathers tender mercies like this one. I'm so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that there is life after death and we will be reunited with our loved ones who have passed. Most of all tonight I am so grateful for my two boys. I'm so glad Heavenly Father sent them to me. I can't imagine my life without them in it. I am truly blessed.
Joseph Smith's First Prayer
1. Oh, how lovely was the morning!
Radiant beamed the sun above.
Bees were humming, sweet birds singing, Music ringing thru the grove,
When within the shady woodland
Joseph sought the God of love,
When within the shady woodland
Joseph sought the God of love.
2. Humbly kneeling, sweet appealing--
’Twas the boy’s first uttered prayer--
When the pow’rs of sin assailing
Filled his soul with deep despair;
But undaunted, still he trusted
In his Heav’nly Father’s care,
But undaunted, still he trusted
In his Heav’nly Father’s care.
3. Suddenly a light descended,
Brighter far than noonday sun,
And a shining, glorious pillar
O’er him fell, around him shone,
While appeared two heav’nly beings,
God the Father and the Son,
While appeared two heav’nly beings,
God the Father and the Son.
4. “Joseph, this is my Beloved;
Hear him!” Oh, how sweet the word
Joseph’s humble prayer was answered,
And he listened to the Lord.
Oh, what rapture filled his bosom,
For he saw the living God,
Oh, what rapture filled his bosom,
For he saw the living God.
