Bloom

I serve in the Primary right now and I love it. Last Sunday I experienced one of the most tender moments I've ever had in church and I've been thinking about it all week. There is this sweet little six year old girl in our Primary who has special needs, physically and mentally. Until a few months ago, her parents had always kept her in nursery because of her challenges but when they moved into our ward they decided to see how she did with children her own age. As a presidency, we've prayed about this little girl a lot and how we can best help her. We carefully selected teachers we knew would accept and love her and invest themselves in her happiness. I've been so amazed at how much she has grown in just a few short months. Last week she was asked to give a talk in Primary. She was a bit agitated so her mother wasn't sure how well she would respond. With the help of her mother she struggled through her talk, getting distracted and lost many times along the way and shouting out random key words from her talk. At one point she was bearing her testimony of baptism and her mother began to help her sing, "I Like to Look for Rainbows". Moved by the Sprit, her mother broke down in tears leaving this little girl alone at the pulpit still shouting out random phrases and words and trying to finish her song. After a very long, awkward pause, simultaneously all of the teachers and leaders in the room started to sing the rest of the song along with this little girl. Her mother then stood up and bore a powerful testimony of how special her little girl is and how she tries really hard to chose the right even thought she doesn't always understand. This little girl stood there with the biggest smile on her face, so proud of her talk and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. I was moved by the love, compassion and acceptance that was in the room for this little girl and that the Sprit would prompt everyone to help her sing at the same time. It was really touching.

I'm grateful for children, for their innocence and their charity. I'm grateful I get to serve them and learn from them each week. It makes me so sad that many people think Primary is a "lesser" place to serve in the church or that it is hard to feel the Spirit or edified there. I couldn't disagree more. I think we could all learn our greatest lessons from children.

What I've learned lately is that it is possible to bloom wherever we are planted if we have the right attitude and Spirit with us. This could mean with different callings within the church or situations in our lives. There's always room and opportunities for growth if we welcome and embrace it.