Reconsidering September

Fall, with all of it's beauty, happens to be my favorite time of year.

September on the other hand is the one month out of the year that can't be over fast enough for me. It's a tragic and strange coincidence that my favorite time of year would be coupled with my least favorite month.

But then you are asking yourself, how could she not like a whole month? That's weird, surely most people only dislike one or two days a year. Maybe Christmas is painful for the lonely, birthdays are less enjoyable for those who keep aging and so on.

But yes, it's true. I have an entire month that I have learned to be wary of.

For some reason the truly life altering, negative things that have happened to me, have happened in September. I am ear marked I tell you.

One fall day, twenty three years ago, my family was getting ready to go on a picnic to the Sand Dunes. We were all packed and ready to go but were delayed because my mom just "felt like there was something else to do" when two neighbor boys came running up to the house and told us that their sister had been in a four wheeler accident. They needed help lifting the machine off of her. My mom grabbed Jess and I, told Vickie to stay home with the younger ones and we went to see how we could help. We lifted the four wheeler off of our young neighbor, my mom gave her CPR, but we later learned she had died instantly from her injuries.

It was September, I was ten, and my faith in mortality was shaken.

The next time it was summer when we learned that we were to have another addition to our family. Excited was a word we used often in our home at that time. But then a feeling of emptiness, a strange dream, and the news that she wouldn't be coming to our family just yet.

It was September 12. Understanding and peace came later.

Oh.

So.

Slowly.

And then this last month, trivial as it may seem in comparison, we were served with a lawsuit for the car accident in March. We have been declared innocent by all accounts. But a lawsuit. What a headache. A major nuisance in my life, when I could really do with out it.

Again.....September

The other night I was sitting there thinking about this lawsuit, fearing it, wondering how to deal with it, when I came across this scripture in Alma 38 versus 4 and 5

"...and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee........remember that as much as ye put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions..."

Instantly the peace came, the worries vanished and my cares were cast upon the Lord.

As I thought about these events, the letter (it seems) from Heavenly Father directly to me, I realized that it happened in September.

And then I realized another thing....

For all of the pain that this month has dealt me, there has been with it the accompanying peace and support from a loving Father.

Spiritual experiences have come to me to the point of overwhelming me with each of these tragedies, taking from them their sting. A blessed funeral for a little girl where an opportunity to sing "I Am a Child Of God" reminded me of who I am and sealed it in my heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. A dream that showed me the little girl that was not lost, only delayed in coming to our family. And a firm reminder that Heavenly Father is always aware of me and my trials.

Now that my eyes have been opened to the blessings of this month, I feel like I should really

....reconsider September