The little things

I got this from my cute friend, Shan's blog. I thought it was so important that I asked her if I could share it on my blog.

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."
-Elder Russell M. Ballard

On rare occasions we do enjoy the "big things" like going to Disneyland or Christmas. However, I hope that we don't wish away our "everydays" and all the little things that happen in ordinary life in anticipation of the "big event." I hope we can all appreciate the little things in life, especially the "little ones" that have been placed in our care. They are so precious; each little phrase they say, every accomplishment and each act of innocence is something that we will never be able to remember or get back if we don't learn to live in the present.