Hold To The Rod

I find myself daily caught up in the to-do lists, the here and there errands and shuttling my kids to and from this and that. In between homework, laundry, play time, endless clean up, bathing, dressing, wiping noses, changing diapers, kissing scrapes and typing away on the computer I seem to be a bit like this little man in the painting. I think he and I are cut from the same cloth. His arms, pockets and bags are bursting full of worldly things; things that fill up our days and can often take over our lives.

There above his head is the Iron Rod. It is always close by to help guide us on the proper path of life. He certainly knows of its importance and value and strives to keep it in sight, yet he holds fast to all his belongings. As a viewer of the painting it is easy to see that he simply should put down a few items so he can hold tight.

I, like this little man, can see the rod every day as well. I know what I should be doing, but am I making that my first priority? I nearly always get my physical exercise in, but how is my spiritual body doing? Am I nourishing my spirit like I do my body? Am I doing the little things? I'll be the first to admit that fast Sundays are not something I look forward to, and yet how often is my spirit spiritually hungry and I don't give it the food it needs? I can see that I need to learn a little from this fellow's predicament and stop, unburden my life of unnecessary fillers and hold on tight to doing the small things. Not only will it help me, but my entire family as well.

With that said, this is my newest painting courtesy of my parents. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) It is by James Christensen and is titled Hold to the Rod. Mr. Christensen wanted to paint something from the Book of Mormon and he chose to paint about Lehi's dream. I hung the painting in our living room above the piano so we can all view it throughout the day. I loved talking to the boys and explaining the picture to them. They knew the story and once I started talking about the tree and the iron rod the boys loved telling me the rest.

I am very grateful to have art work in my home that teaches me and my family gospel principles. I love the visual reminder of a scriptural passage. Above my bed I have the 10 Lepers, above the mantle is the Widow's Mite, in my room is Mary and baby Jesus and in the entryway is a paining of Jesus Christ. I hope through these paintings, they will instill a love in my children of the scripture story it refers to and teach them life lessons that will help them now and forever.