Rewards, pay days, and weddings

I've been thinking a lot this week about rewards and pay days.  I think it is pretty easy to forget and we all need to be reminded of the fact that THIS LIFE IS NOT THE REWARD.  We all want it to be.  Sometimes we expect it to be.  We forget the purpose behind real earthly experience.  We see others around us seemingly living a charmed life and we think, they are getting their rewards.  Where are mine?  (At least that is our PERCEPTION of what is going on.)  But we need to constantly remind ourselves,at least I do, that this is where we EARN our reward.  The other side of the veil is where we get the prize.  

We need to remember this because sometimes life feels like the test that it is and it is pretty easy to get discouraged.  

Case in point, I was consoling one of my kiddos the other day.  Sometimes, even when you are fairly popular at school and seem to have a lot of friends, it can feel like you don't get invited to the things that everyone else does because everyone knows that you don't drink, smoke, vape, hook up with guys, etc.  As you all get older, more and more of your friends want to to do those things.  There are weekends its fine.  Even though you can check out your social media and you see everyone gathered at a party living it up, you are fine with it because they are doing things you have chosen not to do.  But there are also weekends that it just plain sucks.  It feels like everyone you know is at so and so's party living it up and you are the only one not invited.  It isn't true but it certainly can feel that way.  It is easy to get discouraged and feel like you don't have a friend in the world.

That is when I reminded said child of this kid, rewards, and paydays.  

 I remember several years ago that this boy sat in the exact same spot on our family room couch lamenting to me that he was bored.  It was another lonely weekend of his high school life and he had no-one to hang out with.  His best friend was a club soccer athlete and had games all weekend and all of the other guys that he hung out with in school were off doing fun things.  When I asked him why he didn't just call one of them to do something he said, 

"Mom, I love my friends and they are so much fun at school.  They are good friends.  But they are all off doing stuff every weekend that I don't want to be tempted to do."  

I thought it was profound.  After that I tried to be sensitive to that and support him in his quest to uphold the personal standards that he had set in place.  That awesome kid never lost sight of what he wanted.  He went on to serve a two year mission for his church, returned with honor, jut completed his first year of college, and just two months ago he married the girl of his dreams.  

• 

See how happy he looks?

I reminded said other child  that on July 21st, 2017 her big brother got his pay day for all those years of sitting home with not much to do.  And if you asked him if it was worth it, he would tell you that he would do it all over again in a heartbeat - a hundred times over.  It was so worth it.

This life is not the reward but our Heavenly Father gives us "pay days" every once in awhile to remind us that anything worth having is worth working for, 

or waiting for, 

or missing out for, 

or sitting home alone on a Friday and Saturday night for 

every once in awhile.

She was so worth it.

And I could not be happier for this kid.