Easter 2020 was one for the books. Low-key and kind of quiet and super simple, I don’t know if we’ll ever forget it. Not that we usually celebrate Easter with fireworks, but you know — life in quarantine has made everything pretty low-key and kind of quiet and super simple. We missed our families in St. George: the egg hunt at the park, visiting the cutest Easter Bunny alive (my Grandma Gubler!) and having lunch in her backyard, and hanging with Ryan’s family, too. But we made do! We had a really sweet at-home church meeting, and then Ryan hopped into his bunny shoes and scattered eggs for the girls to find. They were darling and competitive and funny, per usual. I mean, Emmy’s face below, and Olivia’s swift punch to the candy, and Claire + Chloe…
I love that Emmy + Olivia are purse-lipped and eating candy while Claire + Chloe are smiling wide…
And these full-on belly laughs. Ry let out a big ol’ fake fart to get these grins for me (thanks, Ry. You da best). 😉
Chloe crawled over to me during the egg hunt and nestled into me, melting me like butter on toast right there on the spot.
I love these shots of Olivia and Claire. I finally earned enough money to upgrade my camera body and I’m still getting used to it, so I’m bummed that their shots are out of focus but I can’t leave them out. They’re too cute.
Of course Emmy gave me this when I asked her to smile…
And then this. 🙂
And Chloe killed me softly here.
Oh, yeah, Ryan and I were there, too. Showing up worn out but showing up. 😉
Really, though, we were tired. The week leading up to Easter was a doozy. Ryan hit a new, all-time high for billable hours that week, after he’d been hauling hard for weeks before that, so by the time Easter Sunday rolled around, we were ready for a day of rest. Let’s be honest, we were ready for a month of rest (still are, haha!) but we were grateful for that day. Still are. I’m actually typing this out on another beautiful, glorious Sunday, and I can’t help but say “thanks” to Heavenly Father for including rest in His Plan of Happiness. I’m grateful that observing the Sabbath is still a concept — that making it a different, holy, rejuvenating day in all the ways is still important to God. Not being able to go to church has given Ryan and me the interesting challenge of making Sunday feel like the Sabbath – we’ve had our Sundays that feel like a Saturday as soon as our little church service is over – but we’re trying! I miss going to church, but we’re trying. Trying to give God His day and trying is what matters, especially during such a trying time. I’m just as grateful to God for not expecting perfection from us as I am for His request that we rest on His day. Remember when I talked about the trap of spiritual perfectionism in my online Relief Society lesson here? We had General Conference two weeks ago, and the message of spiritual perfectionism sang to me again, again through Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf in his talk, “Come and Belong.” I love what he said:
“There is no threshold of perfection you must attain in order to qualify for God’s grace…We are pilgrims walking the road of mortality in a grand search for meaning and ultimate truth. Often, all we see is the path directly ahead – we cannot see where the bends in the road will lead. Our loving Heavenly Father has not given us every answer. He expects us to figure out many things for ourselves. He expects us to believe – even when it’s difficult to do so. He expects us to straighten our shoulders and develop a little resolve – a little backbone – and take another step forward. That is the way we learn and grow.”
Imperfection is so part of this pilgrimage path he talked about. Expecting perfection from ourselves or the church or people within the church, both past and present, is a sticky expectation since it is both unattainable and beyond the mark. Perfection is not why we’re having this mortal experience. Would we need a Savior if we were perfect? Or if our understanding of His Gospel was perfect or if others behaved perfectly and thus never confused us or let us down? No. And needing Christ and choosing Him above everything else is why we are here.
“Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died so that our mistakes might not condemn us and forever halt our progress. Because of Him, we can repent, and our mistakes can become stepping-stones to greater glory…You don’t have to be perfect. You only have to have a desire to develop your faith and draw nearer to Him each day.”
That’s it. Desire. Then effort. That’s all our faith needs to be — a best foot forward — a brightness of hope. No perfection required.
God be thanked for the matchless gift of His Divine Son. He lives!
