How A Screeching Baby Can Prepare For Adversity

Dear Elijah,

The Lord has sent your screeching lungs to me as a test. I just know it.

You screech louder and higher than ANY baby I have ever heard. Any time you want to communicate something, it is always in a screech. Most of the time you are happy and smiling, but your screeching can send me over my emotional edge anytime I allow it to.

I believe that your screeching is the hardest 'enticement' I have had to face in the last couple of months. Let me explain... Enticements are the everyday things that are hard. They aren't horrible, they aren't life altering, they aren't deadly... they are just annoying and most people would rather not deal with them. They are things like bad drivers, fighting kids, unaware teenagers, screeching... you know anything that is just annoying.

Well, enticements are put in our lives everyday so we can train our hearts and minds, improve our self talk, and increase our ability to cope. Everyone has an enticement that is 'their' enticement. For example, your dad's enticement is unthoughtful people. When people are unthoughtful, he just HATES it. It rubs him the wrong way and he has to look inward to see how he is handling his enticement. Is he going to allow his feelings about those unthoughtful people to affect his whole day? Or is he going to take charge of his emotions and move forward? Enticements teach us all how to increase the space between stimulus and response. The bigger that space is, the better we can act inside of life's situations, instead of react with emotions like anger, frustration or fear.

My enticement is whining and screeching. I can handle whining even MUCH better than screeching. Your screeching is my enticement. And I have to say it is truly one of the hardest ones I have had to overcome. I am not doing a great job overcoming it at this point actually!

The magical thing about enticements is how they teach us to overcome adversity. While enticements are everyday things that are annoying and hard... Adversities are LIFE changing things. The better we learn how to overcome our everyday enticements and use them for our good, the better prepared we will be to overcome and handle the adversities in our lives.  Enticements prepare us and train us HOW we are going to handle our adversities.

Here is the key to accelerated growth: The Savior. Every time my enticement (your screeching) hits my nerves, if I use that moment to become closer to the Savior, to pray and become spiritually focused, then that enticement 'moment' has not been lost. The more I train my spirit, emotions and mind to focus on the Savior, the more I will turn to Him when those adversities come. Enticements then are one of life's BIGGEST keys to being able to overcome adversity and maintain faith while doing so.

Keep on screeching. It is teaching me. You are teaching me. And thank heavens you are one of the cutest teachers I know.

I love you,

Your Mom