Because He Lives!

What a wonderful week this has been!  I have truly loved focusing my scripture studies on the life of Christ from Palm Sunday up through until Easter Sunday.   Reading bits and pieces from James E. Talmage's "Jesus the Christ" has helped to fill my heart with great reverence throughout this week too.

I don't know how to describe it, but throughout this week, I have felt this incredible sense of awe wash over me for the lives of each of my children and my sweet husband.  I have felt so grateful for each of their personalities, for little things they do, for how fun and good and easy it is to be around every one of them.

My husband and I went to the Easter conference up on campus Friday night.  The talks inspired me to open my mouth more about the good news of our Savior.  As we left the auditorium and started back down the hill, I reflected in my mind, "That same room I meet in every week for my college lectures, is also a place of testimony, a place of worship through scripture and song, a place where prophets and apostles sometimes speak... it is a dedicated building.  How many colleges have that?" And again, this incredible sense of awe washed over me for BYU.  I squeezed Joseph's hand, turned to him and said, "It's such an amazing privilege and honor to be here. Seriously honey, I feel it every time I set foot on this ground.  Thank you so much for supporting me in my education. It truly means the world to me!"

My husband has come so far.  He's been happier, more encouraging, more grateful, more supportive, and more joyful than I have ever seen him in all our years together combined. There's no way he would have let me go to school three years ago.  Something has changed in him and the dark chains of depression that have bound him since he was a teenager, have been loosed.  I think that he is coming to understand the power of the atonement more.  We all need to strive for that, myself included.  I certainly hope that he has seen some good changes in me too this past year.

This quote by President Hunter was one of the many that hung in my little sanctuary/bedroom as a teenager and it has been playing over and over in my mind all week:
“Whatever Jesus lays His hands upon, lives. If He lays is hands upon a marriage, it lives. If He is allowed to lay His hands on the family, it lives.”

I know this! It makes me want to shout, "My husband is alive! My children are alive! My marriage is alive! My hopes and dreams are alive!  I am alive!  All because of Him, because the Savior has laid His hands on us."  Hallelujah!  

"I am, among [women], most richly blessed!!"
Happy Easter!

-Alicia