Giant Swing

On Sunday, I bore my testimony. During that testimony I shared an experience I had a few years back at OYA with my little brother. For those of you who don't know, OYA, Outdoor Youth Adventures, is like an efy held outdoors. At OYA you have spiritual devotionals, firesides, ropes courses, camping, and all sorts of other things. (to learn more go tohttp://www.byui.edu/ce/oya/ )

One of these ropes courses is called a Giant Swing. How that works, is that you are hoisted up by your team until you reach the very top, while holding the rope in place that is keeping you connected to that safety rope. To get back down you must let go of that rope, and once you do there is this incredible sensation of falling and the rope catching you until you are caught in the most thrilling swing of your life!

To add spiritual meaning to this, our leaders challenged us to think of a bad habit that we've been working on, and when we let go of our rope, to imagine ourselves letting go of that sin.

As fun as my experience was, it wasn't my turn on the swing that touched me as much as that of my little brother's. He had had some serious struggles in his life and at that moment he could feel the desire to change so strongly he was overcome with emotion, and had to sit down while he cried, harder than I've ever seen him cry. As I watched him, I could feel my own heart break and ache for him. I felt such love for him. A weird feeling came over me when I looked at my brother, and I described it as such in my journal, "I've had these glimpses when someone is in need, almost like I've seen them through my Savior's eyes. When it happens, it's as if my whole being is filled with love for them, and I feel so at peace, gentle, and bright, and I'm so full of love for this person I can scarce feel anything else."

As I comforted my little brother, immediately all my own problems were very far away in my mind. I found that my own trials were fleeting and trivial. I felt slightly shamed for focusing so often on my problems, and not reaching out more to those around me.

During my testimony, I spoke of mediocrity. If you ever get stuck in that rut of mediocrity, like I so often do, find someone to love. And by love, I mean serve, and by serve I mean love, for I've come to know that sincere service is born from sincere love, and only sincere love is brought through sincere service.

I love my family very much, and I think I've been very blessed to have been given the brothers that I have. I'm not always a good sister, but I hope that they know that I love em both so much.