Acts of Service - Cookie Night

I had a few thoughts while talking with one of my daughters on the phone today. 

I was remembering back during those early days after losing LeAnne.  I remember the thick fog that seemed to cover my mind and the sleepless nights that I experienced.  I remember wondering if that was the way it would always be.  Then I listened to the ever quotable Neal A. Maxwell, who said that service was the key to lifting ones burdens.  At the time, I was ready to try anything that might help.

I searched for ways to serve, doing something that I knew I could do, under the load I felt I was under.  I thought about my married children.  I thought how difficult it might be for them to have a night to go out, without worrying about their little ones.  I wasn’t certain that I wanted to tend them. 

Just one of them could be a handful, but at the time, there were 4 living in the area.  I pondered it for a few days.  I decided that I would do it.  So I invited all the grand children to the house for cookie night.  I had excited little kids coming to grandpa’s house to bake cookies.  My son was not as enthused about it as I was trying to be.

When they came, I was suddenly afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do it.  Nevertheless, we did it.  We stirred up the dough and let the kids drop it out on the pans.  Some of the cookies were massive, and others were barely crumb sized.  We baked the cookies and watched videos.  They seemed to have a great time.  Even my son didn’t seem to dislike it all that much.  He actually seemed to have fun.

I don’t know if they really enjoyed it or not, but I know that it meant the world to me.  It took most of the night after they left to clean up, but I was suddenly looking forward to the next cookie night.  What a precious moment to have those little ones close to me, and to feel their bright spirits in my home. 

I learned that service truly does lighten the load.  It lifts the heart and just helps to make you feel good.  Besides brightening my day, it seemed to do the same for my grandchildren as well as my married daughters.  Yes, it will always be a precious memory for me.