Tummy Butterflies

Today Mabel got to give her first scripture in Primary. She did such a good job. Perhaps it is all of my years serving in primary and seeing what those little kids are capable of or perhaps it was my mom making my siblings and me memorize all of our scriptures and talks when we were little, but I have a firm "memorize your talk and scripture policy." Emmeline has always memorized her stuff and I expected the same from Mabel. However, I thought I might let go of my policy when I saw the scripture Mabel had to memorize. She was assigned Joseph Smith History verse 17, which reads, "It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.One of them spake unto me, calling me be name and said, pointing to the other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" That is a lot of BIG words for a little 3 year old girl to memorize. Despite my skeptism, on Tuesday I started teaching it to her. I was astounded as she actually began to memorize it. We left off the first sentence, and as I suspected, no one in the primary minded. They were all to floored that this little 3 year old was quoting the scripture by herself. She got the whole thing right and I was so proud of her.



There is another part of this story that I want to remember so here it goes in the blog. Little Mabel was soo nervous!! This morning when she got up she mentioned that her tummy didn't feel good. She had not exhibited any signs of being sick and I suspected it might have something to do with being nervous about giving her scripture in front of everybody in the Primary. She declined breakfast and refused to practice her scripture one more time before we left to go to church. (Which was odd, because she had been practicing it nonstop for the past several days). We talked about how her tummy wasnt really sick but she just had "tummy butterflies" which sometimes come when you are nervous about something, like quoting a scripture in front of a large group of people. We said a prayer together and got to the church. She sat on my lap all during the first meeting without saying much at all. When it was time to go to primary, she told me she had to "spit up", which is code for throw up. I told her it was those tummy butterflies again and said they would go away as soon as she was done with her scripture. We stopped by the drinking fountain on the way to the primary room and I let her get a drink. I was hurrying her into the primary room. . .when bless her sweet little heart, she began to "spit up." I rushed her right back out into the hall and into the bathroom (which luckily was one room over) and let her finish emptying her already empty stomach. When she was done, I asked her if she felt better and if she was ready to go give her scripture. She said she didnt really feel better but that she was ready to go do the scripture. We went back into the primary room and she went to sit next to Emmeline (who was giving a talk) up in front of the room. The group finished the last two lines of a song they were singing and then Mabel was up. She went up (all by herself--I just sit in the audience and watch) and recited her scripture perfectly. After she and Emmeline had both finished, I let Mabel come out into the hall with me to make sure she really was feeling better. Brett gave her a little snack and within about 1 minute, she was chatting away. She spoke more then she had all morning and within one minute more the color began to return to her cheeks. I was convinced that the throwing up incident was her nerves. I'm glad I know this about Mabel now and we can prepare for it in the future. :) I was so proud that despite her tummy butterflies, and throwing up, she still got up and recited her scripture. What a wonderful little girl!!

Emmeline got to give the talk today. She went right after Mabel, and she was holding Mabel's hand to support her while they were sitting up front together. I thought to myself that she is such a great big sister. Emmeline doesnt get a whole blog with two giant paragraphs like Mabel does since she has given talks and scriptures before and has always done a good job. Today was no exception. She made her own pictures and she told the story of Joseph Smiths first vision. Her talk was memorized and I enjoyed being able to sit back and listen instead of feeding it to her line by line or having her read it.

Kids really can do amazing things if we give them the opportunity and take the time to help them along the way!!

Good job girls!!