Im so glade that chris rich was my teacher in yw's.

my favorite person I love chris rich.

When my husband died, it was a struggle. I had eight children and just a few grandchildren. Now I'm remarried, all my sons went on missions and all but one child are married and did so in the temple. However, three of those sons have left the church. Remarried now I love watching these and other podcasts that remind me Heavely Father isn't finished with any of us yet. Love your "joy in your posterity" reminder. I have wonderful kids and grandkids.

Wow, that was amazing to hear. I’m ashamed, but during the intro when you were saying that her husband left the church but she ended up in a good marriage, my assumption without even noticing it was that it was with a new person. The first couple of minutes while Chris was talking, I was waiting for her to say they’d gotten divorced after her husband left the church. As I was listening, I realized that while my husband and kids love Christ and love the church, I have a friend I’ve been concerned about. I hadn’t even realized that I’d been thinking in my head that I have to keep them from leaving because I don’t want to lose them. Of course I want them to stay, and I’ll still encourage them to, but I don’t even know why I assumed in my head that if they left I’d have to leave them. I listening to this interview, I realized that I can’t make their decisions for them, but I can make the decision to keep loving them even if they did leave. Obviously, I still don’t want them to, and I’ll still try to help them stay. It feels freeing, though, to remember what’s out of my hands. Their decisions are between them and God. At the same time, it also feels freeing to remember what is in my hands. My choice to love them is in my hands. I am not being forced any particular way by other’s decisions. It seems kind of funny that both a realization of ability and a realization of inability feel freeing. Maybe it’s a realization of truth and a better understanding of agency that’s doing that. It’s not about being all powerful or about being powerless. It’s more about aligning myself with truth, and thus with God. I think I’ll need to study this more.