Success or Failure?

Sunday, August 27, 2012

Today I sat in a wonderful Relief Society lesson.  One of the talks we were studying was, "That the Lost May Be Found," by Elder M. Russell Ballard.  The teacher highlight one of my favorite paragraphs from the talk, 

"Put everything you do outside the home in subjection to and in support of what happens inside your home.  Remember President Harold B. Lee's counsel that "the most important . . . work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own homes" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee [2000], 134) and President David O. McKay's timeless "No other success can compensate for failure in the home" (quoted from J.E. McCulloch, Home: The Savior of Civilization [1924], 42; in Conference Report, Apr. 1935, 116).  

I have heard, "No other success can compensate for failure in the home" dozens of times in my life.  I have always brushed it aside thinking I am not a failure, so it doesn't apply to me.  Today I really thought about the phrase and how many days that  I have felt like a failure.  The days when dinner isn't ready, the laundry is piled high, homework papers are scatter across the kitchen counter, the baby is screaming, and I handle the chaos by yelling.  It is days like that I feel like a failure in my home.

I wondered, "What can I do to lessen the amount of days that I feel like a failure?"  Sure, I realize that there will be many days that don't go as planned.  I feel like often the crazy evenings of chaos come when I haven't properly manage my time and have over committed myself to wonderful causes outside of our home.  

The answer to the problem is exactly what Elder Ballard said,

"Put everything you do outside the home in subjection to and in support of what happens inside your home. "