Renewal

I was going to post on Saturday night; I really was. But then technical difficulties happened, so here we are.

Speaking of Saturday night, as I was heading out to sleep over at my parents' for Easter, Pepper gave me a little Easter basket she had put together. This chocolate egg was included:

 

It's so fancy, I'm afraid to eat it!

When I got to the parents' house, I made up a little bed on the downstairs couch. Baby Brother came to join me. Before we went to bed, he read me an entire book about Easter bunnies (except the book referred to them as rabbits, which I found odd). Actually, Baby Brother kept insisting that he was making up this bedtime story for me rather than reading from the book hidden in a blanket on his lap. Baby Brother is a weird one sometimes.

The book bedtime story Baby Brother was telling was mostly about the ways in which Easter bunnies deliver eggs. But every now and again, there would be a line like this one: "When they get old enough, Easter rabbits go on dates and get to know other rabbits. Then they get married and raise Easter rabbit families." ...All righty then.

In the morning, Baby Brother and I went upstairs to Little Sister's room, where Baby Brother told Little Sister the exact same story, word for word. Then we looked at the little goodies in our Easter baskets and dyed eggs as a family. We made some cool marbled eggs as well as your typical kit-dyed eggs.

Please note the Avatar Aang egg (from Avatar the Last Airbender) and the Rock Facts rock egg (from Over the Garden Wall). 

Also, my mother the RN, who worked in a bakery before she was an RN, made a fun bunny cake. Baby Brother and I added a face :

On a more serious note, over the years I have posted some Easter posts to talk about what Easter means to me. There are certainly statements more eloquent than mine. But I say what I can.

The aspect of Easter that has most been on my mind is renewal. The Atonement makes it possible for us to start over new. After sin, yes. After terrible heartache and pain, yes. But even with people.

I really do believe that relationships are forever. Family and romantic relationships, yes, but also friendships. Well, I give up on these eternal things far too easily. Someone makes me angry...so I give up. I make them angry...so I give up. I think I might have made them angry...so I give up. Maybe you've been there, too. Maybe you've been in an argument with somebody, and as you walk away it hits you...how are you and your friend going to get past this one? Are you going to get past this one? You don't know if you're going to be able to get past this one.

That's where the renewal comes in. If, like me, you've ever been in a situation that you felt might ruin a relationship, then you might have also, like me, been in a situation where you're surprised at how very not ruined the relationship was. What saved it? Usually forgiveness was involved, and humility, and a mutual agreement to move past it and start over. In a word, renewal.

That renewal wouldn't be possible without the Atonement. The Atonement is the source of all change, all improvement, and all healing. The resilience and hardiness of the human spirit stems from it. All forgiveness flows from it. It can, and should, be used often. Daily, even. Multiple times a day.

Happy Easter.