The Spiritual Side to the Dead Gerbil Story. Really.

When Cameron found the dead gerbil, he cried and accepted my hugs and condolences, and then he sort of shook off his emotions and went to help Troy with the cleaning of the cage and disposing of the chewed up little corpse. He caught the other two gerbs, put them in a little container, and started moving things out of the cage. He was all business. He wondered aloud if we ought to just buy a new cage. If anything was going to ease his pain, it would be spending money.


I wasn't sure if we should even tell Aaron. As I've written before, he has a lot of worries, and some of them are definitely related to the death of our dog, Jeffrey, last April. None of us are "over"it, and Aaron in particular has had a hard time dealing with his loss. Having the gerbil die would be nothing compared to losing Jeffrey - I was just wary of having all those old feelings freshened up.



Troy called Aaron up from the basement and told him the sad news. Aaron came running to me, his face contorted with tears and worry. I hugged him tight. He broke away from me and started pacing, wringing his hands and crying, and then coming back for another hug. This is the anxiety at work. Poor Aaron!


And then, he knew what he needed to do. Aaron has an amazing testimony of prayer, and this time was as good as any.


"We've gotta pray, Mom!" He was practically frantic.


I followed him into the front room.

"What do you want to pray for?"

"Just... like, comfort and stuff. So I can stop worrying."


We knelt down at the couch. Aaron looked over at Troy in front of the cage, spatula in hand, ready to start scraping. Cameron was watching in horrified fascination, trying to calculate if we had enough time to go shopping for a new cage before the party started.


"Guys! Come on! We're praying!" Aaron wanted the whole family in on this.


Troy looked at me like "Now?" and I shot back the look that said "Duh!"


If Aaron says we pray...by golly, we are praying!


We all knelt down and Aaron asked that I say it. Afterwards, he hugged me and said,

"That was a really good prayer. Thanks."



And then he was fine. Completely. He got his "comfort and stuff".

This kid is so close to the Spirit, I can hardly find the words to describe it. His testimony of the Holy Ghost and comfort and our Heavenly Father's love is so pure and profound. I am humbled by him. Whenever there is a feeling or a thought that isn't right, his first thought is to pray. His faith is enormous. I can sure learn from him.


What a blessing he is!

Early Morning Prayers

So I'm up bright and early this morning - about 6 - I needed to get Cam ready for his Scout Day Camp and also be at the church at 7 to see the young women off to Girl's Camp. And of course, do the dishes and move the laundry from the floor in my room to the top of my bed. I did fold the towel layer in the pile before I headed to the kitchen to make Cam's lunch and clean up. Told you I can be a ball of energy first thing in the morning. It can be annoying.

I'm doing the dishes and I heard kind of a whimper behind me. It's Aaron, standing there, his lip quivering and I can tell he trying not to cry.

"Oh, hey baby. It's so early, you don't have to get up yet...what's wrong?"

"Mom, I just had a really, really bad dream. Will you come pray with me?"

Now Aaron is my 8 year old, my sweet son that we worry about, with his anger and defiance, the one we walk on eggshells around, trying to keep his moods on an even keel. We love him and we worry about him and we love him some more. And here he is, asking me to pray with him. Oh, my heart hurts with love for him.

I gather him in my arms and we go in the front room and kneel down together. I offer a quick prayer, asking for help and comfort, and then after, tell Aaron I'm proud of him for having faith and knowing that he can always ask Heavenly Father for help. He wants to go back to sleep now, all bad thoughts gone, and snuggles down in my bed. My son has a testimony.

It's a good morning.