Elle Epiphany

Each of my girls are so special to me and each have such unique and different personalities but do you remember the Sesame Street segment where they had 4 boxes on the screen with 3 bananas and one apple and they would sing "Three of these things belong together 3 of these things are kinda the same but one of these things is not like the others....etc. Well my 4 girls' definitely belong together but in one area they have not been the same. Chloe, Olivia and Ava just LOVE the spotlight.....give them a microphone, a stage and lots of attention and they are all about it. Elle came out different.....or so I thought.....until Monday night, I had an epiphany!!!

When Elle was first asked to give a talk in church she stood, said the first 2 lines and then large alligator tears came rolling down and it has continued to this day. She has never given a talk in church, said a prayer or said lines for the primary program without tears. She has feared standing before anyone because she knows she will cry. We worked and worked on it, to no avail. Well this Christmas something happened. Her school had a Christmas play. She had lines.....lots of them, and I immediately went to the teacher and said, "this won't work. She will not get through these lines, she will cry.....I guarantee." The teacher said, "Well we have had a few practices and she has been fine so I will move forward." I knew this teacher was crazy but I let her proceed. How did it go? It was like a different girl. She stood confidently, said her lines in front of all these strangers and parents, and it went off without a hitch. I was amazed; we celebrated and thought we were through the stage fright. Yeah!! Nope......not long after that she was again asked to give a talk in primary, we prepared, she was confident and then when she went to the pulpit and began telling the story of Nephi she began to sob again. Wow....I thought we were through this. I guess not. I was baffled.

Now to Family Home Evening last night. This was her first time to prepare and totally give the lesson all alone. She had no help from anyone and worked so hard preparing. She stood and again began to share a scripture story and within 20 seconds I saw it coming again......her sweet eyes were welling up with tears. I couldn't believe it...was she having stage fright in front of us???? She again began to sob and sob.....and came to me for comfort. I gently urged her back to the front of the room and she eventually finished a beautiful, sweet lesson and wrapped up with a fun game. I laid in bed Monday night and thought and thought about it and suddenly, like a puzzle, it all came together for me. She doesn't have stage fright, she is a deeply spiritual girl who feels the spirit of our Heavenly Father so strongly that her little body sometimes can't contain it. Many memories came flooding back. When she began the school year she had a Fathers Blessing and as the blessing began I heard something and opened my eyes to see this sweet 6 year old sobbing almost uncontrollably as her father blessed her. At the end she fell in his arms and the feeling in the room was so strong. She is fine being in front of people if she is going to talk about Frosty the Snowman but if she is going to talk about the prophets, apostles and the Savior she will always struggle for composure. Oh I LOVE this sweet girl. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who helps us as mothers understand and love our children and I am grateful that such great, strong spirits are being sent into this world today. I am so blessed and lucky that she is mine.