When I was at TOFW a few weekends ago, Sheri Dew was one of the speakers and she spoke about her ancestry and the struggles that her grandparents went through in Kansas trying to raise a crop in the early 1900's, she commented that they were not able to raise crop for more than 8 years and it took much trial and error to make their large farm successful. She then commented on how her parents took over that farm and were very successful and worked very hard to keep it successful, the point of the story was that her parents wouldn't have been successful if her grandparents hadn't tried so hard and she posed the question what if they had given up. She continued to speak how all of this has helped shape her life.
I really liked this story because both Ben and I have amazing parents, I grew up with some struggles in my family with dysfunction and at times chaos. With that said though, my Mother is an amazing example of fortitude and in turn has made me want to work harder to show her how much I love her, it says in my patriarchal blessing that I will honor my parents by the way I live. I don't tell my parents as much as I should how much I love them, I did speak with my mom about the story that Sheri Dew related and told her how thankful I was for her fortitude, realizing how hard things were for her parents and how hard they were for her.
Now Ben on the other hand cannot speak about his parents without breaking down, he loves them so much, you wouldn't know it because he never says it. He to tries to show people how much he loves them by his actions and not so much his words. He never wants to disappoint his parents or anyone in his family for that matter, they mean so much to him.
Unfortunately I am not a great writer and wish I could convey the story with the impact that it has, I am just so thankful that I heard it and that I have a new appreciation for Fortitude and thankful for the sacrifices that both of our parents have made on our behalves.
