Testimony of Seminary

I'm not a morning person. My husband is super cheerful in the morning. He greets all of the kids with a happy face and kind words. I grunt. I can't even think straight early in the morning. I'm happy if I can put one foot in front of the other and remember to remove the wrapping from the cheese before I place it in sandwiches.

In high school I had early morning seminary and basketball practice. I loved seminary, but hated getting up early in the morning. When I went to BYU I was sure to schedule all my classes after 9:00 am so I didn't have to get up before the sun. One year, I had annoying "morning people" roommates who insisted on singing each morning and flouncing down the halls. Not my favorite.

For a few years, I escaped early mornings, but made up for it by rarely sleeping through then nights with babies and small children. Then school hit and I suddenly had earlier mornings.

I could almost deal with that until we moved out to the country and suddenly had to get kids on the bus at 6:40 am. When my kids entered high school, I was relieved that we had release time seminary (a hard won battle with our school district). Unfortunately, that only lasted for my first child and half-way through my second child when we then had to revert to early morning seminary. 6:00 am at the church every morning. Not my favorite.

Fortunately, my seminary-age children are more spiritually in tune than I, and have never complained about going to early morning seminary. They love it.

My daughter has actually been complaining that seminary has now ended, a few days before the end of the school year. She loves seminary. She loves beginning her day with that spiritual uplift. And, I have to say I'm so proud of her and my other daughter for faithfully attending all year. They get themselves up, get ready, and fully immerse themselves in the lessons. All of my children have benefited greatly from seminary.

I have noticed with all of them that their grasp of gospel stories as well as the principles behind those stories have expanded exponentially. Not only do they "get" the principles from the lessons but they have put them into practice. They apply what they've learned to their individual lives. Their spirituality and testimonies have grown in ways that they could never have grown without seminary.

So while I was focused on disliking early mornings, my children were concentrating on more fully understanding and ingesting the gospel. What a blessing seminary is to our family. I am so thankful for committed teachers who have reached out and touched the lives of my children and helped plant their feet firmly in gospel sod.

I not only have a testimony of what seminary has done for my own life, but what it's done for my children. And thought early mornings still aren't my favorite, I'm so grateful for the seminary program and the difference it's made in my children's lives.