I recently had
The sweetest experience
With my team
AKA my family.

My youngest son –
My #5 baby –
Has been reading each morning
From a tiny Book of Mormon
Gifted to him
By his older brother
Who is serving a mission
AKA My #2 baby.
The book contains
Highlighted verses and sections
And notes written inside
On slips of paper
In his very best handwriting
So his youngest brother
Would know the verses
In the book
That he loves
And why he loves them.

And on our weekly family call
My #5 told #2
That he’s been reading
The book he gave him.
And he wanted to read
One of the verses
Back to his brother
With this introduction:

“I didn’t know
This was going to be
My favorite verse
In the whole world!”

It says:
“And behold,
I tell you these things
That ye may learn wisdom;
That ye may learn
That when ye are
In the service
Of your fellow beings
Ye are only
In the service
Of your God.”
Mosiah 2:17

And he concluded with
This thought:
He loves it
Because he loves helping people.
And he loves how
When he helps other people
He’s also helping God.

And his older brother smiled
And told him,
He loves it too,
Which he already knew
Because he highlighted it.
But did he know this?
It was also the verse
That he chose
For his missionary plaque
As a sort of mission statement
When he left
For his mission.

And another thing
That my youngest
Maybe didn’t know
Was this story.
And so I told him:

Once upon a time
At the beginning
Of my pregnancy with him,
I was so nauseous
And tired,
And I had 4 kids
Who still needed me
To take care of them.
So my husband and I
Gathered together
Our little chickens
Who were adorable
And loud
And crazy
And fun
For a family council.
And we told them:
This was going to be
A team effort
To get baby #5 here.
Because Dad was working hard
So he couldn’t always be home
To help like he wanted to.
And Mom couldn’t do
All the other things
That needed to be done
All by herself.
So we implored them
To please help out
Around the house
And help Mom and Dad
And help each other.

And at the conclusion
Of that meeting,
My oldest son
Quietly got up
And wrote that exact verse
On a piece of paper
With colored pencils
And proudly hung it up
On the refrigerator.
And when he was finished
He gathered our family around it
And reminded us
How important this concept was.
And told the other kids
To remember
That when they were helping out,
They were also helping God.
That their actions
Were even bigger than they realized.

And after we told
My youngest son
That story,
We laughed
Because maybe
He has loved that verse
Longer than we all realize,
Because
It helped to get him here
To our family.

And after some quick math
We all realized
That my oldest son
Was about the same age
As my youngest son
When he did that.

It felt like
A full-circle moment.
The kind of circle
That went all the way
Around my heart
Like a hug.

The circle being:

1.
Baby #1 hangs verse
on the refrigerator
to help us all get Baby #5 here

2.
Baby #2 selects verse
for missionary plaque;
highlights it and shares it
in book he gives to Baby #5

3.
Baby #5 reads it, loves it
and shares the same verse
back to Baby #1 and Baby #2

And I’m beyond grateful
That we have them
And that they have each other.
And that principle
Of helping people
Has affected each of them
Individually and collectively.
And it has inspired them
To help each other
And lift each other
And strengthen each other
And love each other.

And to be able
To witness that love
And to experience it
Up close
Is one of my greatest joys
As a mother.

And as I look back,
I do remember
That moment
In our family
When baby #5
Was finally born.
We all felt like
It really had been
A team effort.
And there was
A special kind
Of collective pride and joy
In knowing
Our family was complete.
And that we did it.
All of us.
Together.