Wish me luck!

I've been thinking a lot about appearances. My Visiting Teacher said the other day that my house is always clean and calm. Ha! Little does she know, the frantic picking up and straightening up and piling papers on my bed that happens before she comes. If she arrived 10 minutes earlier than she said she would, she'd see a whole different scene. And it isn't because I think she would be judgmental or anything (she's great). That's just how I am. I have this picture in my mind that I have to appear to be perfect, that I have it all together.

I saw this quote the other day and it really struck me.

I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived. ~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley

So, I'm going to try to worry less about how things look and more about how I'm spending my time. Wish me luck.