Recognizing the Spirit

Warning: forgive me for the use of the term "excited" in this post. I know I overuse it. I even looked up synonyms to try to vary it but nothing evoked the meaning I was trying to express. In short, the Spirit speaks to me by making me "excited."

I've heard many lessons/talks throughout my life about recognizing the Spirit when it speaks. I've learned that the Spirit can reveal in many forms. Looking back now, I realize that the Spirit confirms things to me by getting me excited, anxious, looking forward to what may come.

Without going back too many years, I'll tell you I was led to attend the colleges I attended. I chose my major based on the excitement I thought it would hold. For whatever reason I could never get excited about going on a mission--so I didn't. I knew it was the right thing to marry Todd based on those feelings of anticipation of married life being way better than single life. Before I got pregnant with every child I would get excited at the thought of not only having another baby, but excited at the thought of just being pregnant. I knew when it was time to have another baby when the anticipation outweighed the dread of sleepless nights. In UT we lived in three different places all within 3 1/2 blocks of each other but each time I was anxious to pack it all up again. It's the same thing with homeschool this year. The thought of homeschool filled me with dread a couple of years ago but I am truly excited to give it a try this year.

There were a handful of times when we were living in Salt Lake that opportunities came for us to leave UT. I just could never get excited about those opportunities. Those opportunities never panned out for various reasons. I promise I wasn't sabatoging the plans. I know now it was because those opportunities weren't the right direction for us. Before we married, Todd told me when the opportunity came, we would go live/work in the Middle East. As some opportunities presented themselves, I secretly dreaded the thought of moving to some of the places that could potentially lead to his dream of working in the ME. I felt a bit like I had lied to him when we married. I mean, before we married I thought it sounded like a great idea but when these opportunities came up after marriage, I just couldn't get excited at the thought we would have to move far away from friends and family.

That is, until we moved to Kuwait. The time was right. The Spirit confirmed to me it was the right thing to do. I was excited for this opportunity. While in Kuwait we thought we'd be moving to Bahrain the next summer. We made plans--looking for places to live, enrolling the kids in a school there . . . But I just never could get excited about moving to Bahrain. Turns out at the last minute we were asked to move to Jordan. Walah! Excitement. As much as we loved the people we knew in Kuwait, I knew the move to Jordan was the next right step. Same with Egypt. As much as I complained about the pollution, garbage, etc. and as much as we loved Jordan, I was excited at the thought of living in Cairo, Egypt.

Which now I'm to the point of this post. That is, while we were in the States we were asked several times if this would be our last year here. When we left Utah we said we'd give it 3 years and that will end next year. As much as I LOVED being in the States enjoying the food, convenience, dear friends, beloved family, orderly traffic (not necessarily in that order), I was anxious to get back to Egypt. We'd spent 3 weeks here before heading back to the States and I wanted to come back to really get settled in, find where things are, meet new people. As much as I miss the States I was excited about coming back to Egypt.

So in answer to the question as to whether we'll move back to the States next year, let me just say my thought right now is I would be sad. I'm not excited about moving back to the States. But that is today. We've said come February/March of next year we'll have to start making some plans. So hopefully by then I'll be able to recognize what the Spirit is telling me. Will I be excited to move back to the States? Where in the States will that be? Or will I want to stay in Egypt or perhaps another country? Fortunately Todd is much closer to the Spirit than I am and when he makes the suggestion of where he thinks we should go/stay then I know I will feel the same excitement I'm learning to recognize.