Day 10:  It was another late night getting back from a scouting meeting, but we gathered our kids together, said a prayer and began to talk about “The Instruction Room” in the temple.  We reviewed what the room was used for such as a place to learn about the gospel and about our Father’s plan. Part of His plan was to provide a place for his children to gain a physical body and come to a world that would give us an opportunity to learn and to grow. This earth became that place and it was created by our Savior under the direction of the Father. I love the part in this movie how Dr. Lewis calls our Heavenly Father, the architect, and Jesus Christ, the builder. This is one of my favorite videos. I can’t even count how many times I have seen it and I still am touched by the power and wonder of God’s creations.

After watching this video, which sparked all kinds of questions from my kids about space, black holes, etc., we talked about God’s power to create and organize this universe that we live in. Since starting home school this week, my kids and I have talked a lot about our Solar System. It truly is amazing to learn of the power and glory of God’s handy work. One of the images in the video above really just touched me. It is the same picture below this post of the Crab Nebula.  I just felt overcome with the amazing universe that we live in.  It is hard to describe how truly awesome it is to be a child of God who created all these beautiful places for us to see and discover.  

I have also thought a lot about how much we miss stopping and staring at the stars.  We don’t spend time pondering the wondrous creations around us or commune with our God by just being still.  As I began to think and pray about whether or not I should home school, one of the thoughts I had was that I needed to teach my kids how to ponder and to make time everyday to allow them an opportunity to be still and ponder.  Well, tonight we did just that.  After we watched and talked about the movie, we grabbed a sleeping bag and went outside in the backyard to lay down on our back.  I told the kids we were just going to lay down and look at the stars and think about God and his creations (to ponder) without saying anything for 5 minutes.  It was awesome.  There is something very profound in stopping especially in our very busy lives and ponder the wonders of this life.  I think this will be a family habit for us from now on.  After our pondering, we shared some feelings about it and then the kids had fun looking through a telescope to see the moon.  It happened to be a full moon too!  I talked to the kids about the difference between the stars and the moon.  I asked them to look at the stars and then stare at the moon.  I pointed out how different and bright the moon was.  I continued to explain to them that if it was daylight and I asked them to look at the sun they would not be able to do that since it’s brightest is above all else.  In studying the solar system this week, we learned that the sun’s tempeture is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit!  It was a great opportunity to talk about the different places we will end up after the Savior comes and we are judged.  It really hit home tonight as we saw the difference between the brightness of the stars, moon and sun.  They really wanted to be with our Heavenly Father and be with Him in the Celestial Glory which Paul describes in the bible which says, “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1 Corinthians 15:40-41)

I only took these two quick pictures since it was a night of pondering for me too.  It was another great evening as we turned our hearts to the temple and focused on God’s power to create.

Image of Crab Nebula Credit:  NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)