It's hard to describe what I noticed about her. Singles wards were not established to be a place to get noticed, but they often have that reputation. Like peacocks young women (and young men) sometimes prance around hoping to get noticed. What I noticed about this girl is that she did not care to be noticed. As we stood in the cultural hall of her ward building, waiting for a potluck lunch to start, what she did seem to care about, was making the people of her ward feel welcomed. There were many other things I noticed about her that day that I'll keep to myself!
I was blessed to get invited to her home a few months later. Her family was warm and inviting (By the way, I can talk all I want about them in this blog because they rarely use the internet, he he). I started noticing a quality about her family that I haven't been able to assign a phrase to in ten years of admiration. But I heard a phrase that fits perfectly today as I listened to our inspired stake president give our ward counsel in sacrament meeting. He said that we need to be "quietly consistent" in living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah, doesn't that sound like a cool phrase? Well to me it does, and I am anything but quiet or consistent. But I really like the idea.
As I think about my years of friendship to my wife's family, what stands out most about their way of life, is their quiet consistency. It is so refreshing to be around people who don't want the lime light, but want to get the job done right...completely...every time. I know that those who know me are probably going to do a quick introspection (or wonder why someone who has none of this quality would want to write about it and expose himself as lacking) and that is not my intent. I just noticed this family has this stuff overflowing and I wanted to tell the world. As a society, we (I) could sure use more.
