Evidence of Love



 I pulled up to the school and hurriedly parked my car.


I ran inside to my classroom to grab the needed materials for the preschool classes I support and quickly returned to drive to their building, hoping to be on time for our coaching session. 


As I opened the door, a little pink and white baby sock fell out.  


I sighed as I glanced into my messy vehicle.  


Cupcake icing was smeared across my leather seats.


Some donation items collected for others were piled in the back.


Some lesson notes and art supplies from my

Sunday School class were on the floor. 


And an empty juice bottle sat in my cup holder.


“Uggh.”I thought.  “Why can’t I get my life pulled together?”


As I tossed it inside, and climbed behind the wheel I felt tired and discouraged.


But as I was driving, a quote from Sister Marjorie Hinckley came to mind. 


“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 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.”


Now, there is NOTHING wrong with wanting to look put together in any aspect of our life.


But this quote made me look again at my car with different eyes, seeing those same flaws and messes instead as evidence of love.


Icing on the seats from transporting two little girls to church with their grandma— evidence of love for someone trying to start new gospel patterns and change generational habits.


Notes and art supplies on the floor-  evidence of love for the teens in my Sunday School class. 


Donations-  evidence of others’ giving and our connection- evidence of love.


Receipt from breakfast with a friend- evidence of love for those needing a listening ear.


Packages to drop off - evidence of love for those far away. 


Bananas so I can have a healthy snack- evidence of love for me. 


And a tiny pink and white sock?  Leftover evidence from taking a woman and her two babies home after the buses stopped running and she was stranded with no ride.  Evidence of love for a stranger who was in need, and consequently love for my Savior. 


So if you are looking around tonight and feel like things are not as tidy or pulled together  as you wished they could be, show yourself some grace and kindness and look for the evidence of love. ❤️

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