Start Again

I am restored!
For some technical reason I cannot post to this blog from my computer so I have to use the PC laptop belonging to my husband. If I leave things lying around on his desk heaven only knows what will happen to them since everybody in this family also uses this computer. It becomes the homework place, the chat with teenage friends place, the business place, and of course my blogspot place.
After my last post, the paper that has my login information was misplaced. I was sure it had been tossed out for fertilizer at the local dump. I tried everything I thought I might have used as my password and nothing worked. Finally I requested for it to be restored. The problem was that the response required cutting and pasting a convoluted gobbledy goop call number from an e-mail sent to my e-mail address which is on "my" computer. Try as I might typing in the address on my husband's computer resulted in nothing.
Then one day I was sorting through miscellaneous papers my grandchildren had used to "play school" with and there it was....my missing page with the proper information to login into this
blog.
And suddenly I was restored....and relieved.
I apologize for being gone for so long. The important thing is that I am back.
This situation has caused me to reflect on a much bigger picture... that of the Lost Sheep.
How often in a person's life there is some small thing that prevents him or her from being totally able to be in the place he or she is supposed to be.
Just as I am sure some of you were silently criticizing my absence, in general we tend to look at what we think we are seeing in somebody's life and think we know what is going on.
And just as I was earnestly seeking a solution to my problem I'm sure many of those Lost Sheep are also trying to find solutions to their problems as well.
Probably somebody with greater expertise in computer technology would have figured out my dilemma much quicker than I did. And probably many of us with greater testimonies and gospel knowledge could figure out the way for the Lost Sheep much quicker and more effectively than they do. There is, however, something that is much more permanent in the learning curve if we all figure out our own problems. And just as my paper showed up in a very unexpected location, so do the answers to our dilemmas in life often show up in very unexpected ways or places.
At this Christmas time and throughout the year I believe our focus should be more on the love we should or do have for all of God's children than worrying about whether or not we think they've been restored or where we think they are on the pathway leading to Salvation.
This experience has humbled me showing me how quickly I went from being in the loop of the group to being a Lost Sheep. My new goal is to be more patient and Christlike.