The End of an Era

Jared was released from the Bishopric today.  Four years, two months and three days ago he was sustained as the First Counselor to our new Bishop.  (For those of you reading who may not be LDS, a Bishop is the leader of a local congregation in the LDS Church.  He is assisted by two counselors.  The three men together make up the Bishopric.)

That equates to 218 weeks.  Which means I was a Sacrament Meeting Widow for roughly 200 Sundays.  Though I did have my awesome friends Hillary & Alex on the bench to help me for about half of that time.

I had been anticipating this day for, well, 218 weeks!  I couldn’t wait to have Jared sit on the bench with us again.  And to not have to deal with coordinating his responsibilities with my Young Women responsibilities sounded pretty darn good.

I was shocked at the sadness I felt when this day finally came.  I don’t even know if I can explain it.  But there’s something comforting knowing that Jared was doing what the Lord wanted him to do.  I never worried about him.  I never really worried about us.  Our lives got pretty insane at times, but I knew we would be OK.  It felt like we were in a little bubble, safe from the world’s problems.  Don’t get me wrong, though – we had plenty of “stuff” in those 4 years.  A broken nose, a broken arm, a cat attack and subsequent hospitalization, knee surgery, the birth of a baby, Down syndrome, heart surgery, three sets of ear tubes between two kids, four tax seasons…oh, and a harried wife/mom for a good 218 weeks, just to name a few.

As much as I am relieved to know that Jared will be back on the bench with us, it was a tender mercy to be able to look up at him on the stand every Sunday and have him smile at me or pass a “You better behave!” look to one of the kids.  It was a blessing for me to see him from a distance every week and be reminded of how much I love him and how much I need him.

While the past 218 weeks have been the most difficult of my life, I will always be grateful for them.  We are better and stronger and happier than we were 218 weeks ago. I think we’re all a little closer to being who we’re supposed to be. We have been blessed immensely.