Repentance

In Relief Society today, the teacher shared this story about her 15 year old son, Ben.

Ben got hired on by his father to work in his insurance office filing papers, etc.

Ben was overwhelmed with the task, and started to fall behind. Not wanting to fail/admit he was over his head, he started to file some of the papers under the filing cabinet, behind the filing cabinet…

It didn’t take long before everyone in the office was having the problem of missing files. Ben’s brother in law was the one who had the uncomfortable situation of discovering what Ben had been doing, and had to report the situation to the boss – aka Ben’s dad.

Ben and his mom and dad had a sit down discussion, in which the situation was unearthed and analyzed.

Ben didn’t get punished for what he’d done.

Instead, his parents had him repent. They took this situation not to punish and belittle quite a large offense, but to tie this mistake into the Gospel and explain how this is a situation in which Ben needed to call upon the power of repentance.

Ben had to apologize to everyone in the office who had been affected by his filing shortcuts.

He had to return the pay he received for when he was not doing the job he was being paid for.

He had to find every piece of paper he stuffed behind the filing cabinets, file them correctly, and did not get paid for this work – as he should have done it in the first place.

I was really touched by this story and how the parents handled this situation. They didn’t punish Ben. They simply taught him the power of repentance, and how it is applicable in all aspects of our life.

I can guaruntee that Ben learned a lot more from apoligizing to an entire office of people, than he would have from being grounded. Or losing his phone. Or being spanked, for a younger child.

I told Trevor this story, and he liked it as much as I did. We want to adopt this with our future kids. To never punish, but to teach repentance in all aspects. The Savior was the greatest teacher, and he definitely taught through repentance, not through punishment.

I think this story was so poignant to us both, since there are multiple situations Trevor and I have found friends/family in lately, where we’ve wondered “how do you handle this situation?” You want the best for those you love – and it’s not through indulgance or strict punishment.

This story really put to light for me that in every situation, if the child is taught repentance and the steps of repentance – they are not indulged nor punished – but given the power to fix the situation, they will truly learn and be empowered to make better decisions in the future.

So, the Schauerhamer home will be one of repentance, not punishment.

Love,

Brittney

Wedding Memories

I am going to keep a memory box, but wanted to take pictures to post some wedding related things on my blog. I don't have everything I want to document, hopefully I can find them/they didn't get thrown away.

As I was cleaning/organizing the chaos that we live in, I found these things and wanted to make sure I keep at least an electronic copy in a place I know I can find.

The letter that came from the temple, confirming my endowment (not sure where the sealing one is... need to find that!).

Bridal shower invite from the shower Charlyn/my mom threw me

Cute napkins at our wedding! Such a small detail, but I really loved them!

Love,

Brittney

Honeymoon!! The whole shabang

Cruise - July 19-26

First day on the boat, enjoying the sun and not being at work.

Our ship was Grandeur of the Seas.

I think this sums up how windy it was.

The main stage of the ship. Where all the events took place. 

Magician, comedian, bands, etc.

We got the Newlywed package,  which came with champagne! (non alcoholic, of course!)

Our first port was Fort Lauderdale. Which, turns out, is close to Universal Studios. Home of Harry Potter land. It wasn't a hard decision on how to spend the day.

On the bus ride there.

We aren't sure what this is - but it was cool.

And welcome to Hogwarts!!!!

We love Jurassic Park!

Trev loves Wolverine. Also, he's going to be Wolverine this year for halloween. He's growing out his hair and everything.

Parade we happened upon.

The second port was Royal Caribbean's private island - CoCo Kay.

Ferry ride from the ship to the island.

Laying in a hammock in the Bahamas with the love of my life? Yes please.

We have twin Keen shoes. Only, Trevor's are twice as big as mine.

We went snorkeling (and both got so, so, so ridiculously burned). We saw a couple big Rays, and that was so cool. Then as we were deciding to go back to shore, we saw a HUGE ray underneath us. Probably 15 feet across.

It's been my dream to see a huge ray while diving. I saw a smaller on in the Red Sea, but nothing close to as big as this one. One more thing to cross off my bucket list.

We got towel animals on our bed every other night. We were probably more excited than we should have been about towel animals.

The next dock was Nassau, Bahamas!!!

We took a shuttle to Atlantis. There is an Atlantis in Dubai, and it's always been my dream to stay here, in a room where the walls are an aquarium. We didn't stay here, but we did spring for a day at the Atlantis water park. 

The lazy river was amazing (and not really lazy, there were some definite rapids) and there were some good water slides. Two of them came down through the shark tank, so there were sharks swimming all around us. It was so cool.

It's hard to tell, but in the middle of the picture is a giant Manta Ray. Trevor and I followed it around, amazed by its size and grace. So cool!

The last night, they did an adults only game show, The Quest. In which, my darling husband was entered into the male beauty queen pageant. 

I've never been more proud of my husband.

They had to walk around the room and sashay. Trev did amazing.

Our last towel animal - a monkey!

All in all, best honeymoon ever. Seriously, we had so much fun. We had 3 days docked, 4 days at sea. We didn't take many pictures on the at sea days.

We had gourmet dinners each night, buffets every day. So much sun. 

It was so much fun being together 24/7 for 10 days. Beyond amazing, actually. And with no phone reception. Just us, no outside world.

BEST HONEYMOON EVER!!

Love,

Brittney (and Trevor)