On Sunscreen and Protection

Swim season is here. Which means sunscreen season is here. (A definite must-have for these fair and lovely children of mine.) Putting sunscreen on my kids inevitably evokes memories of my own mother putting sunscreen on me as a child. I remember feeling like she was almost knocking me over, she rubbed so hard and her hands were so strong and insistent. And she was always so...thorough. Under the bathing suit straps, on the tops of the feet and backs of the hands, in all the ear cracks; it must have given her some satisfaction to know that every single square inch that might be exposed to the sun, she had covered first. At the time, I am sure that I was easily annoyed and impatient at how long the whole process took. But I always knew that she was doing it right. That if anyone's capable hands could protect me from being burnt to a crisp out there in the unforgiving sun, they were hers.

Now I am the mom with the strong, insistent hands, whose children are at the mercy of long, thorough, sunscreen-applying sessions. They lurch forwards and backwards when I push too hard, ask if I'm done twelve times in two minutes, and largely prefer to do the whole thing themselves.

I wonder if they understand, on some level, that all I want to do is protect them? That for every moment of discomfort or impatience or annoyance during these brief sessions, I am just trying to protect them from other, more nefarious moments of searing, intense pain that lasts for days and days? From a pain that they have never truly had to experience, and that I know I can prevent them from having to experience?

And then my mind goes on: Is this how our Heavenly Father feels when we rail against the protections and preventions that He has in place for us? Is this what He thinks when we lurch back and forth and complain about the time or effort it takes to heed Him while His capable hands work their protective magic in our lives? When we don't understand or appreciate the limits and guidelines He has set for us? When all we can see is what cannot do, or have to wait to do, instead of trusting that all He wants to do is protect us from suffering and pain?

As hard as it is, and as much as I fight, I hope I can remember. That every limit He puts in place is because He cares. Because He loves us. Because He knows how to protect us when we cannot protect ourselves. That, like my mom and her sunscreen so many years ago, He is doing it right. And that if anyone's capable hands can protect me out there in the unforgiving world, they are His.

I pray that I can know and remember that, and that I can feel the strength of that protection even when I can't see what He is protecting me from...because I have never had to experience it.

"We show our love for God--and our faith in Him--by doing 

our very best every day to follow the course that 

He has laid out for us and by keeping the commandments that 

he has given to us. We especially manifest that faith and love in situations where we don't fully understand the reason for 

God's commands or the particular path He is telling us to take."

--Elder Von G. Keetch