I sat flipping through a collection of quotes by President Hinckley just now and landed on this one:

Every sacrament meeting ought to be a spiritual feast. It ought to be a time for meditation and introspection, a time for singing the songs of praise to the Lord, a time for renewing one's covenant with Him and our Eternal Father, and a time for hearing the word of the Lord with reverence and appreciation. 

I couldn't help but chuckled to myself as I read that and thought, "Yeah, sacrament meeting should be like that but I can't for the life of me remember the last time it actually was like that." Lately, I have been dreading going to church each week. It is an exhausting ordeal wrangling the children into clothes and making them look at least half-way presentable, getting to church and then wrangling all three children through sacrament meeting. Today, for example, was actually pretty decent. James and Ruby scuffled over the activity books, Archie pooped and had to be taken out, James was bent over coloring just as the water tray was passing over his head when he popped his head up and sent water all over the place, meanwhile Archie has crawled under the bench and scrapes his eye, Ruby is constantly telling James to stop kicking her, James wants to hold Archie and Archie cries, then Ruby wants to hold Archie and Archie cries, then James has to go to the bathroom. And this was a light day. I barely had time to balance the cup to my lips whilst simultaneously trying to keep Archie from grabbing the cup and falling off my lap. So, meditation and introspection?? Well, let's just say that I'm laughing as I'm typing this. And don't even get me started on speakers who go over time by even one minute or closing prayers that are way too long... I literally start screaming in my head, "Shut up!!!! Sit down! It took all of my energy to keep some semblance of control over these children for the last hour! Now shut up and close this meeting!!" Yes, I really do that in my head if it's been a particularly trying sacrament meeting.
Then, it's on to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society. Usually, I'm nursing Archie during one of them and during the other one, I'm chasing him down or walking the halls with him. I often ask myself why I even bother going every week when I get almost nothing out of it. As I pick up my children from Primary, I am quickly reminded why I go through this struggle every week. I don't do it for me (otherwise, I would just take the baby home and put him to bed), I do it for my kids. I'm helping them build a foundation that will be with them throughout their lives.
In thinking about President Hinckley's quote, I can't help but think that he spent all of his married life sitting on the stand  during sacrament meeting.