The First Gift of the Spirit

I've continued my thinking of Sunday's Gospel Doctrine class for days now...I've read and re-read the 46th section of the D&C AND the handout we received from Brother Shumway. I've prayed and asked the Lord to enlighten my mind as to the first gift of the Spirit I should desire and pray for.
As the handout shares, there is a story about a family preparing for Christmas dinner where one of the daughters is going to set the table with the much treasured silver rimmed china given to her parents for their wedding. She bumps her arm and drops the china shattering it across the floor. She is horrified and watches as her mother quietly leaves the room. Eventually, everyone gets back to their busyness except the daughter who is motionless with a tear trickling down her face. As she continues to cry, she finds the broom and dustpan and begins to sweep up the broken pieces. Within a few minutes, the mother returns and wraps her arms around her sobbing daughter saying, 'That's alright honey, people are more important than things.'

My first desire is to have the Gift of Spiritual Perspective. Joseph Smith said 'many gifts of the Spirit are not evident until they are needed'. In D&C section 46 verse 8, reads...'seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given...' I ask this gift not just for myself, but for Kathryn and how I can help her to see the Lord's plan for her.

Kathryn has wanted, for years, to graduate school early, home school so she can finish faster and move on her way in life. I have, at times, encouraged her desire for stretching her limits and wanting to move ahead, but I have never desired for her to go so fast through this phase of her life. I have pondered and thought over the past few years of Kathryn's difficult health situation, in that she seems to be continually suffering from some illness or another. I've been amazed , at times, to remember the epitome of health she represented during her years in Utah while she was a State Gymnastics's champion 3 years in a row. Since quitting gymnastics, she has suffered nothing but illness after lingering illness. It has been the most frustrating thing in her life to have to deal with and as her mother, I have not been able to help her figure it out as I take her almost weekly to the doctor with yet another symptom of some sort. It has been especially difficult this year, her Sophomore year, as she has been trying to double some of her classes and carefully fulfill some of the requirements early in order to be able to graduate next year as a Junior/Senior. It is as if she is being hit with illnesses that keep her out of school just long enough to put her in jeopardy of passing this year at all, forcing her to stay the extra year to graduate with her normal class.
My thoughts have drifted to the possibility that the Lord has a different plan for Kathryn and this may be His way of trying to just slow her down forcing her to enjoy this significant time in her young life. I'm not so sure that this isn't His way of saying 'you won't be ready to face the world as early as you think you can' and just 'take what I offer one step at a time'.
But my dilemma has been...do I ask the Lord to help ME teach Kathryn that eternal perspective, or do I help Kathryn learn it on her own?? What position do I take with her? The drivers seat or the passenger seat? How do I HELP or TEACH her to understand the ETERNAL perspective of her current decisions and the importance of being in the right place, at the right time, that being 'the LORD'S time?'
This is where I must understand the meaning of the passage in D&C 46 vs 8...'always remembering for what they are given'....my heart must be pure, my desires with an eye single to His glory and my will bent to His will.
Del gave Kathryn a blessing tonight from which I listened very carefully to her role in her recovering process. It was explained to her that she needed to be obedient in the directions given by doctors and her parents. That indicated to me that I needed to be in a position to give her guidance. To know what that guidance is will require much thought and prayer along with some good mothering instincts and some good old common sense. If I need the outcome of this past two years to be what the Lord desires, I need to make sure I learn what that is before I go shooting my mouth off with what I would want to happen personally, instead of the Lord's will first.
So the process begins - desiring the gift, praying for the gift, seeking for the gift, living worthy of the gift. And then the gift will come as it is needed....this is where I then exercise my faith.