What did you learn?

This is a challenge to spend 10 minutes reading the scriptures with a specific question in mind. Start with a prayer. Ask the Lord for guidance about something you have been struggling with, or more generally to teach you something you need to know. Then spend 10 minutes reading in the scriptures. Share what you learn here if you would like.

Things Will Work Out

“Things will work out. Keep trying. Be believing. Be happy. Don’t get discouraged. Things will work out.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

Life can get pretty discouraging at times. Health problems, financial difficulties, feeling our own frailties and weaknesses as parents or just as human beings in general can all cause us to feel down. Sometimes it seems like there is no respite from all the little trials we have to face, but we can feel the peace. D&C 59:23 says, "But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come."

Everything from broken down cars to bad hair cuts to bursitis and more can weigh on us heavily but I think the key to happiness is two-fold: first, obedience to the commandments of God and second, counting our blessings more than we count our trials. Often when we are doing our best to keep the commandments we find ourselves facing even more trials (we'll call this the "Job Effect"). Job faced some of the hardest trials that anyone could face but yet he remained steadfast in his testimony of Jesus Christ. He recognized that even though he had his family, his health, his friends and even his dignity taken from him that he still had blessings--he still had a testimony of the Savior, of His atonement and resurrection. He still had the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and he had the promise of "eternal life in the world to come."

So often I neglect to count my blessings, but when I take the time to really think about all that I have been endowed with I find myself feeling uplifted and happier despite the trials I have. The broken down cars don't seem so bad and suddenly I am blessed even more with comfort and the assurance that the Lord will take care of us. He won't let us down. He loves us and is aware of my fears and insecurities. He knows that I sometimes feel like a failure as a mother or that I got angry with that person at the store for taking the parking spot I was waiting for, but inspite of my weaknesses He still loves me anyway and wants for me to be happy.

Armed with knowledge of the Lord's love and fortified by gratitude for my blessings, I can keep trying. I become more believing and less discouraged and I know that indeed things will work out.

5 Things I Am Grateful For:
1. Family, Friends, Loved Ones
2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
3. Beauty--Beautiful writing, music, art. . .
4. Nature--flowers, birds, grass, trees, the moon and stars, the sun and rain, lightning and thunder, animals plants, the wondrous world that we live in
5. A body--a body that works, walks, and functions properly. Even though it may not meet the world's standards of beauty it is miraculous and I am so glad I have it.

What are you grateful for? I challenge you to list 5 things that bless your life.

On Duties

"How necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy. It is a psychological truth that the physical acts of reverence and devotion make one feel devout. The courteous gesture increases one's respect for others. To act lovingly is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyfully brings joy to others which in turn makes one feel joyful. I believe we are called to the duty of delight." -Dorothy Day

It's spring. I itch to dig in the earth, to get my hands dirty, to labor for the life of some beautiful or useful plant. To weed. To prune. To nourish. To protect. I hope to help my little seedlings not only live, but thrive. And that's what I want for myself. I want not only to live, but to thrive.

As Dorothy Day points out, we must cultivate joy. I think that means dig for it. Weed around it. Prune it. Nourish it and protect it. Get in there and get our hands dirty in helping it along. Perhaps joy is tied much more closely to work than we ever realized - hard, break a sweat, task by task accomplishment- our duties. Dishes, laundry, dusting, bills... can we find delight in these duties? Can we look at them as acts of loving service for our family? as prayers of gratitude to our Father in Heaven? As we "serve" our home, won't we come to love it all the more? Won't our contentment grow?

The work our mind has to do is no less arduous, even if we won't break a sweat. Dorothy Day's words illuminate one of our mental duties. It is to choose to act. Today we have largley forgotten that the doing precedes the feeling. We must act to sow seeds of reverence, courtesy, love, and joy with faith that they will grow. We must act joyful when we feel the farthest from it and yearn for it the most. If we understood the power of acting, of choosing what it is we long to feel or be, we would already be harvesting delight.

What is Real Beauty?

Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley said:
"We are God's children, and if we ever got that through out heads thoroughly and understood that completely, we would never do a small thing, we would never say a cross word. We would not use bad language. We would not criticize anybody. We would love everyone the way the Savior loves us. 'As I have loved you, love one another.'"
I think that's what true beauty is. It's not the clothes you wear or your hairstyle or having perfectly manicured nails--it's important to take care of ourselves, but that's not what true beauty is. True beauty is realizing we are children of God and acting accordingly.
The world's perception of beauty has become really distorted. (Want to see something interesting? Watch this short film: Evolution.)
The world would have us think that physical beauty is what matters, but it's not. Cleanliness, kindness, gentleness, righteousness--those are what make us beautiful.
Roald Dahl said in his book The Twits, "A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
Beauty is as beauty does.

Words to Live By from Elder Robert D. Hales

I spotted this article Ten Axioms to Guide Your Life by Elder Hales when I got my Ensign this month and couldn't wait to read it. Let me just briefly summarize and encourage you to read the whole article. It is really worth the time.
1. Everyone faces obstacles in this life. We can overcome them in one of three ways: Ask for help; Stop and take care of the problem ourselves; or just plow through the mess and hope to come out safely on the other side. All of these are viable options. Using the Atonement in our lives is one of the most effective ways to face obstacles.
2. Pursue goals with all your "heart, might, mind and strength." When we decide on a goal we want to pursue focus on the goal. If we are not working with singleness of purpose and conviction, going half-heartedly from one goal to another we work harder not smarter. We have to decide what we want and go for it!
3. Don't criticize, don't judge others. Don't let differences in personality get in the way of living with compassion.
4. Use the talents with which the Lord has blessed you for His glory and not for the praise or approval of others.
5. Don't be afraid to fail. We can learn things through failure that we couldn't learn any other way.
6. Crossing the finish line in this life is what matters--not how fast we run. The Lord doesn't expect us to run faster than we have strength but He does expect us to endure to the end!
7. "Temporal means 'temporary.' And temporary things cannot bring eternal happiness."
8. In order to learn the Lord's will for us we have to exercise agency and become accountable for our actions.
9. The world is moving farther and farther away from the us. We have to be a light on the hill to our friends and neighbors so that they can reach across that gap and have goodness and light through our righteous examples.
10. "Go to the temple. The endowment is the eternal curriculum. In it we are taught where we came from and why we are here on earth, and we are given the promise of achieving life eternal in the celestial kingdom if we obey the commandments and covenants. "

So there it is in a nutshell. What a blessing it is to belong to the Lord's church. I love the gospel and I am so thankful for it and for the inspired leaders who lead us along the path to eternal life.

Happy New Year

A new year, a new beginning. I love new beginings. They are so full of hope -the hope that is a part of all good things. The hope, of course, is that it's not too late, that we haven't blown it, wasted it, ruined it, or let it slip through our fingers. The hope is that we can start from here and move forward, and not just forward, but upward. The hope is that we can improve, grow, reach a little higher, do a little better, or just hold on a little longer. The hope is that our past mistakes may somehow be erased, forgotten, overcome. The hope, at its very core, is in the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope that perhaps God will find our offering acceptable when laid along side the offering of our Redeemer.
I hear hope's song in the ringing in of the new year. I catch its scent on the tender petals of spring. I feel it in the freedom and release of summer. I see it in the fall's crayon colors. I taste it in the first floating flakes of winter's snow. It is in each new month. It comes every Sabbath as I fill my thirsty soul with living waters. And daily it dawns upon me. A new day, a new start, another chance, a step towards where? It is mine to decide. I cannot stop my journey, but I can plot its course. I can get home.