Tune up your life!

 

I love music.  It makes my heart sing.  At least, it does when it is the right notes at the right times.  We have all listened to a recital or a concert where the notes are wrong, or the squeak and squawk, or they are just out of sync.  It is not pleasant to sit through and I always feel bad for the person performing. 

I have a guitar that I am hoping to have more time to play soon.  It gets out of tune for different reasons.  Sometimes, it is because it is sitting there for too long without being played.  Sometimes, it is due to a bad string.  Sometimes, it is because the peg won't hold and needs to be fixed.  There are different reasons in life that make that guitar out of tune when I need it to be in tune. 
Our lives are just like that.  Different things make us out of tune with the gospel.  It can be the words and actions of others, the lack of participation in ourselves, the lost opportunities, the lack of effort, or the failure to study and ponder.  Pretty much anything that blocks us from living a righteous life can prevent us from being in tune ourselves. 
Most things are totally within our control to change.  We just have to realize that they need to be changed and then step up and work on them.  We need to be willing to put the effort into following God's plan, instead of our own.  We need to lose ourselves in His service and teachings.  Basically, we need to tune ourselves up to be doers of the word and not hearers only. 
We need to live our lives for Him.

What I Learned - Be Not Troubled

This was a great conference talk from the last general conference and we talked about it a few Sunday's ago in Relief Society.  I loved this talk.  We live in a crazy, mixed up world.  It seems to get worse every single day, and as much as I love it, I am sometimes very afraid for what the future might hold.  Especially for the children and youth of the world. 
We have so many technological advances available to us.  Things that can bring us great joy, or great sorrow depending on how they are used.  This talk was comforting to me because he reminded me that fear is a choice we each make.  If we are living righteous lives, we do not need to fear the eternal outcome of life.  It won't matter what the world does, it matters what we do and what we choose to follow. 

"Since ancient times, fear has limited the perspective of God’s children. I have always loved the account of Elisha in 2 Kings. The king of Syria had sent a legion that “came by night, and compassed the city about.”² Their intent was to capture and kill the prophet Elisha. We read:

“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?”³

That was fear speaking.

“And [Elisha] answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”⁴

But he didn’t stop there.

“Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”⁵

We may or may not have chariots of fire sent to dispel our fears and conquer our demons, but the lesson is clear. The Lord is with us, mindful of us and blessing us in ways only He can do. Prayer can call down the strength and the revelation that we need to center our thoughts on Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. The Lord knew that at times we would feel fear. I have been there and so have you, which is why the scriptures are replete with the Lord’s counsel:

“Be of good cheer, and do not fear.”

“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”"

 

Do not fear has ever been the message of a loving Heavenly Father to us, His children.  I think it is important to not only remember who we are as we struggle through this life, but to also remember and acknowledge "whose" we are. 

May we ever be without fear. 

Wordless Wednesday - Chocolate Falls

 

A single photo 

– no words –

capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment

I want to pause, savor and remember.

A moment

that brings a smile to my lips, 

and joy to my heart.

Harmony

Sometimes, we think that happiness is something we buy, or something we receive.  It is the new house, or the new car, or the new toy.  We start to think that happiness is more about things than about the life we are living.  We forget that happiness is something we have to find from within.
Happiness is a state of mind and being.  It is not and never has been about things.  It is not even about people or those we love.  It is not about feeling lonely or lost or useless.  It is about changing the way we are thinking and the parts of life that we are looking at.
I tend to focus on too much negative in my life.  Believe me, if you look for it, you will find it everywhere!  We are surrounded by negative things.  There are always those who seem to have it better than we do.  There are always others to compare ourselves to.  There is always something we want and can't get.  There are always things going wrong and it can seem as if not enough is going right in our lives. 
I suffer from depression and anxiety.  Those are two diseases that make it so that I can't even begin to explain how many negatives I experience any given day.  I constantly focus on that negative and on my internal thoughts and feelings and feel a complete lack of happiness in my life.  There are moments, but it is not a constant state for me. 
I am trying to change myself to get better at find the harmony within.  The things I do and say are usually good.  But it is the thoughts that continually bring my focus to the problem places instead of the joy.  It is my thoughts that I need to change.
So, what am I doing?  I am trying to remind myself that a bad moment is simply a moment.  It is not my entire life.  I am trying to surround myself with reminders of joy.  Pictures of grandchildren, papers they have drawn for me, cards and notes and pictures of events. 
When the negative intrudes (as it will) I am trying to shift my focus to one of those joyful things.  I have thoughts and quotes on my bathroom mirror and around my house.  I am reading uplifting material.  I am starting to write again and draw and allow myself to post and do something that seems imperfect to me.  I am trying to focus on the good inside myself instead of the person that I think I SHOULD be.  I am letting go instead of holding on. 
Happiness is available to each one of us.  I am learning that it is more focused on the way I look outward and inward than it is a real state of being in Harmony with yourself. 

Perfectly Put Together

I think this is easy to forget.  Sometimes we feel so bad about ourselves and our prior choices, that we think we are unworthy to go to church, or to worship God, or even to pray.  We forget that not a single person in this world is perfect.  We have all made mistakes.  We might assume that some are worse than others, but that judgment should be entirely left to our loving Heavenly Father. 
Church is not just for those perfectly seeming people that we might know and think about.  You know the ones I mean!  The ones who are always there, always serving, always involved.  The ones who outwardly seem to be practically perfect in every way. 
Sometimes, it takes everything we have to roll out of bed, grab the first thing we find in the closet and manage to drive to church. 
Sometimes it is all we can do to face other people in our own brokenness. 
Sometimes we feel like we wear a very large tattoo that says SIN across our forehead. 
But church and worship are very much for each one of us.  It doesn't matter what place we are at in our lives.  It doesn't matter what we have done in the past, or even what mistakes we are making now.  What matters the most, is that we want to change our heart and nourish our spirits.  We want to become.
When you see someone who looks differently than you do, someone who is all alone or separated from the group, someone who is quite and not participating.  Someone who is hurting, someone who is scared, someone who is crying, someone who is struggling, someone who is not you. 
Welcome them in with open arms and open hearts. 
We should be a sanctuary for any and all who are seeking the Saviors love.  We should be a healing shoulder and a loving arm.  We should be truly Christian in our actions and not just in our professed beliefs.
We need to be a resting place for the weary and a sanctuary for the broken.
Remember that we are all Children of God and he loves each and every one of us.
He knows you.
He loves you.
He wants you to return to him.