Be Here

 

We live in an age of electronics and text messaging.  A time of blogging and facebook and twitter and even snapchat.  A time when it is easy to get lost in the view of the world, without really being part of what is going on around us. 

I have heard so often that there are times when we need to "disconnect".  It is easy to let life rule you with alarms and texts and emails and projects.  But sometimes, we just need to be in the here and now.  We need to stop and look around us.  We need to be right here, exactly where are feet are. 

When we are living in the moment, instead of in the future or the past, it is easier to be kind to ourselves.  It is easier to find joy and satisfaction.  When we can see our children playing with the puppy, or laughing at the birds or bouncing on the trampoline, we can be a part of their lives instead of passive observers along the way. 

I love to take pictures.  I love photography and the chances I have had to observe what is going on around me, however, I don't think I ever realized before how often I am not in the pictures.  I am the left out observer and recorder of the events.  When I look back through the family photography, I am missing from most of the shots.  I really do hate having my picture taken.  But I am realizing that there are times when we all need to be a participant, exactly here and now, and not on the outside looking in.  There are times when we need to come out from behind the viewer and be in front of the lens. 

We need to be

right where our feet are.

 

 

The Quieter you Become

This one is for me today.  For those of you who know me, I am not very quiet at all.  I like to talk, I like to listen, I like to be a part of the world around me.  I like to always, always interact.  I think that I am afraid that if I am too quiet, I will miss something important, something big, something that I have never seen before.  Actually, I know in my mind, that it is probably better if I am quiet.   If I could stop and be calm, I just might observe more.  I might be able to be a part of the world around me. Instead of simply watching and wondering if I am good enough, I just might find out.   

There has been so much trauma in my life, so many times when I have been ignored and left alone.  More often, shunned or made fun of.   I just don't feel like I have the strength for that anymore.  For me, being quiet is a risk.  It is the risk that I might be overlooked.  It is the risk that I might be ignored.  It is a risk that I might become a shadow of my true self. 
Being quiet, is a learned ability for me.  It has been a chance of finding the joy in listening to someone else.  It also means not being so quick to defend myself before I know what is really being said, or even more important, what is really meant.  I somehow judge myself as not enough, no matter how hard I try.  It is easy to look back and think of what I should have done.  I get defensive because I really hate feeling like I have failed.  I am someone who probably over-analysis life.  I look hard at everything.  Believe me, if I have made a mistake, I have already been hard on myself for it.  I don't like being the reason why others don't participate or feel needed.
As I look and ponder on the above message, I feel the noise that surrounds me, the busyness of the day and night.  I feel my heart yearn for peace. 
Today, I want very much to just be still.......

Which Path To Take

When I was girl, I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on.  Even Alice in Wonderland.  I had a hard time getting into the book, I think I was too old when I finally found it, but one thing about it that I have always loved is the eternal principles that are written within it's pages.  The Cheshire Cat was one of my favorites with his quirky wisdom.  In my adult life, I have found this one to be particularly true. 

There have been times when I could not decide where I wanted to go.  Or even when I did not make a choice.  I have found that the path really didn't matter because I didn't have a destination in mind. 

There have been other times when I knew exactly what I wanted and I was willing to do what I needed to get there.  The path was very important to me.  One of those times would be graduating from college.  It mattered to me that I received a degree.  As much as I would have loved to major in music or nursing, I chose business because that is what I am already practicing.  It made sense to major in something that I was using and would continue to use.  I worked hard to get my bachelors degree and continued on until I finally received my MBA.   I was  before I finished school.

The path mattered because I wanted my children to know that you can do anything you set your mind to do.  I had  children and still managed to finish school with honors.  It took much longer than I ever imagined, but I think it was worth the work and effort.

We all have choices to make in our lives.  At anytime there are myriads of paths to take.  There are choices to make.  There are mountains to climb.  The point the Cheshire Cat was making to Alice, is that she needed to decide where she wanted to go before asking for directions. 

Heavenly Father is willing to lead the way for us if we ask, but I have learned that it works better if I have a direction in mind before I ask Him.  I plan the way and He opens the opportunity.  Moving to the mountains was like that for me.  I did everything I could do first and then took it to Him.  He opened the way and there was never any doubt that this was where we belonged. 

It can be hard to live in a small town, but it is much easier when I have the confidence and assurance to know that He sent me here. 

The Rear View Mirror

I think that I spend way too much time looking in the rear view mirror.  I look back because times were hard. I look back because times were happy.  I look back because times are sad.  I look back, and back again.  I am not sure what is so tempting about looking back. 
Yes, I was younger then.  Yes, my children were small, and cute, and cuddly.  Yes, there were good times then.  Yes I had to learn and grow and live and love and learn some more. 
Sometimes I dwell on the past.  Mostly on the could have, would have and should have part of it.  I ponder on what I can do to change it.  (That answer is always nothing).  I want to do whatever it takes to right those wrongs, or change the path. 
The past is not what is important though.  No matter how many good times were there, or even how many bad ones, the most important place I can be is in the here and now.  It is here that I will develop the relationships for the future.  It is here that I can make a difference in the life of another.  It is here that I can start to change and become who I want to be. 
The window into eternity is big and bright with promise.  This life is but an instant.  It is just a couple minutes in the eternities.  I spend all this time worrying and fretting over a couple of moments in my life! 
So today, I am looking through the windshield and moving on.  The future is right there in front of me, His light leads me onward and His promises have always been sure.  And so today, I take my eyes of the mirror and look ahead, through the glass and toward the future.   

What I learned - Drawing Closer to Him

That I might draw all me unto me.

This talk is from Saturdays morning session of General conference and given by Elder Dale G. Renlund

As we draw closer to God, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will come into our lives.

I have been thinking a lot about the atonement lately.  I am reading about it in the book titled,  The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister.  So, this talk struck home to me.  He spoke about how the further we are from Jesus Christ, the more we murmur, feel contentious and feel entitled.  The closer we draw to Jesus Christ, the more we appreciate his suffering.  The more we are grateful for His grace and forgiveness.  I think also, the more we want to be like Him.   Elder Renlund also talks about how our distance from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is important, but it is even more important the direction we are heading in our lives.  He reminds us that Heavenly Father loves the repentant sinner who is working on being closer to Him.  I loved the folk song that He shared with us. 

When Christmas morning gleams

I want to go to the stable,

Where God in the nighttime hours

Already rests upon the straw.

How good Thou wast to desire

To come down to the earth!

Now, I do not wish to waste

My childhood days in sin anymore!

Jesus, we need Thee,

Thou dear children’s friend.

I no longer wish to grieve Thee

With my sins again.¹

I too, want to be one of the "Stable few".  I want to make sure that my heart is ever turned to the Stable and the babe who was born there.  I want to make sure that I don't grieve the Savior with my continued sins.  I want to be more like Him. 

“And I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock.

“But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall.”

I love how Elder Renlund points out that Christ does not say IF the rains descend and IF the floods come and IF the winds blow.  He says when.  No one is immune from life's challenges.  These things happen in all our lives and we have to be ready for the trials that we will surely face by drawing closer to Him.  I know that the Savior is standing ever near to us waiting for our hearts to turn to Him. 

Consistently Becoming

Have you ever tried to play piano?  I have, and it is HARD!  As far as I have ever found out, it is not possible to just sit down and play something without ever having played the instrument before.  You have to practice for years.  You have to work at it, and really love it. 
I tried to give my girls the gift of piano.  They are better than they used to be, but none of them have really ever played it like they could.  It is not what or who they want to be.  It is what I wanted them to be. 
On the other hand, I have a daughter who has never done any art in her life.  In our small town, there are no art classes in school (unless you count graphic art, which she never had an interest in).  She was a singer, and she loved it, but when she went to college, she decided to try something completely new and picked art to study for one class a day. 
The amazing thing for me is to see her blossom and grow in her art.  She loves it.  It is so fun to watch her practice different mediums and grow as she experiments with something that she loves. 
Everything that we want to become in life takes practice.  As we work on the things that we want to become, we become a little better each day.  We can work on any of the traits and attributes that we would like to better utilize. 
Imagine if we all became a little more kind, compassionate, loving, willing to serve, and even more grateful.  Think of the difference we could make in our own part of the world!  Just remember that we need to work at those things every day.  I believe that we all have something that we can work on that will make us better.  I know that I do.  As I seek to become, I am hoping that I find peace in following Him. 

Faith Always Triumphs

I have lived through bad days.  So have you.  In life I have discovered that bad days do end.  Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes a week, sometimes even years, but they really do end.  I have felt exhausted and wrung out.  I have been betrayed and accused.  I am in good company.  It is amazing to me how people can be so cruel, and yet believe they are so right.  If we could spend us much time helping and building each other up, as we do in tearing each other down, the world would truly be an amazing place.  Maybe even fit for a king. 

I have seen how Heavenly Father always keeps His promises.  He has given me so many.  They might not be as soon as I would like, but they are kept in His time.  And I have learned that they always come at the right time in my life.  I believe that faith always triumphs in the end.  That it is essential to our development and our life.  Having faith makes me a better person.  It gives me hope.  Hope in His promises, hope in eternal life, hope for tomorrow. 

Faith gives me the strength to hang on when I want so much to let go.  Faith keeps me going.  It gets me through the hard times because I know they will end.  I know that I will find peace. 

And I am content.  He really is in control. 

Brave

I love this simple quote. 

It is something that I forget.  Every.  Single.  Day. 

We all have trials, we each feel alone and forgotten from time to time.  Bravery is about seeing through all that and finding ourselves.  It is the story of overcoming.  It is the trial of our faith.  It happens all around us every day.  We have the power to decide what we are going to do with our lives.  We have the ability to change the world that is around us.  We get to choose to make a difference, (or not).  We hold our fate in the palm of our hand, we just have to be willing to see it and then, to live it. 

Being brave isn't necessarily about doing great things.  It is overcoming all the small and seemingly insurmountable things in our own lives.  Some days, getting out of bed might be the bravest thing you have ever done! 

The one thing I am learning right now is that we can be so very hard on ourselves.  We know our worst faults, or deepest, darkest secrets.  Sometimes, that is all we see.  We can't pull our eyes away for the faults.  We don't see the good that is within.  We don't see the amazing truth of all we manage to do.  We only see the should have's, would have's and could have's.  They haunt our thoughts and our lives. 

Being brave is moving through all of that in spite of ourselves.  It is reaching into those hidden places, and forgiving the human being that we are.  It is allowing ourselves to be imperfect and messy.  It is being kind to ourselves and recognizing our own individuality. 

Being brave is seeing beyond the crazy, upside down, inside out, messy moments of our lives and realizing the potential that lives inside. 

That spark of divinity that God placed there to remind us of who we are and where we are from. 

It is realizing that you, truly are,   His.   

Faith is learning to be OK

Oh yes, today this one is for me.  I struggle with this.  Once, quite a few years ago, I was struggling in my personal life, and someone at work asked me how I could profess to have faith, and then still be depressed and filled with anxiety.  Of course, that statement rather ruined my day, but later on, caused me to look really hard at faith in general, and especially my own faith. 

I do have faith, often times, lots of it.  But sometimes, it seems as if I struggle to exercise that faith when things go wrong.  I have a hard time putting aside worry, and a harder time putting aside the hurt.  I can look back at things and really be okay with the way they turned out.  To the point that I can accept those times in my life as the things that have helped to make me who I am today.  But when I am in the midst of trials, I have a much harder time maintaining the faith that everything will work out for the best, no matter what that might be. 

I have decided that it doesn't matter what others think about my faith.  As hard as it is, faith is personal, between me and my Savior.  What those around me perceive is not nearly as important.  I also know that I am blessed, often in unmentionable ways.  I know that my Savior lives, that He loves me and that He knows me personally.  He knows my name and my heart. 

I also know that I am not perfect.  But I do strive to get a little better each day.  I am truly working on having the faith to be okay no matter how things turn out in my life.  There is good and bad for each one of us.  Sometimes the most difficult parts of the journey are the ones that bring us the greatest lessons to learn, and eventually, even great joy.  So, although I can't always say that I am okay right this minute, if you give me a little time to think about it, I will, in time, admit to being okay with the way things have turned out.

Maybe, before the end of this crazy life I am living, I will reach the point where I can shrug it off, and move on.  I don't know everything, but I do know enough to keep in going in the direction that I am moving in.  I know that I am a daughter of God.  I know enough to believe.  I know enough to hold fast.  I know enough to desire to become. 

Gratitude for Hope in my Heart

Hope

Is the only thing

Stronger than

Fear.

Isn't that tree beautiful?  Look how it continues to grow in spite of being struck by lightening and having branches broken in the high winds that whip through the mountains.  It continues to flourish in spite of the difficulties that surround it.  It reminds me that there is always hope.  Where one might see only pain, yet life goes on and the green comes.  Home cometh in the morning.  

There have been so many things in my life that I am afraid of.  I have always been afraid of heights, I am afraid of the dark (really, the outside kind that doesn't have street lights).  I am afraid of bad things happening to those that I love.  I am so afraid of not being good enough to live in Heaven.  I am afraid of disappointing others.  My fears are many and vast.  I have had a lifetime to put them together.

But, in spite of all the fears, I find that I still have hope.  Hope that this life is not the end.  Hope in a better tomorrow.  Hope that somehow, things will work out for the best.  Hope that my children will choose the right.  Hope that we will know happiness.  So much hope even in the fear.

We all have things in life that we are afraid of.  Things that make us shiver in the night (or even the day).  The only thing that gets us through the fears is to find hope somewhere deep within.  Hope will get us through the night until the light burns bright again.  Hope will endure.  

Gratitude for Choice

May we be filled with gratitude

For the 

Right of Choice.

Accept the 

Responsibility of Choice,

And ever be Conscious of the

Results of Choice."

Thomas S. Monson

Sometimes, it is hard for me to be grateful for choice.  Maybe it is that I really wish that I could go backwards and not make the same mistakes.  I with there was a way to erase the past and put it so far behind me that I can't find it anymore.  I think that the hardest person for me to forgive is always myself.  Today I am trying to be grateful for the right of choice.  I know that it is the only path that we follow.  

When I am busy wishing that someone would tell me what to do, or make the choice for me, I realize that that would really fill me with resentment and even anger.  I don't want others to choose for me, I just want to do the right thing, at the right time and for the right reasons.  I know that although I get to choose, I don't get to choose the consequences.  Those are there whenever we make our choices.  

Today, I want to feel gratitude for the God-given gift of free-agency.  He didn't just "make" me do anything.  It is all my choice.  I sometimes don't understand His wisdom, I often don't understand His mercy, And I can't even begin to understand His grace, but I know it is there.  I know He loves me through all the bad choices as well as the good ones.  I know that He is there. As I fill my heart with gratitude, it helps me to choose to be a little bit closer to Him.  And that is one choice that I am so very happy to make.  

Five Minute Friday - Turn

Today is Five minute Friday, we really, I have been gone this weekend, so for me Friday has become Sunday, but I decided to participate anyway.  This is the day when a group of us get together over at Kate's Place and share our own stories in just five short minutes.  The rules are easy:  Write in five minutes flat without caring about whether it is just right or not.  Go over to Heading Home and link up your post.  And visit the person who linked up before you to share a comment about their writing.  See, easy.

Today the prompt is:

TURN

START

Inevitable Light
by Patricia A. Pitterle

Every way I turn
There's a path to take
And each step becomes
A choice I make.

As each road beckons me
From the right to stray,
I look to His light
To guide my way.

Seeking His inevitable light.
Searching for His peace.
Knowing that He loves me
And His love will never cease.

As I turn from path to path
Some grey, some light, some dim,
Some look right and call to me,
Only one leads to Him.

As I turn to make my choice
Along life's stormy ways,
I find His light within myself
To brighten all my days.

Seeking His inevitable light.
Searching for His peace.
Knowing that He loves me
And His love will never cease.

My feet step out upon the path
Of bumps and pain and strife
Knowing that He walks with me
And guides me through this life.

When darkness comes and I can't see
He takes me by the hand
And leads me through the hardest times
Through all life's shifting sands.

Seeking His inevitable light.
Searching for His peace.
Knowing that He loves me
And His love will never cease.

STOP

So, now it is your turn,  What can you write for your own five minute Friday?

Becoming Like Him - Day 23 - Look

For my 31 days of writing, I am linking up over at Heading Home and over at the Nester. There are several of us that are taking the 31 day writing challenge. Kate has suggested that we spend 31 days of Five minute writing. You can use the prompts or write about anything you would like, you just need to write.

I am sharing my journey for 31 days as I strive to become more like Him. My prayer is that you can find hope and peace in my words.

It isn't what you look at that matters,

It is what you see.

Start

All my life, I have heard the saying, "seeing through rose-colored glasses", I never really understood that, my problem is more that the glasses I am looking through are dark and smudged.  They see the endless trails instead of the eternity of possibilities.  

I am trying to change.  As I think of becoming more like Him, I can't imagine that He only looks at my sins.  I don't think He focuses on what is always wrong.  I somehow think that He is willing to forgive my many faults and look past them as I struggle to move forward and past those things myself.  

And so, I have to ask myself, when He really looks at me, what does He see.  I am pretty sure that He sees me so much differently than I do.  I focus on the dark places, the blackness, the depression, the anxiety and the mistakes.  I focus on the could have's and the should have's.  I am not very gentle with myself.  

Last week, I got to paint for the first time in years and something really stood out at me after we were through.  We started with a white canvas and painted it all black.  We needed the black in order to recognize and appreciate the colors that we going to be placed on top.  When I finished, the picture isn't black at all.  The trees are white, the foliage is orange and red and yellow and green.  There is a darkness looking under the trees as if it is coming onto twilight.  But it is not simply black.

Perhaps, I need to see myself like I see my art.  I need to realize that I am only focusing on one part of my life.  In the tapestry that weaves my life together, there are darks and lights all worked into the weaving.  You really can't have one without the other.  They bring about beauty in the world around us.  

Perhaps I need to learn to open my heart and see with His eyes instead of my own; to feel with His love instead of my pain,  To find my heart beating in rhythm with His.  I think it is time to find His version of "rose-colored glasses".  

Stop

Becoming Like Him - Day 18 - Taste

For my 31 days of writing, I am linking up over at Heading Home and over at the Nester. There are several of us that are taking the 31 day writing challenge. Kate has suggested that we spend 31 days of Five minute writing. You can use the prompts or write about anything you would like, you just need to write.

I am sharing my journey for 31 days as I strive to become more like Him. My prayer is that you can find hope and peace in my words.

"We write to taste life twice,

in the moment, 

and in retrospect".

Anais Nin

START

Oh how I love this quote.  It is amazing and really reminds me why I write.  Life is amazing, and without writing, it is easier to forget the good times and to get lost in the bad.  Most of my memories of my childhood are not so good.  I really wish that I could remember good things because I know they where there, but in childhood, the hurt far outweighed the happiness.  So, I remember the hurt.  Oh how I wish that someone had taught me to write back then.
Writing is much like cooking.  When I first got married, I was 17 years old and I knew nothing of following a recipe of cooking.  My mother cooked with cans and boxes and pre made food.  I really wanted to learn to cook homemade.  
I remember my first stew.  It cooked all day and we had company for dinner.  The potatoes weren't done yet and we still crunchy.  I cooked it too low.  Everyone ate, no one complained, but my husband said, (after the company had left), please don't cook that again.
So, I didn't, but I made other things and I learned.  I used to cook amazing cinnamon rolls and sweets.  I made homemade candy and breads and pretty much any dessert you can think of.  I even got good at it.  It took years of practice and lots of failures, but I learned.  
When I married my husband now, the hardest thing to blend was the cooking.  My kids, loved my cooking.  His kids loved his cooking.  So we had to learn to blend things together into new flavors and new traditions that became our own.  
He does a lot of the cooking.  He enjoys it and I don't mind at all.  The only thing everyone insists that I have to cook is gravy.  That is the must have on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Mom's gravy is still number one.  Like I said, I took years to perfect it. 
As an adult, I have written a lot.  I write poems, I write articles, I write about my love of God.  Because so much of my writing focuses on my testimony of the Savior and His love for me, I live it again in the words.  I live it first in my thoughts and feelings, then savor it again in the words when I write them down and finally taste my heart in the words again when I reread them.  
My hope has always been that my children will someday want to really get to know me, for something besides the recipe to gravy.  And that these parts of my life that I taste will somehow inspire them to reach just a little bit higher than they ever imagined.  

STOP

Your Decisions

The more you love your decisions,

the less you need others to love them.  

We have a little something in out lives called free agency.  That means, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to choose for ourselves.  Have you ever noticed, that when we are choosing wisely, we don't make excuses?  Yet, when we are choosing not so well, we tend to make all kinds of excuses about our choices.  Human nature seems to be to want acceptance even when we know (or especially when we know) that something is wrong.  

I used to have a very hard time making decisions.  I was so afraid that no matter what I decided, it would be wrong.  There was a lot of solid (for me) evidence behind that belief.  As I was faced with trials, I had to learn to make decisions quickly.  It was not easy.  It was not something I wanted to do. But it was very, very necessary.  
Now, I make a lot of decisions.  I make ones at work that people do not like, I make them with the public, I make them with family, I make them with employees and I even make them with the school.  Not everyone likes the decisions that I make.  However, I am learning that when I know it is right, I don't need the approval of those around me.  I just need to be comfortable in my own skin.  
This is what I want my children to learn.  When we have to excuse our decisions, we need to look at them again.  For instance, if my daughter is late getting home;  I say, "honey, what time did you get home last night" (mind you, I already know the answer).  She says, "about 12:15, I know we were late mom, BUT...."  It is the buts that will get us all.
So I am trying to teach them the language of responsibility.  "Mom, I got home at 12:15.  I am sorry.  I know I was late".  Now, it is up to me to decide the punishment for that tardiness, she decided to be late.  She made the choice.  Now she needs to be willing to live with the consequences that go with that choice.
It is the same for all of us.  We choose our own path.  We get to make our decisions.  I really is up to me and if I learn to take responsibility for my actions, than I am less likely to get caught up in bigger and not necessarily better, excuses.  
I learn to love my own decisions.  I learn to stand by them.  I learn to be responsible for myself.  
After all, isn't that what we all want for each other?  And isn't that exactly what Heavenly Father wants for each of us?  What are you waiting for?

1 Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

The Long Way Around

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

I went hiking with all the girls in girls camp this year, It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  As we did this hike, all around the fingers of the lake and back and forth looking for something, anything that resembled a trail, I couldn't help by compare it to my own life. It seems to me as if there have been plenty of times when I just had to take the long way around.  I knew the road to travel, but for whatever reason known only to my crazy brain, I just had to try it my own way.  

I know that I have learned from those experiences.  I know that I have even become better because of most of them.  But often, I have had to question why the learning seems to be so much harder for me that it ought to be.  What is it that tempts me along the paths of the hard road?

I have learned that we all go through those "long way around" times in our lives.  The closer that I am able to be to my Heavenly Father, the easier the road is to find.  Many tears later, I wonder why I would not listen in the first place.  

It would be easy to blame those times on my life, on the things that happened to me to put me in that place, but that is also not the whole truth of it.  At some point, in each of our lives, we get to choose.  We get to make choices in spite of (or maybe even because of) our pasts.  We get to get out our own compass and map and find the right trail.  

I have learned that my past does not have to define my future.  I can change.  I can choose.  I can become.  We all get to do hard things.  The question is, are you making excuses, or are you making a trail?  It really is completely up to you.  

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.

And remember, you really can do it! 

Your Opinions

You can have your own opinions,
but you can't have your own facts.

This is my super cute grand-daughter who definitely has her very own opinions about nearly everything.  Any you know what?  That is perfectly okay with me.  I love her opinions.  I love listening to her ideas and her crazy fun.  

We all have opinions about nearly everything we do in life.  I have an acquaintance that not only has opinions, but she is always right too.  It is really hard to talk to someone like that because they start to believe that their opinions ARE the facts.  The reality is, that person has to be always right.  No matter how much they hurt or offend others.  

I have learned that I don't always have to be right.  It is nice to be right once in a while, but it is not necessary.  What is necessary is for us to learn and grow and accept the opinions of others.  We don't have to agree with everything, we just have to care about the relationship enough to acknowledge their opinions.  

True facts don't change.  They are the same yesterday, today and forever.  They are the things that give us hope and faith and keep us moving in the right direction.  Facts are things that come after much searching.  Sometimes, they elude us for most of our lives.  They are there, but they are not open to our view yet.  As time goes on, and we learn, we discover the mysteries that have been hidden from our view.  

Celebrate all the times of your life

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less.  

That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners

 of everything that can't be bought". 

 Eugene Peterson

Most people seek to be happy.  I know that I do.  Sometimes it seems as though, no matter what I do, I can't find within me the ability to be happy.  Happiness seems to be something that you might be able to buy, like a favorite toy or a new car.  All you need is a little more money, or a little more time, or a few more friends to share it with. 
One of the things that I am noticing is that few people really seek to be content.  We are rushing around, from one thing to another, looking for something that we never find.  Content is described as: 
con·tent:  
1.  The substantive or meaningful part. 
2. Desiring no more than what one has; satisfied.
3. Ready to accept or acquiesce; willing.   Which means more? 
Which is more enduring?  Happiness or contentment?  Think for a moment.  Can you imagine being happy every single moment of every single day?  Can you imagine always feeling as if you are at the top of the world?  Is that even possible?  Being happy every single moment my not be possible, but being content during struggling times is.  We all struggle.  We all have trials and heartaches and difficulties.  But along with that, we all have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and will love us through those time.  Contentment is possible.  It makes the mountain just a little easier to climb.  It makes the mountain-top that much sweeter when you finally get there.  As for me, I am going to focus a little harder on being content instead of wishing so much to be happy.  I am learning that one just might lead to the other.

“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
- Dale Carnegie  -

1000 Blessings
 The wind in the trees
 The bird on the wing
 The help of a community
 The lovely taste of vanilla wafers
 Sticky Notes

The Liahona

  

I bought my husband a tie for Easter.  It has small pictures of something called the Liahona on the grey of the tie.  I love the story of the Liahona.  It has a very special meaning for me.  For those of you who don't know what the Liahona is, it is a ball that helped to lead Lehi and his family out of Jerusalem and into the promised land.  The ball was round and had two spindles that worked like a compass.  However, there was one big difference between the Liahona and the compasses of our day; the ball only worked if the family was righteous.  If they wavered in doubt, or fought among each other, or didn't listen to the Lord's guidance, the ball would cease to work and the family would be left on their own, lost and uncertain of the way to go.  The direction from the Lord was contingent upon their faith. 

“And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a shadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual.
“For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.
“And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.
“O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way” (Alma 37:43–46).

So we see, when we look closely, that the words of Christ can be a personal Liahona for each of us, showing us the way back Home to our Heavenly Father. Let us not be slothful because of the easiness of the way of the world around us. For the world will not lead us Home.  Let us take the faith of the words of Jesus Christ into our hearts as we read and study the scriptures.  Let us feast upon His words that they might become our own personnel Liahona, our compass if you will, and light our way in the darkness that surrounds us.  

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.