The Quirks of Life

There's a scripture in 1 Nephi 21:16 (and Isaiah 49:16) that has always struck me. The idea is very personal to me. The message sticks in my heart. "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." I am graven on the palms of Christ's hands. He has placed me there. By His agency, His freedom, He decided to yield to the Father's will and be pierced and wounded and scarred so that I might have a hope of eternal life. He didn't have to do it, but He did.  I am eternally grateful for this sacrifice. I don't acknowledge and remember it as I should, but I owe my all to Him. Not only has He made salvation possible, ensuring that all who lived on earth will be resurrected in perfect bodies, but He has given us His grace. The statement "thy walls are continually before me" has been sticking out to me recently. I think of my walls as my weaknesses and my shortcomings. He knows my blocks, He k...

In Regional Conference, one of the speakers talked about the Hastening of the Work. As I sat there, I thought of what a miracle it was in my life to serve a mission. This led to me think of a host of other mercies the Lord has extended to me that I never expected or dreamed possible. So here's my mission story: When I was 17, I had a friend (Allison) who was about to serve a mission. I expressed my reluctance and fears about missionary service. I did not want to wear a long, blanket like skirt every day and I did not want to tract. The lifestyle was not for me. But my spiritually in tune friend read to me a part from her journal where she talked about how excited she was to serve the Lord. The Lord began to soften my heart. I even went so far as to tell my Stake President (a church leader over many congregations) who smiled, asked me how old I was, and told me to come back in about 4 years. A few months later, I was standing in my kitchen at college, just making something to ...

These past few weeks have been crazy but wonderful! Mom and I road tripped it out here to Utah (and had a blast!). We read 2 whole books, learned life lessons, put the windows down and the music up, and just enjoyed ourselves. It was a lovely trip. Dad flew out and we got to see Grandma Hall and Uncle Gary's family. We also saw Aunt Joyce and her family as well as Uncle Duane and Aunt Chris. It was so good to see family and go to my cousin Kade's homecoming! In my human development class, our teacher brought up that through this semester, we may not be good at everything from the start. He advised us not to give up and said to maintain a "developmental" viewpoint/mindset. This entails that we are always growing. We are always changing our brain, and we will get better. This reminded me a lot of eternal perspective. I read a quote once that talked about how things that live longer take longer to grow. A deer takes only a few years to mature, but live the fract...

This week I have been studying patience and trying to develop it. Patience touches every aspect of life and makes a huge difference in our attitude.  Preach My Gospel has an amazing chapter (Chapter 6) that highlights a few of Christ's attributes and teaches how we can develop them. It teaches missionaries (and members): "Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are. "The restored gospel enables you to become like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The Savior has shown the way. He has set the perfect example, and He commands us to become as He is (see  3 Nephi 27:27 ). Learn of Him and seek to incorporate His attributes into your life. Through the power of His Atonement, you can achieve this goal and lead others to achieve it also." This is the message of the gospel; the whole purpose of it! We are here on this earth to become like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The whole reason we have trials, heartache, sorrow, unbearable joy, happiness, rejoici...

The other day I was watching a movie. The main character struggled with forgiving herself for some events she didn't cause but she still blamed herself for them. By the end of the movie, she's faced with the task to forgive herself. Her "alter ego" I guess, shows up and tells her how horrible she is and how no one will ever forgive her. With the world collapsing around her she finds the truth and she makes a choice. She says "That's not true. I will." Her words stayed with me. It demonstrates a choice to change, to go against your natural man and do what you know is right. Even if no one in the world would forgive her, she would forgive herself. There are many choices we make in life. These make our character, or reflect our character. Or both. We have the ability to choose, which is something I take for granted. In talking about Adam and Eve, the prophet Alma said " Wherefore, he gave  commandments  unto men, they having first transgressed the ...

On my mission, I found that writing every week helped me solidify, retain, and see all I’d learned in that week.  So I decided to keep a blog! Hopefully for real this time :) How much of life do we love ? Really, truly love? I’ve realized a lot of life simply passes us by and then a chapter is over and it’s time for the next one. Usually it’s then that I look back and realized how many good times we had. My mission president asked us all in a letter once if we really want to be happy. That made me think. How often do I just want to complain? Or just go through life, checking off my to dos and knowing I finished another day, another week, soon another year.  Do I really want to be happy? Enough to seek after it? Yes! Of course! So I studied people who are happy in the scriptures. I found that all of them 1) work hard and 2) live righteously (wickedness never was happiness). In times of war, they wrote about how hard the people worked and how there never could be...