Love

For the past couple weeks, on Sunday nights I have been picking a Christ like attribute to work on during the week. Last week was Patience. I learned a lot and surprisingly feel a lot better about my patience. Yesterday, I decided to work on Love this week. Today I was reading some talks by President Uchtdorf--my favorite, and I came across a November 2009 Ensign talk called "The love of God." Heavenly Father really always knows exactly what I need!!!

I took three pages of notes on this talk--yes, it was THAT good!!

How do we become True Disciples of Jesus Christ?
When I first thought about this question .. I was like ... this has a billion answers. Seriously... how am I suppose to pick one?! Well, surprisingly enough the answer is simple! "If ye love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15. Easy right? Ok, so maybe not THAT easy ... but totally possible with some help from our Heavenly Father. As I kept reading I was kindly reminded that love, is the greatest commandment. Matthew 22:37-39 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." If we always try our best to love God and each other, our lives will have direction and meaning. We will never be steered down the wrong path. President Uchtdorf tells us, as well as providing direction in our lives and the Lord's Church here on earth this will also provide us direction for the Lord's Church on the other side of the veil! What a profound promise!

When we start to love God, and love others as ourselves ... our lives take on a new meaning. When we love God all of our priorities are align. "Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden", because we are showing God that we love him by keeping his commandments!

But why should we Love God?
Just like we are taught that God doesn't NEED us to pray to him... God doesn't NEED us to love him. But WE NEED to love Him. President Uchtdorf says, "For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are-- and who we will become." If we choose not to love our Heavenly Father and instead love something or someone else more ... we will let go of the grip that we have on the iron rod. We will start choosing to put other things before scripture study, prayer, and even our church meetings. Slowly but surely we will loose total sight of the iron rod and be completely lost. I am so thankful for this knowledge so that I can do my best not to make these mistakes. But I do know that if I do ever loose sight of the iron rod or just my grip ... I can ALWAYS find it again. Which brings me to the next point.

Why does Heavenly Father Love us so much?
As no surprise to you or me, we are Heavenly Fathers children!! Why wouldn't he love us? We are created in His image. Just as your parents love you and would do anything in the world for you, Heavenly Father loves us just as much and even more. Everyday, here on this earth we make mistakes ... we hurt peoples feelings ... and sometimes choose not to love one another because of our flaws. Great news is, is that Heavenly Father will ALWAYS love us no matter how wicked, poor, or selfish we might be. So back to my point, if we loose sight of that iron rod or just our grip, we can ALWAYS find our way back!! " What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us."

So, just like our testimony should be strengthened everyday, and become more strong ... so should our love for god increase everyday and become stronger.

How can we increase our Love for God?
"God is love, the closer we approach him, the more profoundly we experience love."

As I read this part of the talk, I made a list of everything that I can do to become closer to God and feel his love ... that way I can increase my love for Him by doing these things.
-We must seek the spirit
-Keep his commandments, all of his commandments ... not just the easy ones
-Talk to him ALL the time EVERYWHERE and about EVERYTHING. D&C 19:28 says, "And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private."
-Proclaim publicly that we love Him.
-Share are testimony with others
-Align our thoughts and actions with His
-Read the scriptures
-Listen to General Conference
-Visit the Temple
-Study the words of His Latter-Day prophets
-Listen and do what he asks
-ENDURE TO THE END

Be still and quiet, listen for Heavenly Fathers voice in all things. Listen for it in the temple, during General Conference talks, while in nature or reading your scriptures. I know that when I make time for Heavenly Father and do not rush ... I hear his voice and I have confirmation that He really does LOVE me.

To conclude, I will share my favorite quote from this talk. "Love is the healing balm that repairs rifts in person and family relationships. It is the bond that unites families, communities, and nations. Love is the power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect. It is the source that overcomes divisiveness and hate. Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope. Love should be our walk and our talk.




It is only Monday ... and that is what I have learned about Love so far this week. Let's hope I can put it to good use! I have 6 more days before I pick my next Christ like attribute to focus on!! I'm going to be a ball full of knowledge!

A small world, a big plan.

I hate the coffee mugs that say, "Life sucks, then you die." To whoever wrote that... I wish you knew what I know!!! Life is amazing, somewhat unpredictable, interesting, and miraculous! Life is part of our Heavenly Fathers greatest plan!

Life is so exciting! It is full of the unexpected. It is full of love and laughter, heartbreaks and let downs...changing and growing. There are not many people that take the time to sit down and really think about their life--what they have learned and experienced, good memories and bad. Sometimes it takes special moments that prick our hearts to remember these kinds of things.
I experience moments like this ever so often ... and when I'm in a calm place ... I can sit and think about them. I think about the things that I have experienced so far that have built the person I am today. Whatever they may be good or bad, I am thankful for them all.

Update

My facebook deactivation lasted a day. Go me!!!

It's official!!

I deactivated my Facebook account. Now, I don't know how long I will be able to go with out it ... but I'm trying. I just checked the thing WAY too much. Maybe a little time away will make it not so addicting. Most of my friends have no idea I don't have a Facebook anymore, they are probably all going to think I deleted them. Haha funny!! :-)

This counts Day 1 of no facebook.


Good night!!

Introducing the Fabulous Five!!!

So my roommates and I were talking tonight about my previous blog about the weird things in Utah. They are convinced now, that I hate Utah. They suggested that I write a nicer blog about Utah .....and them. Hahah, so here it goes!!

Fun (and very legit) facts about Utah...

• A good friend wrote this to me as I was getting ready to move here ..."'Of the 50 states, Utah has one of the largest concentrations of computer software firms; one of the four larger concentrations of biomedical firms; the youngest population; one of the highest birth rates; the second lowest death rate; the healthiest population; the highest literacy rate; t...he highest percentage of high school graduates; and the highest number of people with a college education.' So clearly you'll have plenty of men to pick from, he'll probably be wealthy and work in some kind of firm, you'll be super healthy, you'll have lots of kids and they'll all be well educated. What more could you ask for?"
• "The Great Salt Lake is 3 to 5 times saltier than the ocean. Fish free, the lake's largest aquatic critters are brine shrimp" I wonder if people swim in it ... can you eat the shrimp?
• To clear up all the jello confusion from my last blog, I found this online at awesomeamerica.com/utah... "Utah is the Jello capital of the world. More jello is eaten in Utah than any where else in the world. I can't wait to try all the kinds that DO NOT have cottage cheese in them ;)
• My last fun fact is about the State bird, the California Gull ... and why it is the state bird. Here is the story.
• "The settlers' first winter in the Salt Lake Valley had been a hard one. Food was scarce, and all hoped that the next year would bring a large harvest. Crop failure meant disaster for the present colony and no food for the more than 2,000 Saints planning to immigrate to the Salt Lake Valley that year.When spring came, the hopeful pioneers planted grain and vegetables. Unfortunately, catastrophe after catastrophe hit. First, a late frost damaged much of the crops. Then, in May and June, a drought injured more of their potential harvest. Finally, hordes of crickets descended from the foothills and began devouring the remaining crops. For two weeks the pioneers battled the crickets and prayed for relief.Seagulls from the Great Salt Lake flew to the fields and began devouring the crickets. For two weeks they continued their attacks and many of the crops were preserved." SWWEEETTT ....

Introducing The Fabulous Five ....

I figured I'd take the time to introduce and tell how awesome my roommates are. :)

ESTHER

She is awesome and totally full of life!!! In fact, all my roommates are full of life! It's so much fun to live around people that are happy ALL THE TIME. I've only seen Esther somewhat in a bad mood once ... and it lasted a whole hour. She is great!! :) My favorite thing about Esther is that she is very spontaneous!! Today she performed for all my close friends back in Carolina a Tahitian dance, costume and all. They loved it!! She also helped me pick out a really cute outfit for this weekend, which I am really thankful for!!

KIM
Kim might just be the most positive person I've ever met. She always looks at the good side of things. I came across something that she wrote on her facebook that describes this perfectly. She said, "hope for the best and expect the worst". Even when the outcome is, "the worst" ... she still makes something good come of it! Kim and I are grocery shopping and ice cream eating buddies. She's way fun!

CASSIThree words I would use to describe Cassi, only knowing her for 3ish weeks would be ...
honest, sweet, and humble. Thank you for letting me borrow your nail polish last night!! I love when Cassi makes cookies!!! Her cookies are WAY good. Cassi was the most concerned that I hate Utah (which I don't), so this blog is for her. :)

AMBER AND ASHLEY

I put Amber and Ashley together, because they are ALWAYS together :) They are the cutest best friends!! My favorite story about Amber and Ashley is the other night when they come into Esther and I's room at like midnight ... to ask if we have any yarn. We are like why do you need yarn? "We want to go penny tapping." Don't worry I had to ask what it is too.... so you get yarn and tie a penny on the end of it ... then you take a band-aid and stick the yarn to a window ... as you pull the yarn the penny taps on the window and it's supper funny because they don't know where the sound is coming from. Did I get that right? These girls are SOO funny!! I love that they listen to me complain, vent, and to all my crazy stories.

SO, that is it. I love Utah, and I love my roommates. I can't wait to have many adventures here!! :)



Do you believe me now?