Good Things to Come

This video goes right along with my last post. It's always good to remember that there ARE good things to come. As I'm dealing with recovery, I'm glad that my good thing has already come - my sweet little girl. She makes the pain completely worth it.

But even during those trials that don't seem to have any good in them, we can't forget that they're only temporary. I love how Elder Holland states it: "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."

You can read the entire talk here.

Happy Mother's Day

Your beauty doesn't lie in what you wear or how you look. It lies within. This video of Stephanie Nielson reaffirms that fact. She's truly a beautiful woman.

I love what she says about motherhood. Motherhood really is a synonym for beauty.

Perspective

You're Never Alone

The Best Laid Plans (by DeAnne Flynn)

If you don't subscribe to the Time Out for Women blog by Deseret Book, I would highly recommend it. They have some great articles on there, written by people like Michael McLean, S. Michael Wilcox, Merrilee Boyack... and many others. (She Doesn't Know by Michael McLean is my absolute favorite!)

A recent article by DeAnne Flynn really made me think about how I react to life's situations. Since I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd put it on here. I hope you enjoy it, too.

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One holiday season, more than ten years ago, my Sarah asked Santa for a fancy mouse. Since Santa had no place to keep a smelly little rodent until his big delivery night, he asked the owner of a local pet shop to save a certain tiny pink-nosed critter until he could pick it up on Christmas Eve. (This Santa happened to wear skirts and drive a Big Mormon Wagon.)

Getting that animal was all Sarah could talk about. My starry-eyed five-year-old absolutely knew it would be the very best Christmas ever!

The busy festivities of the season rapidly sped by and before Santa was totally prepared for Christmas Eve, it was time to pick up the little mouse for his early-morning deliveries the next day. The pet store closed at 4:00 pm, and he barely squeezed through the doors before quitting time.

Upon asking for the mouse-on-hold, the pet store owner began to sweat. “It’s been a very crazy day,” he explained. “And things got a little bit disorganized.”

“Disorganized?” Santa questioned.

“Yes,” he continued. “Well, uhhh. You see, in all of the confusion, we sold every single mouse, hamster, and guinea pig in the store! But we do have some rats left.”

“RATS?” Santa replied in shock and amazement.

A sudden sinking feeling crept over Santa as he listened to the pet shop guy give a ten minute oration about how rats actually make much better pets than do mice, hamsters, or guinea pigs.

Thoughts of burning ham left in his oven at home began to blur Santa’s mind and he started to envision little Sarah waking up on Christmas morning, only to see a giant RAT staring back at her through the slits of the clean white cage she had chosen in November!

With no other pet store options from which to choose, Santa reluctantly boxed up two baby “female” rats -- a white one with a pink nose, and a light brown one with a grayish nose. (Two-for-the-price-of-one was the very best deal Santa could strike at such a late hour.)

On Christmas morning, Sarah rushed to see the cute little cuddly mouse she had longed for, planned for, and prepared for over the course of several weeks. I held my breath as she peered carefully into the cage.

“Two wats?” she muttered, not yet “R” proficient. She stared at those rats so intently, realizing they were not at all what she had envisioned seeing there that magical morning. I saw her bite her little lip and put a smile on her determined, sweet face.

“Wow! I got TWO wats everybody! Come and see…”

Now, I’m not very pleased about my laid-back planning approach to Christmas that season, nor of the trust I placed in the pet shop owner’s guarantee of raising two female rodents (these rats had several babies - more than once) but I am sort of amazed (and especially pleased) that Sarah was able to just roll with her reality being much less exciting than her expectation had been.

As ambitious, starry-eyed grown women, we might occasionally feel like we’re staring into the cages of our own lives, only to see something MUCH DIFFERENT than we ever planned, hoped, or prepared to see waiting there for us. But like my Sarah, we each have a choice to make when we see the rats staring back. Do we throw a spoiled tantrum? Do we claim we’ve been robbed? After all, didn’t we make our life-expectations ultimately clear to our Father in Heaven through prayer?!

What Sarah had learned so well in Kindergarten that year is also great advice for us when our reality doesn’t precisely measure up to our expectations. And that’s simply, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.” After all, Heavenly Father may not be giving us exactly what we want because He knows exactly what we need.

At least, for now.

Sunday Will Come

I kind of feel like I'm in the middle of my own Friday. I have a list of things weighing me down... I'm glad I saw this video today, because it really put things into perspective. Part of Elder Hale's Conference talk also put things into perspective:

"Our challenges, including those we create by our own decisions, are part of our test in mortality. Let me assure you that your situation is not beyond the reach of our Savior. Through Him, every struggle can be for our experience and our good. Each temptation we overcome is to strengthen us, not destroy us. The Lord will never allow us to suffer beyond what we can endure."

I'm in the middle of a Friday in my life, but it's strengthening me and preparing me for my next Sunday.

Thoughts on Suffering

I looked up a bunch of scriptures on the topic of suffering and here are some things I observed. Suffering should not exist without a purpose. In the midst of suffering, joy can (and should) be had through Christ. If we are suffering and we have no peace, no joy, no purpose, then we have need to repent. If we are just suffering (without purpose), then the suffering we feel is because we are choosing to distance ourselves from Christ. Many scriptures show instances where there is a connection between great suffering and a refusal to look to God. In such cases, there is no joy. Suffering can come as a direct result of sin, however this suffering can be swallowed up in Christ when repentance has been undertaken. Suffering without peace & joy and hope comes from Satan.

Here are some of the scriptures I looked up and a few notes to go along with them.
Mosiah 4:20 repent, have joy
2 Cor. 1: 5-7 suffer, but also have joy in Christ
1 Pet. 2: 19-21, 23 When Christ suffered, he "committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
Alma 26: 28, 30, 34 as missionaries, they suffered as they were esconced in their goal of saving souls, which would bring them joy
Alma 31: 26, 30-31, 38 they suffered no afflictions save it were "swallowed up in the joy of Christ"
1 Pet. 3: 14, 17-18 suffer for righteousness sake--happy are ye
Alma 14: 11, 23, 26 Alma and Amulek ask for faith unto deliverance from the suffering
Matt. 3: 15 sometimes suffering happens to fulfill a righteous purpose
1 Nephi 16:19-20 Laman & Lemuel have been complaining of all their sufferings, yet Nephi has been seeing angels even though he is in the same living conditions as Laman & Lemuel are.
Alma 26: 28-34 Ammon notes that they had been suffering much, but also, he states that the power and wisdom of the Lord had been with them and the fruits of their labors were not few and "my joy is carried away, even unto boasting"
Moroni 9:7-25 Mormon tells son to not let all the things which he had just told him about sufferings going on weigh him down unto death, but rather may Christ lift him up and let that be in his mind forever.

What thoughts do you have to add?

Our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson said:

"Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order to be tested, we must sometimes face challenges and difficulties. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea “Is there no balm in Gilead?”
We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face.
With all my heart and the fervency of my soul, I lift my voice in testimony today as a special witness and declare that God does live. Jesus is His Son, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Redeemer; He is our Mediator with the Father. He loves us with a love we cannot fully comprehend, and because He loves us, He gave His life for us. My gratitude to Him is beyond expression."

My friend posted this quote on her blog the other day and it touched me then. Now with my 10 month old in the hospital and having gone through what we have with her since she was born...this quote means more to me then I think would have had she been born PERFECT. Even with all of the hard things that our family has gone through the last year or so, and all of the things that I have had to watch my baby go through the last 10 months...I KNOW that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. He knows me. He knows what I need as a mom, and a wife, and a friend. Jesus Christ is my Savior and I have always known that He died for me so that I could repent and live eternally with my family. More recently I have gained a testimony that He died for me, so that my burdens and sorrows can be lifted from me. I have felt His loving arms around me many times in my life. The night after Ashlee was born and I had to endure a whole night away from her, in a different hospital, knowing that she wasn't doing well and wondering if I would ever see her again; I prayed more than I have ever prayed before in my life and while that was the lowest I have ever felt in my life, I felt moments of comfort that I have never before felt in my life too. Our aching hearts can be healed by our faith in Christ and our belief in the Atonement and God's plan for us.