Seeing ourselves the way God sees us

 What would change in our lives if we only saw what God sees in us? Often times we are the hardest judge of ourselves and feel like we either don't deserve good things to happen in our lives or we feel like we can't do hard things thinking that we are not strong enough, powerful enough, or not enough to do this hard thing. What would change if we stopped lying to ourselves and instead started to talk to ourselves the way God would? God would never talk down to any of his children so why do we do that to ourselves? 

We need to start to pray to God to help us see what he sees when he looks at us. We need to remember the love the savior had for each of us while on the cross and in the garden. The savior knew that we were and are worth hurting for because to heavenly parents we are everything! To them we are enough right where we are now, not when we get to this place in our lives. Not if we do this grand thing, but right now we are enough to God. 

Knowing the why in our lives

 We need to know the why we do something. This past weekend I got the chance to go to a young single conference in Dallas and there I learned so many things. One of which is finding the why in our lives. When we know the why behind everything in our lives we find the strength to continue on when things get hard. After all it's not a if things get hard but a when it gets hard. I don't care if it's having a successful marriage, raising children in the gospel, our jobs, or going to school we are not only managing many things but they are hard. So what will drive us to continue when it gets hard instead of giving up? It's the why in our lives so if you have not asked yourself why you are doing what you are then ask yourself and find the answer. 

I have asked myself that question of why and it has helped me continue to press forward in school. I have wanted to quit many times this semester because it's so hard and at times it feels discouraging but knowing that I want to be able to heal and give hope to others who are struggling and hurting. In order to do I need my schooling so it's given me this strength that I never knew I had. It's also giving me this drive to continue no matter how hard it might get so I know that knowing the why behind everything will help. 

Don't give up on yourself or your dreams because you never know when things will change. 

Don't be the one who throws the stones

 After something happened yesterday I came to realize that I have thrown more stones than I ever thought I had. God has said it's for us to love and for God to judge, because his judgement is perfect. How many times have you been the one who judges another based on their history, the fact that a person is a begger, or you have thought to yourself that a person is lazy or not doing there best in that moment? How many times have you judged another instead of loving the person and seeing them as nothing less than a child of God? 

I know that I have always believed I was a loving, forgiving person, yet I have failed to be so more times than I thought I had. We all need to do better to level up in our lives. We may never reach perfection in this life but we can always be leveling up. If we are always striving to be better one day we will get there, yet if we don't put our eyes to perfection we will never get there. What can you do today to both aim higher in your life but also show more love to those around you? How can you be more Christlike today and going forward? 

Even though I am ashamed of myself for what I had done yesterday I am grateful for the lessons I am learning because of what I had done. I am grateful that the last person I thought would come into my life to teach me how not to judge and how to be more forgiving and loving. God is mindful of each one of us his children. The love he has is more perfect, personal, and unconditional then we can ever imagine! 

The two great commandments are there to teach us that love is the most important thing we can learn in this life. To truly love is to be as like God as we can get in this life. God really is love and always will be! So if we want to be like God we must love ourselves, God, and others. It's so important that they are known as the two great commandments. 

Expect miracles!

 In the conference talk from Nelson our dear prophet The Power of Spiritual Momentum from April 2022 he says "Seek and expect miracles. Moroni assured us that “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.” Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in Him. He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord. In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, “doubting nothing.” Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your life." 

I have found that in my own life I have had so many miracles happen. Since the time I was 12 I struggled with my health both physically and emotionally. I had been promised many times in priesthood blessings that my health would improve and I would lead a successful and happy life. For years I honestly felt like God was a god of lies until last year. In the most unexpected ways my health finally did improve after years of struggles with my health I finally had answers. I had two surgeries in just six months and with both it was miserable after the surgery until I healed. My nose surgery was both disgusting and it hurt more than I ever thought possible. I honestly didn't realize a nose could hurt so much and yet even with rsv I was able to breathe better than I had been able to with the common cold. My second surgery i had last year I had 15 tumors removed and more than half had been cancerous. I had been blessed with the fact that the cancer was found so early out. 

Although I wasn't thrilled about the fact that I had both surgeries a year later I'm grateful to a loving father in heaven who knew that I needed both surgeries in order to become healthy. Now I am in school and keep on pushing myself, but every day I feel the help of God in both my studies and in my hearing abilities. I hear every word my professors and classmates say for those who don't realize what a miracle it is to hear every word I am hard of hearing. As such I should be missing words, yet I'm not. The miracles happened in the least expected way, but I'm healthy, happier, and on my path to having a successful life. 

God is a God of miracles and I know as we pray, work for, and expect miracles to happen in our lives they will. Things we never imagined possible will be with the help of God! 

Hope in times of dark

 Hope is like the sun rising in the morning after a long night, 

Hope is like the rainbow after a rain storm, 

Hope is never giving up especially when it's hard to do so, 

Hope is waiting for something to happen in your life, 

Hope is seeing the future in a bright manner, 

Hope is birds singing in the morning on a sunny morning, 

Hope is an open road to having a bright future ahead no matter what is going on now, 

Hope tells us that no matter where we are now it will get better for our future. 

Hope

 There's hope in the savior. Thanks to the love of a perfect man who suffered in ways we will never imagine possible there's hope in the future. There's hope that no matter how hard today is there's hope that it will get better. There's hope that today isn't the end. There's hope that things will always get better. There's hope that no matter what we may have done in the past it can be forgiven and forgotten by a loving god who has walked the painful, lonely path that nobody else has to if we only come to him. 

" God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten. That though him all may have eternal life." God doesn't say if we live a perfect life. He doesn't say unless we have broken the law of the land. He doesn't say unless we have hurt one of his children. He says this to all, no matter what we may have done. No matter how far we may have walked away from God there's a way to come back if you choose so. His love can and will reach how far he needs to. There's no darkness, trail, challenge, or hardship that can't be overcome by a loving father and our Savior. 

This is the glad message of today! God lives and wants to bless us all he asks is for us to open the door. He has brought hope to my life in ways I never imagined possible. I continue to have more power, worth, happiness, joy, and peace in my life the more I allow God to be in my life. The more I put my will and life to God the more I am blessed in ways I never imagined possible! For the first time in my life I feel like I have a hopeful, happy life ahead for myself. I know that just like I have been blessed the more I truly trust God in all things so will you. All God asks is for you to come to him. All God asks is for us to open the door so God can enter our lives to bless us. Don't give up no matter how dark, hopeless, or hard your life is right now because God is a god of miracles! 

Forgiving yourself

 They say we are always hardest on ourselves than anyone else. How come we always have such a hard time forgiving when we are not perfect? We already have to deal with the consequences of our actions isn't that enough to deal with? Why do we think that not forgiving ourselves and still seeing the good in ourselves will somehow make it easier to handle? God has commanded us to forgive all mankind and that includes ourselves. We are commanded to forgive ourselves. As we do so we are able to move on in our lives, but if we don't forgive ourselves as well as others we become stuck. God's plan is one of happiness, that's what God wants for each of his children. No matter what you have done in the past do what you can to make it right and than forgive yourself. Ask for God's help to forgive yourself and make your decision today to always do the hard things in this life. I know that God will open up the way to be able to do so because his love is always there no matter what we might do. 

Being grateful for the life we live

 Today 23 years ago changed America. People woke up to start another day but never made it past lunchtime. May we take a minute to remember how much God has blessed us. How much we have. Go out of your way today to say thank you. To open a door for another. To send that text saying thank you to your family and friends because we are not promised tomorrow. To think about others and what they may need. To go out of our way to make the lives of those around us better because we are here. To be that hero to others who are struggling as we are all God's children, but many times those around us are struggling to just survive. We are disciples of Christs and as such have something the rest of the world are missing. May we find time today to do those things we keep telling ourselves we will but keep putting off because we are busy. Find time to make that difference today. 

God is a lover of effort

 I met a friend recently and getting to know him it's got me thinking a lot about how God is a lover of effort. My sweet mother growing up would always tell us kids I don't care about the grades you got, did you do your best. My mom always knew if we had done our best and if we had she always made sure we knew that she was proud of us. But, boy if we had gotten a b but she knew that we had not done our best she would ask why didn't you do your best? On the other hand I remember one time I had gotten an f in a class but I had worked the hardest I ever had before and still failed the class I was so disappointed with myself. I remember going home in tears when grades came out that day. My mom asked what was wrong like she always did when we were sad growing up so I told her that I failed my math class. I remember to this day she wrapped me in her arms and told me I am proud of you because you tried and did your best and you should be proud of yourself. I remember thinking to myself proud that I failed a class? I didn't understand then why my mom was proud, but now I understand. Even though I had failed that class I had never worked harder to understand something in my life and as such I needed to be proud of myself for trying. 

I think God is the same way that my parents always have been, he is a lover of effort. God doesn't care if we failed that class, or fall down yet again he cares that we try. My amazing dad always taught us kids that it didn't matter how many times we fall down, it matters how many times we get back up and try again. God is the same. Do you think that God cares that we sinned the same way a million times, yet we kept trying to fix the way we live our lives. God only wants us to try, try again, and keep trying until the day we finally get it. By no means does it mean that sin is ok, but if we are honestly trying that's all God cares about. So if us trying in life is all God cares about shouldn't it be enough to us? 

Like my mom wrapped her arms around me when I felt like a complete failure God wants to do likewise. His love is unconditionally there no matter how far we are from him he just wants to bless us his children. He wants us to try, to work at those things we are struggling with. God doesn't care if we are like my brother and is addicted to drugs, or something else. God doesn't care if we have broken the law, although it's not something I would recommend as it will follow you and close many doors. God only cares that we are trying every day to do better, to be better. The laws God has aren't for him, it's for us. If we follow the laws God has given those are the very things that will come to bless us in our lives. The commandments are there not to control us, because remember the whole plan was agency, for us to choose how we will live our lives. God knows what will bless us and makes us happy as such he has created laws that will bring happiness if followed. 

Who is God?

 God is all loving, 

God is nonjudgmental, 

God is always working on us,

God is all understanding, 

God is all compassionate, 

God is a peacemaker, 

God stands for what is right and true, 

God is one who endured all things, 

God is a true friend, 

God has sacrificed all things even his life due to the love he has for us, 

May we never forget who and what God has done for each one of us.

Get outside of ourselves and serve

 The two great commandments involve love. Loving God and our neighbors around us. They go hand in hand and I would include loving ourselves. It starts with loving the amazing person that we are. We all make mistakes, things we wish we could go back and redo. We are still children of God who has the power to change to become like God and such will become a God or goddess one day. Isn't that amazing when we think about it? One day in the past our heavenly parents were living a life just like we are now. They progressed just like we do until the day they became prefect and our heavenly parents. Isn't that our goal to become like them? 

If that is our goal and we have learned to love the amazing person we are today including the things we are striving to work on than it becomes easier, even natural to love God. When we truly love God we change from the inside out. Our goals become how can I bless the lives of those around me? How can I show love, compassion, and understanding. When we change we truly love God and as such we love our neighbors because our thoughts turn to how can I honor my father. So the two great commandments go hand in hand. May we find ways to be a blessing in the lives of those we may not understand or even have hurt us? It isn't always easy, but I promise blessings that we can not imagine now. Don't give up on yourself or others because we never know when a person can or will change. 

God's intent is to bring us home to him

 If you have not you should read the conference talk called God's intent is to bring you home from this past April conference. I got a lot of my blog from his talk. He talks about an experience he had on a business trip he had one time. On this trip he was on in his hotel room looking out of the window and saw an officer who had put a road block to prevent people from taking this road. The officer would direct people to another route and seemed to take pleasure out of the drivers who wanted to go through the road block. 

Our father in heaven is different from this officer who took pleasure out of telling people to go another route. Our father in heaven wants all of his children to come back to live with him after this life. As such he's given every tool we could ever need in order to come back home. He's given us prophets, scriptures, the savior, priesthood power, Temple's, churches and wards. He has given us so much because his work and glory is to bring us home to him. God wants to bless us with all he has. Isn't it amazing that we have a father who wants us. Who loves us and will never give up on us? 

No matter how far he needs to reach in order to save us is as far as he will reach. He will never care what we have done, how many times we have failed to do what is right. He will never care how many times we have left him. All heavenly father wants is for us to return to him, the faster the better. Don't beat yourself for failing because everyone will at one point or another, but be proud of yourself that you are trying to come back. If God is proud of you and all of the work you are doing then be proud of yourself. 

If you away from the path come back. Not for me, not for a family member, a friend, or even God, but for yourself. The longer you are away the more blessings that are passing you by. As soon as you return God rejoices, he will never say I will bless you in a year from now because you came back. His blessings are right away when we make the decision to come back, sometimes even starting the work to come back will bring blessings into our lives. Don't give up and show mercy to yourself. Remember God's work and glory is you! 

Finding joy in who we are

 We are all beloved children of God who has more worth, power, and possibilities than we can now imagine. We have heavenly parents who love us more than we can ever imagine who sees who we will become. If they will never give up on us and who love us so unconditionally, doesn't that mean we should feel the same way about ourselves? 

For years I honestly felt like my life didn't matter. I didn't matter. Nobody would ever miss me if I was gone in fact I felt like I would be everyone a favor if I was no longer a burden on those I loved the most. During this time I had many suicidal thoughts and attempts. The pain I felt from my depression was more than I ever thought a person could go through. I was also very sick during this time and just wanted to have life end due to everything. The way I felt about myself I now know came from Satan as we are told to judge by the fruit of it comes from God or not. 

It wasn't until I got divorced for the second time in my life that I would spend hours on my knees talking to my father in heaven. I asked him to please show me how he honestly felt about me. What happened still shocks me at times. It was gradual and didn't happen overnight, but in a years time I have come to understand the truth of how God feels about not only me, but each one of his children. We are his children those are not just words or a song we sing in primary, but are in fact truth. As such it means that if we make the right choices now and into the eternities we have the power to become just like our heavenly parents, we have the possibilities to become a God. How amazing is that? Each one of us have the power to change today to become like our heavenly parents and to have all that they have. 

When we come to realize and understand that truth for ourselves everything changes. We start to love the amazing person we are today. When hard things come into our lives it becomes easier to handle and overcome. We learn to forgive ourselves as well as others. We start to find hope, happiness, and joy in the life we are currently living. We start to see a brighter future ahead of us than we can ever imagine. We start serving others more and finding the joy in serving. We start to understand the truth and meaning of love and life. We start to live the life God always wanted for us. 

If you are struggling with seeing happiness, joy, or just loving yourself please do me a favor and pray for God to help you see you the way God sees you. As you do so I know that you will start to see your life start to change for the better. It may not happen all at once and it might be a long process but don't lose hope that you will start to see the power and beauty that you are to God because it will happen in God's timing not our own. Be patient and hopeful and it will happen. Never forget the worth you have as a child of God! 

Be a lover of learning

 I saw a quote today that said" develope a love for learning, because if you do you will never stop growing." How true this statement is. Two people can go through the same thing and the one who has a learning or growth mindset will be the one who gets through better. They will be thinking how can I learn and become a better person because of this whereas the person who simply complains about what they are going through will be the person who gets stuck no matter how much time goes by. The person who has more of a growth mindset might for a time struggle and ask themselves why did this happen. They may even complain or vent for a bit but they gain the strength they need to move on and many times make something beautiful out of the hardship they just endured. 

I have been both in my life the one who stays stuck, now I'm in the process of becoming the person who asks what can I learn from this trail to become a better person. I can say that becoming the person who tries to stay in a growth mindset helps be able to not only stay positive but also allow yourself to grow from the trail. It doesn't mean that as trails come up that I jump right away to what I can learn but I'm becoming quicker at getting there. When I lived the other way it made me stuck in a depression that I couldn't get out of because of things that had happened to me. When we get stuck it doesn't just hurt us it ends up hurting everyone who dares to get close to us. The way I have been able to change is by asking the Lord for help, but also looking at myself to see ways I can change for the better. So if you are stuck don't beat yourself up because that will only make the situation worse, but do pray for help to get to the growth mindset that will help you in life. 

Labor day " the work we need to do"

 As today is labor day I want us to think about the work we do each day. We all do different things, yet they are all important in this world. What do you do? Are you working in the health business? Are you a parent? A student? A teacher? A writer? How is it that although we all do different things in our lives they are all united? How do they point to the savior and how can we use the Lord more in what we do? The answers are going to be different for each person, but take a minute to remember the savior in all that we do. After all isn't the savior the one who helped us get here in the first place? 

Also let's take a minute to think about God's work. His work and glory is to bring about our salvation and eternal life which will lead to our happiness in this life and into the eternities. If you have not you should read the conference talk called is the plan working? In the talk Adrian Ochoa says " I testify that the plan of happiness works. It was created by your Heavenly Father, who loves you." "Felt to sing the song of redeeming love” but do not “feel so now.” This world is so hard with so many things that we go through that I know I have wondered many times how is this part of God's plan for me? How can this ever bring happiness into my life. At times I do complain and vent to God. I have learned that even the hardest things I have ever gone through have brought happiness into my life. Sometimes it takes time for the trail to become a blessing, but I promise God's plan will always be better than we ever imagined for ourselves. 

Perhaps we feel the way Jesus’s disciples felt when they were in a ship “in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.” Then, very early in the morning: “Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. “And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, … and they cried out for fear. “But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. “And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, … Lord, save me. “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” If you are feeling this way now or have in the past I promise that God's work and glory is to bring hope, light, life, and happiness into our lives, but sometimes we need to trust God and have faith first. If something is taking time remember it doesn't mean it won't happen, just be patient. 

As we do the Lord's work in our own lives not only will be come to happiness, but so will those we love. Don't give up hope! When you are struggling get outside of yourself and serve just like the savior did and happiness will with time will come into your life. 

My testimony to the world

 I know that Christ came into this world for you and me. He lived a perfect life so he could do the atonement. Our heavenly parents love us for no other reason then we are their children. We have more worth and power in ourselves than we can imagine. We came to this world to see how much good we can do. When we are struggling we need to serve more than any other time in our lives, and as we do we will feel the Savior's love and power to make it easier to get though what we are going through. Joseph Smith restored the Lord's church in these last days and gave his life for it so did his brother. The book of Mormon goes hand in hand with the Bible and they both testify of the savior. We have a modern day prophet who speaks to us today in behalf of God. If we listen to the prophet we will be where we can gain strength to get though this life. If we are prepared we have no need to worry as all things will bring about blessings that we need and yes that includes trails that sometimes break us. We need to be polished just like a diamond is in order to become God and goddesses ourselves. My hope is that this month we will see the power, beauty, and strength that we all have as children of God. If you are struggling with your testimony right now or your barely hanging on I pray that you go to God for the help you need.