He Knows

During these past couple weeks I have thought a lot about His purposes.

For me. For this country. For my family.

Each time I think about this, it leads me back to one principle: That He will not desert us.

I have had the opportunity in these past couple months to participate in Seminary.

In Seminary one day my teacher said something I found very profound. "If you find yourself further from the Lord today than you were yesterday, guess who's moved? It's not the Lord. It is you."

I believe that. I know without a doubt that if we will go to Him and ask for His help he will pour His love out upon us.

Footsteps in the Sand

Author Unknown

 One night a man had a dream.

 He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

 For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it:

“LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.”

The LORD replied: “My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

This is my very favorite painting of Christ because of this poem. It reminds me how much He loves us and will always help us.

I know he does. I know He will not fail us when we need Him.

We need only ask for help.

C.S. Lewis said, "To what will you look for help, if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?"

I know that.

I know that the only way through our problems is through Christ.

He will lift our burdens and remove our sins if we will go to Him in faith.

I know He is our Savior and the Master Healer.

I promise that no matter what you go through, Christ is there.

Our brother will NOT forsake us.

How do you go on?

When you fall down, you're supposed to get up, right?

How can you get up when you don't have the strength to go on?

How do you stay happy when the happiness seems to have been leeched out of your life?

I'll tell you how.

Christ took upon all our pains so we wouldn't have to suffer.

"Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

If we desire our pain to go away, we need to go to him and let him carry our burden. If we don't ask we will not receive.

I have had to learn this. Sometimes we don't want to do anything about our pain. We just want to sit and feel sorry for ourselves, and wait for someone to take it away.

I would rather do a little and not have to suffer, than do nothing and have to suffer immense pain.

He doesn't want us to suffer, he wants us to live full and happy lives.

The Real Meaning of Beauty

This is not it.

Something computer generated is not necessarily beautiful.

Real beauty comes from inside. It is found not by having the most beautifully sculpted nose or the thinnest waist.  It is found by helping others, by

People who should be considered beautiful usually do not have the worldly meanings of beauty.

However, they are usually told that in order to be considered beautiful, they have to look like this:

Because this is the way the world makes us view beauty, Dove surveyed women and girls worldwide and came across these alarming statistics:

Only 4% of women worldwide consider themselves beautiful

Only 11% of girls are comfortable using the word beautiful to describe themselves

72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful

80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty

54% of women agree that they are their own worst beauty critic

How did the world get like this?

We are supposed to be beautiful by being righteous, by being kind, compassionate, caring, loving, and charitable. When a person is truly beautiful they have the light of Christ in their eyes.

She doesn't have the light of Christ in the before or after. It's sad. We think that people who have cold expressions and unnaturally thin waists are beautiful.

This is beauty. You can see she has the light of Christ in her eyes. She is beautiful.

Little children have this too. They have the purest spirits that you can see they have the light of Christ in them. Little children are beautiful.

She is beautiful.

"You don't have to prove your beauty

In the eyes of men.

You are divine within,

You were sent here to become

Like Him."

I want to be like Him, not like a cold-hearted computer generated model.

A Coldplay Favorite

And if we could
                                    float    away

                                                                        Fly up to the surface and just start again,

And lift off before trouble

Just
         erodes
                      us
                                in
                                          the
                                                     rain.

John Carter

So, over the weekend, I went and saw a lovely movie called
                                                John Carter.

It was really good. I loved it!

I liked it a lot partly because it was kind of like my favorite movie,
                                          Avatar.

The whole plot line in John Carter is that he gets teleported to Mars and so he needs to find a way to get back home.

While there he meets Dejah Thoris and falls in love with her. However, her father has promised her to a different person, Sab Than. Sadly enough, the man she is promised to is the bad guy who is destroying Mars.

Like Avatar, the two cannot be together, and it is so tragic. As well as trying to be together, they must save Mars.

They have the epic final battle, and of course, they win by a landslide.

Dejah and John Carter get married, and the rest...you'll have to find out for yourself.

I love the tagline at the bottom of this photo. In case you can't read it, it says:

                                           Lost in our world. Found in another.

It is an amazing movie!! Go see it if you haven't already!

It is almost, but not quite, up there with Avatar. 

Let Him Lift You

My mom, being the great person she is, bought every single one of the Mormonads for me and my older sister Megan.

I decided to put them all up on my wall.

 It's pretty cool looking, I have to admit, besides the fact that my bed is a mess and I only have sheetrock on my wall.......

There was one in particular that I really enjoyed.

This is what it looked like:

It really moved me. I know that is something I need to remember. I need to remember if I ask, I can receive the help I need.

I really needed the gentle reminder that He would never turn away cry for help.

The scripture that goes along with this says:

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

I will remember that.

The Liebster Blog Award?

I'm not quite sure what exactly this is...but here we go....

So the whole deal with the Liebster Award is that your supposed to award it to 3-5 blogs that have less than 200 followers.

I, obviously do not have 200 followers, even 5 would be nice....

Rachel over at There and Back Again awarded me this. She really has a great blog, and, she's my sister, so go check her blog. It's super amazing. She's such a good writer!

Anyways, my awards go to...

1. Larry at The Magnificent Adventures of Larry Blotter. It's kind of more of a silly blog, but I love it! It is anonymously written, but it is pretty darn funny! If you love to laugh, go check it out.
2. Miss Aubrey at A Day In A Life. She is such a fun writer and there are so many cool pictures you can't help but want to read it all the time. She also has had her blog for a lot longer than me, so hats off to her perseverance!
3. Abby at Head Strong. She is a great writer and has her own quirky style of writing. She has such a good way of writing that I admire, so go check her blog out as well. 

My mom at Brasier House awarded my sister this. She has an amazing blog. She has so much creativity and her quilts and other projects are so beautiful. She loves followers, so go follow her, you won't regret it!