Be Grateful Now

You know I am all about a healthy dose of dreaming, but sometimes I wonder if we take it too far? Are we so wrapped up in our ideas about how wonderful the future will be that we fail to notice what we have right now? It's easy to find out the answers to those questions by evaluating our feelings about our current state. If we feel impatient to be somewhere or someone else, if we think having ______ thing will make us happier, or if we are comparing our lives to anyone else then we probably need a tiny reality check.

That reality check is simply a realization that we've got it pretty good. In fact, if we really take the time to notice, we are extremely blessed. So let's do take the time! Make a list of all you are greatful for and you will soon see:

Coincidences Are Not Coincidence

I have so many things I want to write about here, and a few posts already underway. In the meantime, I will share something I heard in church:

There have been way too many amazing experiences in my life (especially lately) for me to believe that they were mere coincidence. Each time they are so specific for me. Just a few examples in the recent death of my father in law. 

1. He called me about a week before his passing, just to check on the girls and I. In the six years that I've known him, he's made a similar call maybe two other times.

2. The day of his heart attack, Mike and I could not shake a heavy feeling of depression. When we found out that night about his dad, we realized that was the cause of our sadness.

3. The day of, we cleaned the house SUPER well. I can't begin to tell you what a relief that was to have a clean environment when we heard the news. 

4. About a week prior I had made a bunch of frozen food, which I don't normally do. That was a blessing to not have to worry about grocery shopping or preparing meals.

5. I had done a couple small loads of laundry, and they were the perfect items to pack when we rushed off to California to be with family.

When you start to pay attention to the seemingly random things in life, I think you'll notice there is some greater force that is moving things in your good (especially if you are thinking positive and using the law of attraction which I will post about soon). That force is God, who loves you infinitely and knows you better than you know yourself.

Always Take The Right Road

I love the law of attraction. You know, where you think super positive about a desire you have for your life, and before you know it, that desire is the reality. There are so many reasons I love this law. One, it requires us to be positive. Two, it encourages us to have hope. Three, it expects us to give constant gratitude. Four, it is an exercise of our faith. Five, it can create miracles.

Do you see how all these things are tied into the way God has asked his children to live? Prayer is the key in all of this. When we pray we are often positive in our speech (after all we are talking to our infinitely loving Father). We also pray with a hope that our requests will be granted. We give thanks for all things and then wait with patience and faith as God unveils his great plans for our lives. His ways are always so much better than what we could have planned for ourselves. They are often miraculous.

In the LDS bible dictionary there is a beautiful quote about prayer, "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." That really illustrates how important prayer is.

I'll wrap up this post with another of my little "inspirational words on a picture". This one comes from a talk President Hinkley gave in October of 1971 called "If Ye Be Willing and Obedient". He talks about the Captain of the submarine Nautilus, who journeyed beneath the polar ice from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Captain William Robert Anderson always "carried in his wallet a tattered card that had on it these words":

Thanksgiving To A Four Year Old

This little girls has an EPIC gratitude list. She and I spent a little time sitting on the bathroom floor and talking this morning. I explained what thanksgiving was and asked her what she was thankful for. Over the next 15 minutes, in between our other conversations, here is what she said. None of this was prompted, or even expected, by me.

E: I’m thankful that Jesus made our bodies...I’m thankful that he made rainbows. And did he even make the sky and clouds?

K: Yes.

E: I’m thankful for those too. And birds and butterflies, and I’m really thankful for the trees.

K: You like all the pretty things don’t you?

E: Yes, but most of all I like cute things. So cute and pretty.

We talk about other things for a bit, then...

E: I’m thankful that I love to sleep—well—I’m not really thankful because I cry, and I don’t really like Amelie’s crying.

We finish preparing her breakfast…

E: I’m thankful for everyone!

K: I’m thankful for food!

E: And drinks! I’m thankful for Church. And the temple…

But the best really cute thing that I’m thankful for is at grandma’s house…it’s DISNEYLAND!

(As a side note, this is one of the many variations on how she regularly dresses at home).

Understanding Meditation

I recently listened to a CD called Pure Meditation. In it, Pema Chödrön teaches about the Tibetan Buddhist practice of meditation. The entire talk is mind blowing and so inspiring, but here are just a couple of my favorite concepts from it.

I love how much emphasis Pema puts on cultivating ultimate compassion and friendliness toward ourselves and others. She also debunked some of the myths I had believed about meditation, thus helping me realize what it really is and is not. Before listening to this, I felt like I would never be able to sit comfortably and meditate, removing all thoughts from my mind. But now I understand that it isn't supposed to be comfortable. It's about being with ourselves and accepting what we are in the moment. Sort of like checking in with oneself each day, and confirming that we are invested in our own well being. If you are looking to learn more about meditation, I can't recommend this CD enough!

Midday, Midweek Thought

I just listened to an awesome talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf where he talks about "The Incredible Power of HOPE." If you want to get some positive thinking going on, click here and give it a listen. It's amazing what the feelings and thoughts of hope can do for us emotionally, physically and spiritually.

"Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time."

Becoming Like A Child

I'm sure it's no coincidence that on the day I've been thinking about "becoming as little children", I would happen upon this video. Before I get into the video, let me just be clear on what I've been thinking.

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18-3-4

With those verses in mind, consider what I was considering this morning. Many people I know are selective about the movies and TV shows they watch, hoping to avoid things that aren't uplifting, or contain inappropriate sexual content. But so often violence is justified as being ok because "it's only violence." I was imagining watching a violent show in front of my sweet, innocent little girls. What would their initial reaction be seeing something like that? Fear, disgust, shock, uncertainty? My four year old would probably run into her room and bottle up that feeling; she'd try to convince herself that she could bury it, not talk about it again, and everything would be ok. But the fact that it could potentially affect her in that way is interesting to me. I wonder if each of us tried to obey the commandment to become like little children, would we begin to feel sensitive toward the media we let into our minds? Would we realize that in order to continue watching, we'd need to convince ourselves that we could bury the feeling, not talk about it, and everything would be ok?

Media happens to be the example that came to my mind in pondering this concept. But the important part is not the example used, rather the lesson behind it. If we consider the qualities children possess, and try to gain those qualities ourselves, maybe we would begin to move away from things that we wouldn't want our children to do or see or say. Perhaps that seems extreme, but I don't think it is.

There is a huge motivation behind abandoning bad habits. "The simple fact is this: anything that does not draw us closer to God, takes us away from him." (Spiritual Bonfires of Testimony Joseph B. Wirthlin)

The video referenced earlier hits on this point. We are made in the image of God (see Genesis 1:26) and our bodies are temples of God because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us (1 Corinthians 6:19). If that is the case, shouldn't we be more careful about how we nourish that Spirit? Each thought we think, image or movie we see, and word we say has great influence on ourselves and our spirits. Elder Russell M. Nelson put it perfectly in the video when he said: