This Life.

"This life isn't about making the most money, being the most attractive, or being the most well liked person. It's about the money you give away to help another, making a girl feel like the prettiest there ever was and always remembering that Jesus Himself was shunned and hated. It's ok if you are too. It means you've lived for something other than yourself."

Unique

"No woman was ever quite like you. The Lord made only one, without carbons. You are not repeated and not repeatable. No one else can do what the Lord sent you to do. The value of what you have to contribute will come through the expression of your own personality, that particular spark of the divine that make you unique, setting you off from every other living creature. The mark you leave on the world, on the hearts and minds of others is as distinct as your thumb print." -Sister Barbara B. Smith

Happiness

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle and the life of that candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.-Buddha
I really do love the fact that truth is found everywhere. There is good in this world, far beyond the reaches of just what is taught in the Gospel. Truth can be found anywhere; in other faiths, in other countries, and in all kinds of people.
This statement is truth. So share that happiness you have with the rest of the world. You gain so much more by doing so.

Lately.

I have had far too much time to think and contemplate things in my life recently. Here are some of the things that have made a difference lately.

"God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.


Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr"

"The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude."--Joseph B. Wirthlin

2nd Nephi 4:27-28

 27And why should I ^ayield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to ^btemptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my ^cpeace and afflict my soul? Why am I^dangry because of mine enemy?

 28Awake, my soul! No longer ^adroop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the ^benemy of my soul.

I honestly cannot express the amount of joy and peace these things have given me recently. For whenever I feel in the depths of pain and self wallowing because of things I do wrong, and how I never add up to perfection, this is where I find the strength to go on. This is where I find the peace to keep pushing forward. And I am so grateful that God is always near, because truly, He is.

Temples: The Covenants and Ordinances

I had to write a paper on any topic of my choice and find out all that I could that the Prophet Joseph Smith had told us about it. After turning that portion of it in, I decided I wanted to expand on it. I now have a 7 page paper, which is still not even close to finished. And might I just say, I love the temple.
Here are some of the few great things I've learned and now have answers for when people say that the temple is so "hush hush" and we do some crazy things there. If you know where to look, you can find out so much, and it's so wonderful and glorious and enlightening.



From President Brigham Young: "Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angles who stand as sentinels, being able to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell (Discourses of Brigham Young, 416)."

Many do not understand the urgency and importance of a temple marriage. To them, it seems like it’s just “a good thing to do” but not a requirement. They believe that somehow, they can do a wedding and ceremony so much better than what the temple has to offer. However, as Elder Kofford of the Seventy once said: "They simply do not understand. You cannot improve on the Lord’s way. It was planned by Him. The ordinance is His. The authority is His. The words are His, and the house is His. Who would dare to compare the tinsel of the temporal with the gold of God?" There is nothing more perfect, nothing more sacred, than a sealing of a husband and wife together for time and all eternity; to have children born within that covenant and bound together forever by the Priesthood of God. What more could someone want than to be with their spouse and children for not only this life, but the world to come?

John A. Widtsoe stated: "We live in a world of symbols. We know nothing, except by symbols. We make a few marks on a sheet of paper, and we say that they form a word, which stands for love, or hate, or charity, or God or eternity. The marks may not be very beautiful to the eye. No one finds fault with the symbols on the pages of a book because they are not as mighty in their own beauty as the things which they represent. We do not quarrel with the symbol G-o-d because it is not very beautiful, yet represents the majesty of God. We are glad to have symbols, if only the meaning of the symbols is brought home to us. I speak to you tonight; you have not quarreled very much with my manner of delivery, or my choice of words; in following the meaning of the thoughts I have tried to bring home to you, you have forgotten words and manner. …We live in a world of symbols. No man or woman can come out of the temple endowed as he should be, unless he has seen, beyond the symbol, the mighty realities for which the symbols stand. (“Temple Worship,” page 62.)"

Each of these symbols has great meanings. A Star of David, for instance. Many are curious as to why Mormons have a Jewish symbol placed on their temples and other such places. This is because they do not understand the symbol and what it truly means, behind the thing it is called. As many scholars and historians have dug deeper into religious meanings, they have found some truths about these symbols. The triangle which points upward is a representation of man, while the downward triangle is representative of woman. The way that it is intertwined together is to show how husband and wife must be with each other. They are not one without the other, but they are together in bond and purpose. (I'll add more to this later, I just don't have the book with me that has this information at the moment.)

The point is this; go to the temple. Go to the temple often. Prepare spiritually and allow yourself to be enlightened by what God is willing to share with us. We need the temple and the covenants and ordinances performed therein. There’s no truer statement than what Joseph declared to the Saints in Nauvoo, “We need temples more than anything else!” (History of the Church, 6:230)

Well Done, Thou Good and Faithful Servant

Even an ordinary soul-struggling against temptation, failing and repenting, and failing again and repenting, but always determined to keep his covenants can still expect to one day hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." --Boyd K. Packer.

I myself find it hard to believe that someone who demands perfection will always be willing to forgive me my follies. I struggle comprehending the fact that God will keep forgiving. In my mind, I'm just waiting for the day that He says to me, "Nope, I'm sorry. You've done that sin one too many times. I can't forgive you anymore. You've been fairly warned time and again, and time again you say you won't, and yet you do. There's no more I can do for you." But that's the beauty of the atonement, of repentance, of God's mercy and His love.

It never ends.

God will not, no not once, forsake us if we come unto Him. He will gladly receive us with open arms as did the Prodigal's father. We can mess up time and again. We can be a repeat offender, as is often the case while we struggle to become perfect (one day), but we may all still one day hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Adam and Eve: A Type or Shadow?

Symbolism truly is one of the most amazing things. And the more I look into it and try to find deeper meanings, the more impressed I am. For instance, I'll take a simple one, Adam and Eve, to illustrate this for you:

In the Old Testament, there is more than enough symbolism to go around right? Half the time, we can't really decipher what is supposed to be taught and we struggle to understand. But I think this will be a simple one for all. And perhaps it will show just how simplistic many of the symbols really are, if we just cared to look.

In Genesis when it talks of Adam and Eve and when they partook of the fruit of knowledge, what was their initial reaction? To cover themselves from God, right? They immediately felt and realized what it was like to be naked in the sight of God and themselves. But not only physically, but spiritually as well, for they had sinned. Although it was part of the Great Plan, it was still a sin for they had disobeyed God's commandment to not partake of the fruit. So, they were now unclean and unfit to be in the presence of God continually.

But God understood them. He understood the problems and the shame they were feeling. And He helped them. He gave each of them a garment, a covering of skin. Physically, this made it so they were no longer naked... But think of the symbolism behind that.

Chances are, that animal would have had to be sacrificed in order to receive the skins to clothe them. A sacrifice that covered them. Now here's the fun part: Isn't that exactly what Christ has done for us? Could this have just been a type or shadow of what Christ would later do for each of us? Perhaps this was God's way of letting us know he would provide a way for us. I must quote a great article by Lenet Read who puts this perfectly:

"Might it [the giving of the skin coverings] have been a witness that God himself would provide a covering for his children, all of whom would experience spiritual nakedness-that is, being exposed to his judgmental eye? For through the sacrifice made by Christ, our sins may be covered, if we repent. Looked at this way, the symbolism of Adam and Eve's coats of skins teaches of Christ and helps us prepare spiritually, that eventually we may once again dare to stand in the presence of God unashamed."

I hope that we all may look deeper into the symbolism of the scriptures so that we may find those deeper meanings God is trying to help us understand. He loves us, wants us to be happy, and wants us to understand all the mysteries of the heavens. But we first must do our part and seek diligently to find the answers and true meanings of the symbols.

Sacrament and the Atonement

"We would never dream of separating the symbols of the Atonement by taking the bread without the water or vice versa when partaking of the sacrament. Together they teach us of immortality and eternal life. Neither one without the other is a whole gift. Both are required to truly make us whole."

Brad Wilcox, The Continuous Atonement

After reading this chapter heading, I just sat there and thought. Truly thought about what this would be like, to only have the bread or the water during the sacrament. What would it be like to only have the gift of one and not the other?

With only the bread, if Christ had only died for us and been resurrected, that's all we would have. Sure, it's a fun thought to think, just like in Tuck Everlasting, that, "I can live forever!" We would become immortal, but to what end? None of us would ever be in the presence of God again, ever. He cannot look on sin with the least degree of allowance, and without the sacrifice of Christ's blood for us, justice would never be met and there would be no mercy to let us be with them again. I don't like the thought of living forever in sin...

So then, that means having the water would be the better option, right?

If we just had the water, the blood of Christ shed for our sins, we would be allowed to have our sins forgiven of us. Sounds great right? No more living in sin, so long as we repented. But that's the only thing we would get. What would be the point of that since we would eventually just die and cease to exist anyway? Without being able to live forever, we would see God again for a few brief moments before no longer existing, or just starting this earthly process all over again. Either one is just as bad as not having had the water but only the bread to begin with...

This is why we need them both. This is why it's not only important that Christ suffered for us in Gethsemane, not only that he died for us, but also that he rose again. All three of these are key to living with God again. Without all of them, we receive nothing worth wanting. True happiness would be impossible and unattainable... But with these gifts from Christ, not only are they possible, but we can each make it back home.

Turn to the Lord

"When you find yourself missing someone so bad that it hurts, it's time to start depending on them a little less and depending on God a lot more."

Sometimes we don't know where to go when we are missing someone. We feel the need to cling tighter to that person, otherwise there's a possibility of losing them; this is not the case. If we were to just let loose a small amount and instead cling tighter to God, all things will work out as they should. And to use the Book of Mormon to back this up- Mosiah 7:33 reads:

"But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

Turn to the Lord, particularly when you are having a tough time in life, and he will deliver you out of bondage because He loves you.

All Things Are Possible to Him That Believeth

I had the most enlightening experience .

There is this thing that I do on ocassion that I have almost always hated. At first I thought it was a cool thing to do and in a way it was once gratifying I guess. But it has long since lost it's appeal and yet from time to time I still indulge myself in my past stupidity. Said stupidity used to be more frequent, but that frequency began to diminish as I continued to hate it. Now, I rarely do it, but it still bothers me profusely when I do. Like today. For years (yup, years) I keep saying to myself, "Oh well, this isn't going to change. It won't kill me by being stupid once in a while. And God isn't listening to me when I pray to get past this, so obviously it's not that big of a deal anyway." So basically, I have just prayed to God and expected Him to do the rest regardless. Or I would expect Doug to always say, "Don't do that, Heather!" when he was here. It was never about my will power; as you can see, I had none to speak of since I've given up so easily after all these years. I had thought that everything depended on others-my parents to teach me better, my siblings to treat me better, Doug to tell me no, Christ to just take this annoyance away. But I figured out today that it isn't any of that.

I was reading in the book "Broken Things to Mend" by Jeffrey R. Holland when I stumbled upon a scripture story and Elder Holland retells it with his own commentary. We've all heard the story: A father with an afflicted child first comes to the disciples, having a small amount of hope and faith that they can help. However, they could not provide the help needed and a shouting match is started amongst the disciples. This is when Christ walks onto the scene. The father then turns to Christ and with a weary, last resort kind of tone says:
"If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.
"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
"And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:14-24).

Elder Holland then adds his own remarks, which is what struck me. "Only now, in this exchange, does he [the father] grasp that a great deal of the answer to his quest rests upon his own shoulders, or, more accurately, in his own soul." It is not what the world will do for us, it is what we will do for ourselves! I hadn't thought, for some reason, that it is my own faith that determines whether or not Christ can help me. No matter how big, small, or insignificant the thing may be. Obviously I will never get entirely past this pet peeve of mine that I inherenetly hate if I don't have the faith I can do it. If I claim it is never going to change, then it never will. If I lack the faith and hope, then what cause does God or Christ have to do it? I have to have faith, I have to believe for things to happen. Inside, I guess I've aways known that, but it was never plainly stated to me quite like it was here by Elder Holland.

"All things are possible to him that believeth."
From now on, I will believe.

Worth More Than Rubies

For some reason, women as a whole have this thought that they aren't worth much. I mean, I know that I for one have thought/expressed this view on more than one occasion and I'm sure that most if not all women have felt that way. But why? Do we honestly not realize how much we are worth, how great we really are? Here's what Elder Scott had to say about it:

"So many of our sisters are disheartened, even discouraged, and disillusioned. Others are in serious trouble because of the choices they make. Satan has unleashed a seductive campaign to undermine the sanctity of womanhood, to deceive the daughters of God and divert them from their divine destiny. He well knows women are the compassionate, self-sacrificing, loving power that binds together the human family. He would focus their interests solely on their physical attributes and rob them of their exalting roles as wives and mothers."

We are divine. Do we understand that? My view on that is that we don't get it, not anything close to enough, but I want us to. I want us all to realize what we're worth, especially the women in our lives. All of us are worth something incredible, worth more than rubies. And we are divine.

To Struggle Through Prayer

Prayer is one of the fundamental parts of the gospel; it is a primary answer to all of our problems and is one of the few things that can ensure we are blessed by asking our Father for those blessings. Over the last couple of months however, my faith in prayer has been tried, as they were for the Nephites in Alma 58:7 and 10: “And it came to pass that we did wait in these difficult circumstances for the space of many months, even until we were about to perish… Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies."
My enemies aren't physical as the Lamanites were for the Nephites, but my enemies are very strong. Mentally, I have a tendency to beat myself up. I don't think I'm good at anything, that I am at all attractive, that I really have much to give the world, although I try as best I can. And as such, I have little confidence in not only myself, but God as well sometimes. I'm not perfect, and I'm not going to act as though I have a perfect faith in my Father, because I don't. I've always struggled with that. And because of this lack of self confidence, I never know when or even if my prayers are being answered. Which brings me to my problem.
I've been prayer for months about what I should major in. Once upon a time I thought that Psychology was for me, and I pursued it. I've done well, my best classes this semester, but I still felt like something was missing. And that's when I felt like majoring in Photography would be really good for me. The problem, though, was whether or not I would even get in. The acceptance rate for the application and portfolio into the Photography major is 25-30%. In case you didn't know, that's really,really small. But praying hasn't really seemed to help me at all. Honestly, I feel... ignored.
I know, that's horrible. But I just can't help it. Or couldn't anyway. That was until I read a talk by Elder Scott from May 2007 that my missionary suggested to me. "He [the Lord] will always hear your prayers and will invariably answer them. However, His answers will seldom come while you are on your knees praying, even when you may plead for an immediate response. Rather, He will prompt you in quiet moments when the Spirit can most effectively touch your mind and heart. Hence, you should find periods of quiet time to recognize when you are being instructed and strengthened." I'm not being ignored. In a lot of ways, I'm shocked I ever let that thought even toy around in my mind. But even so, I was very annoyed that I was still struggling with receiving an answer from God. And that's when I read the next part of the talk that made everything make sense. "Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. Your character will grow; your faith will increase."
So really, it's all about my faith being increased. I'm not being ignored by God. He's not doing it to frustrate me or tick me off. He's trusting me, even if I don't trust myself entirely. "When you are living righteously and are acting with trust, God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision."
I have never been more grateful for God and His constantly being there for me, listening to me and helping me.

Re·mem·ber, I Am Mindful of You Always

[RI-MEM-BER] V. TO RECALL TO THE MIND BY AN ACT OR EFFORT OF MEMORY; THINK OF AGAIN; TO RETAIN IN THE MEMORY; KEEP IN MIND; REMAIN AWARE OF.

This might be one of the most important words in the English language. I never realized it much before until a few months ago, but so much depends upon us remembering.

I've always been told I have such a crazy awesome memory, but honestly, that's not entirely true. Sure, I could tell you the day, up to the hour even, of when I had my first kiss. And all right, it's a rare thing for me to forget when it's someone's birthday. But a lot of the time, I forget the important things. The things that really matter. Trivial matters such as song lyrics, birthdays and random facts, sure; I'm full of them. But the things that honestly matter, I always seem to forget.

Take, for example, all my dreams and aspirations. I want to be a writer. I want to be a photographer. In fact, I want to major in photography with a minor in psychology. I want to teach seminary. I want to make a difference in the world, in the lives of others, particularly those whom I love most dearly. I want to be a mother of at least 5 amazing kids. I want to be the best I can be. I want to go to the temple and marry the man of my dreams. I want to be with Doug forever. I want to live with God again.

But somehow, these things get pushed back all the time. I don't remember any of these goals, and instead of working on them, I sit on facebook, playing Bejeweled Blitz, stalking other people's pages and being a creep. I spend hours reading pointless fanfiction that is basically babble and not even worth anyone's time. But occasionally I do something productive and write something of my own, or read a General Conference talk, I guess I could even consider creating this blog something worthwhile. Most of the time though I do nothing to achieve any of them. Why? Because I just... don't keep it in mind. I don't make the effort to think of it again.

Another point I never seem to remember; who I am. Now I know, that seems like it shouldn't be a hard one to remember, right? But I'm not talking about the fact that I'm half Norwegian, an eighth German, a sixteenth Swedish and so on. I mean it's kinda hard to forget some of those things unless I get a concussion. But I'm referring to inside, who I am. Not where my physical appearances came from, but my spirit. Being the teenage girl that I am, I have a tendency to forget that I am pretty darn awesome. Honestly. Ask God, He'll tell you. Granted, I have a hard time believing in that, but it's true nonetheless. Why? Because I am a daughter of God. Literally. And really, I think that's pretty darn awesome indeed. But I never seem to keep that in mind. I don't remember it. I push it back, just like my dreams, and don't work any magic with that knowledge.

The last thing I want to say is about remembering about those who care about and love you. For some reason, I still get the feeling that people don't really care about me a lot of the time. I think that at some point, that's a pretty universal feeling. But someone very dear to me told me to read a scripture on one of those days. The scripture gave me the title to this blog, to help me and you remember we are loved by someone. "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end." While this scripture is actually from Mormon to his son Moroni, we can also use this for anyone that is loved by us, or who we are loved by. My best friend gave this to me while I was having a hard time, and this scripture reminded me that I am something to him. He is mindful of me always, and I know that. He helped me remember that.

This why "remember" is such an important word. Think about it; how awesome could you be if you always remembered this simple thing-I am a child of God. God is my father. Literally. I can look up at the stars in the heavens and say, "My Daddy made that. I'm gonna be like Him one day." How different would we act, how many things would we do, if we remembered that simple thing alone? Or remembered that people truly do care about us, no matter how hopeless things may seem.

So I say to you, "Remember." Remember the things that matter most. Remember who you are. Remember who loves you and what you can become. Remember the feelings you've felt, the good times you've had. Remember the good times and learn from the bad.

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become your actions." Keep in mind the things that are most important to you, and you'll achieve all you want and much, much more with the help of our Father and his son, Jesus Christ.