The Coat: A Story of Charity

As Christmas approaches, I feel the need to express to each of you the need of charity in all of our lives. I implore you, find someone in need, serve those less fortunate than yourself and remember the reason for the season.

Daily Lives

Maybe it is a good sign then that sometimes we feel like we don't get huge spiritualpromptings. Maybe it is just apart of who we are that we don't recognize
the spirit's voice as something new or different. Just an active part 
of our daily lives and daily choices. Cool.

Life After Death

My cousin died this morning from a drug overdose. She may not have been on the path that will lead us all to happiness, but the people who have been examining what has happened with her don't believe it was intentional. She's the one closest to me in age, and probably the cousin I'm closest to. We may not have been best friends and talk about everything, but I have lots of memories with her. And I'm struggling with the concept that she is gone...
She was only 19.
I've never had anyone even remotely close to me pass on. I'm 20 years old and although I have no living grandparents, I was only 3 by the time they had all passed on. The people who have been such a huge part of my life are still among the living. I used to think, when a friend's parent died when we were 15 or when my friends grandpa died, that I wanted to know what it was like, having someone close to you die so that I could sympathize with them. I wished that I could understand them better so I could comfort them...
Now I wish I never knew.
In all this though, there is one thing I am so grateful for; the knowledge that there is life after death. There is a whole other world or us to go through and live in after we pass on. There are more things for us to learn and there are people waiting for us on the other side. Heaven does exist.
I know so many people who don't believe in a life after this one. I know so many people who believe that we just... disappear. Once we die, we no longer exist. And I feel so bad for those people. Not having the knowledge or understanding that there is more to life than just this world. Those who don't understand that our spirits live on and that one day we will not only be reunited with our bodies through the resurrection, but with our families as well. We were not meant to live through the eternities alone. We were meant to be sealed to one another in God's great family, and to be bound together for forever. Christ died that we might live, not just through this life, but forever.
I will see her again one day. Until then, I will keep looking up, cause I know the Skyy is looking down.

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

I Choose to Be Pure

One of the greatest videos Mormon Messages has done. Definitely one of the most touching.

Telling the Truth

A friend of mine has been having relationship issues lately. Over and over she's explained said issues to me, and how hard it is; so much harder than she ever thought it would be. And I try to help the best I can. And tonight something clicked in my head and was solidified that is not only true for her situation, but I believe is beneficial to any and all relationships between human-kind.

I know that, as girls, we have a tendency to feel guilty for a lot of things that we shouldn't. Frankly, we feel guilty for just about everything and every possible little thing that goes wrong is always our fault. And a lot of times we also feel this need to make people happy. Many of us are willing to let our own happiness dwindle if it means we may brighten another's day and make their life easier. We're willing to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of another, especially for a loved one. And this has become the problem in my friends life.

She has been so eager and hopeful to make her spouse happy that she has sugar coated what she really feels. She tells him what he wants to hear, and what she wishes was true. And she does it because she never wants to disappoint him. She sacrifices her own happiness in hopes that he will be happy. With tears in her eyes, she simply said, "But I just want to be happy."

Here's the funny thing about wanting to be happy but also sugar coating things; sugar coating means you're not telling the whole truth. By not telling the whole truth, that means you're lying. Lying is a type of sin. Sinning is wickedness. And as Alma 41:10 says, "Wickedness never was happiness." Simple solution (though it's never easy) is to tell the truth. And not just the truth, but the whole truth. Don't keep secrets from loved ones; that's how tangled webs are woven. And in the end, the other always wants to know why you didn't just tell the truth in the first place.

I've noticed this a lot in my own life. Every time I half heartedly give the partial truth to my loved one, and in the end tell him the whole truth of what I really feel in some heated conversation, he exasperatedly asks why I didn't just tell him all of that to begin with so we could correct the issue when it began. And frankly I ask him the same thing quite frequently. We've gotten much better at this and have found that just telling the truth makes everything easier. Being honest. Not sugar coating things. It just works. Alma knew what he was talking about; wickedness never was happiness, even something as simple as sugar coating the truth and telling little white lies.