comfort he brings

blue eyes cry

tired eyes sleep

hushed lips try

my secret to keep

loving eyes smile

knowing eyes teach

gentle hands guide

caring arms reach

salty tears dry

happy heart sings

my savior's nearby

comfort He brings

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i have being feeling so much gratitude toward my savior lately. we live in a world where you constantly have to put on a perfect face, convince the world that you are good enough, and that you have no flaws--yet nobody knows the true you. the savior knows exactly who we are, what we are going through, and how we are feeling. and even though he sees (and has suffered for) all of our imperfections, he still loves us unconditionally.

the power to rise above

I recently just finished reading the book Twilight, which is definitely not church literature (although it was written by an lds author), but a quote in the book really stuck out to me. To preface, the book is about a girl who falls in love with a vampire (sounds cheesy, i know--but it really is a good read). Bella, the heroine of the story, has many questions for Edward, the vampire she falls in love with. She asked him how he could resist what he is, here is his response:
"just because we've been...dealt a certain hand...it doesn't mean that we can't choose to rise above--to conquer the boundaries of a destiny that none of us wanted. To try to retain whatever essential humanity we can." This really stuck out to me because each of us are sometimes dealt a hand we definitely wouldn't choose--we have to deal with putting off the natural man every single day, but that doesn't mean we can't do it. It is never impossible to rise above our shortcomings. There may be times we think we can't rise above but there is always a loving savior there who knows exactly what we are going through, because he has gone through it too.

all is as one day

i am an avid journal writer, and i feel that is something that has really blessed my life. just the other night i was feeling a little in the dumps and decided to flip through an old journal to see what was going on in my life at that point. it amazed me as i read to see how long ago yet how close those things seemed. it made me realize how important it is to keep an eternal perspective. all is as one day in the lord. it also amazed me to see my testimony progress, which helped me to better understand the purpose of trials. it is so important when going through trials that instead of asking, "why this?" we ask "what can i learn from this?" it really does make all the difference.

making the extra effort

It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord truly blesses us when we are obedient to Him. Even when going through the hardest of trials, it makes all the difference in the world when we choose not to go it alone. Things that can seem so little...kneeling to pray, starting your fast or scripture study with a sincere prayer, writing in your journal...do not go unnoticed by the Lord. This weekend I made an extra effort to put the Lord first by choosing the best possible choices I could and I received an outpouring of spiritual, and amazingly enough, temporal blessings.