Beliefs

So I just read an awesome blog post that was written by an old friend. We grew up in the same ward and had a lot of very similar experiences growing up. We were best friends in the same group of friends and told each other everything since 7th(ish) grade.  I LOVED her post. Not just because she mentioned my awesome mom(which by the way, made me start to cry-in a good way) but because i felt the same way. Incase you're interested, here it is.
http://vidaebom-sorrir.blogspot.com/2012/08/thoughts.html

My mom was put in as the relief society president in her LDS ward. She was asked (along with the other presidency members) to talk on her first day as president. She talked about how life isn't perfect, and your children don't always make the decisions in life that you would want them to make. Being one of the children that my mom was referring to, I didn't make the best decisions for a few years there.. and during that time of "exploration", i discovered my beliefs. Some of which i grew up with, or came to really understand after some major struggles. But then some of those experiences led me to my new beliefs about Gay rights, and missionary work. I feel like some people try to force their opinions at people and that includes their beliefs. And as for Gay rights stuff.. i have my opinions.. and they aren't always the same as the churches stand. (i lived in CA during the whole Prop8 thing.) and faced the issue that some church lessons were too focused on almost "condemning" people instead of teaching of Christ and his love for everyone. Sort of like the "bitten cookie" lesson I had when I was in young womans, which was an object lesson that some members would use during the chastity lesson. They would pass around a plate of cookies (some of which had bites already taken out of them) and everyone would take a cookie. No one wanted to take the cookies that already had bites taken out of them so everyone in the room took one of the "untouched" cookies. I knew where this lesson was going(my sister had the lesson a few years earlier at the worst possible time they could have had it in her life) and i took a bitten cookie. THAT threw a wrench in their lesson, but they still tried to ignore what i did, and proceeded with the lesson about how we need to wait until we are married to have sex, because no man would want a "bitten cookie". It's a lesson of fear.  Christ and the Atonement wasn't mentioned a single time during the lesson.

People respond much better to a soft heart, than a hard one. And that, i believe is really what the church is supposed to be about. Sometimes our leaders and friends in the church may forget that when they mix their opinions and the caos that is going on around us with the intended lesson. I hope we can fix that. I am SO glad my mom was put in as the relief society president. i really feel like she will be able to help a lot of people through their hard times. Because believe me, thanks to me and my siblings.. she has been through enough hard times to be able to offer some comfort to others :)

Some bad habits are better kept + random life lesson rant

So, i've got this tendency to write my blogs in the early am. I'm not sure why i do it, but it usually results in more entertaining posts(to me and Justin anyway)

I first must get something off my chest. I absolutely LOVE my job. It is so great to do something you love. its a job that i really enjoy and i feel like i am making some kind of difference in someones life. I honestly have found a few new great friends in a job that i just kinda happened upon. I go to work, and get paid to do things that make me feel like a better person. The family i spend time with everyday make me realize how amazing life is, and how miraculous things happen in our lives all of the time that we sometimes are not even aware of. I know i need to find a job for my morning/early afternoon time but i am just so preoccupied and "fulfilled" with this one that i havent been very urgent about seeking out a second job. It would help us out a lot if i could work a second job and bring in more money so we can save up for kids, a gun(Justin wants one soooo bad,,, and i kinda do too lol) and emergencies. It would also probably help me have a healthier sleeping schedule. I have a habit of sleeping in until noon(with no consequence) because i have no reason why i would need to wake up earlier. So a morning job would definitely help me fix this bad habit. But then i wouldnt be able to stay up super late, writing in my blog. What a delema ;)

I have recently made a friend(one of the ones i spoke of earlier in this post) that just blows my mind. It would probably bug her to hear/see(?) me say that, but its true anyway lol. She has come so far from such a life altering experience. thats not even the right way to say it because its a miracle she is even alive at all.. so i guess its life defining? i dont know.

I have never even come close to knowing what she has gone through and how she feels.. but i do know that she is probably one of the most mature people i know. She's young, but through life experiences, she is more mature and insightful than most people i know. the things she has accomplished are endless and they will forever be endless because she does more and more things everyday, and touches more and more people than she realizes.

Something i have noticed her doing, even when she is in the middle of her own trials.. is something i think we should all live by. let me start out by saying that i have come to learn for myself that when you go through something hard, its really hard to understand why its happened. "why me?" is a question i often found myself asking God. Someone read me a quote once that was something to the effect of "the people most likely to survive the concentration camps were those who found meaning in their suffering"..
I may have slaughtered that quote, but the principle is still there. After i went through my toughest trial, i had a hard time moving on and finding meaning. Then i made a friend who was going through the same sort of thing, and was able to be someone she could turn to and someone who she knew would listen and support her. I have had this happen with a few people, and it has helped me find meaning in my "suffering". i read this recently and loved it

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances – to choose one’s own way.And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate."-Viktor Frankl

This post is kinda "heavy" and i am sorry for the randomness of it. But i just thought it would be a good reminder to those of us struggling through something. Things could always be worse. I just read through my friends blog that made me come to the realization that If she could come back from something that was so tramatic and out of her control, than i can most definitely come back from things that Are in my control. Love you Shannon. I'm glad we are friends(i think we are anyway lol). Hope i didnt embarrass you too much :P