how much can one heart take?

joseph and emma statue

temple square, salt lake city, utah

fall 2010

A few Sundays ago, I had the opportunity to teach sunday school. Part of the plan was to discuss how Joseph Smith was prepared to receive and translate the gold plates to what we now know and read as The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The week prior we had also discussed how Joseph was prepared in his youth to be the Prophet of the Restoration.

I have a testimony of the fact that God has a history of preparing prophets in their youth to be great leaders. I think that Heavenly Father prepares all each of us in our youth for the things that will come in our lives; I only wonder how many there are that don't heed that call or respond to that preparation. Needless to say, this got me to thinking of other preparations.

For example, how was Emma Smith prepared to be the wife of a Prophet? I'm sure she was; although I just don't know that much about her life to be honest. To endure every measure of pain and heartache she endured, she was surely fit for the task although at times I'm sure she didn't think so. Certainly, my heart aches every time I think of the worry, stress, heartache and heartbreak she endured and did so with faith.

Where am I going with this? Well I just wonder if we see or try to see how God prepares us for things in our lives? Do we recognize that we have been prepared when call/s come? When trials come? When the unexpected happens? Can we look back on our lives and find something and say, I'm so grateful for that experience, or that experience really taught me this principle that I really need right now.

The life course looks different for each one of us but one thing is sure, God, our loving Heavenly Father has a plan for all his children. You and I included.  So then certainly he must prepare us for what he knows lies in our path. The trick is recognizing those experience, recognizing those attributes we've had the opportunity to develop, and those gifts and knowledge with which you have been blessed with to help you along the way.

How much can one heart take? I certainly don't know. But I know He will be there to lighten any load that is placed upon us. He's told us that.

As a friend of mine once told me in a time personal crisis, isn't it a blessing that Heavenly Father has told us that he won't give us more than we can handle? I had never thought of it like that before. But there was such clarity in that statement. God won't give us anything more than we can handle. He knows that and he could have just assumed that we should know that too by virtue of us being his children whom he loves. But no, he told us he shared with us and he has illustrated in the scriptures time and time again how he lives up to this principle.

That is a blessing.

_______________
he heals the heavy laden, elder dallin h. oaks, october 2006
the atonement covers all pain, elder kent richards, april 2011
never had an ordinary day-love
matthew 11:28
john 16:33
alma 7:11
mosiah 24:14--my favorite illustration that God is with us in our trials and that he will lighten our load
1 corinthians 10:13

I delight in the busy crazy.

Life is so much better when I'm busy.  When I finished school, I was suddenly un-busy and had to find ways to be busy (hello crafts!) but alas, with the start of work and the onset of various activities/events/happenings...life has again become busy with a capitol B.  But...I love it and now have a new appreciation for it.  (enter "lessons of grad school"--that's a good list I'll have to share one day).

So to recap the highlights of my delights as of late:
1. I have been spending a lot more time outside to make up for all the time I spend inside and mostly away from windows.  Fishing, kayaking and even four-wheeling have been some of those outdoorsy activities and I can't believe how much I have missed them over the past two years.  Oh life.  Oh sun.  Oh Christin singing while we fish--see video below.  :)  There is just something about being in the middle of a lake by your own power (rowing!) that is so empowering and perspective lending.  It is a beautiful blessing and an all around peaceful experience.

2. Speaking of LB, whose name is really Christin (my sister) but whom I call LB, I really delight in her use of the word "mostest."  I also delight that she refers to the family dog Ruby as an 'angel puppy' even though Ruby is constantly jumping on her and running away with someone's shoe.  Usually mine.  I also really delight that at the end of a long day, I can come home to someone who will just give me hugs because that's usually what I just need at the end of everyday.

3. I really delighted in Sunday for a myriad of reasons.  Mostly because awesome Sister Anderson aka Katie came up for a visit.  We were in the same district in the MTC but she and another Elder went to Australia while the rest of us went to Canada.  Meeting back up for church on Sunday though was just like we'd been friends forever and I loved it!  I reminisce about my days as a missionary and it was SO nice to have someone to do it with who could really appreciate it.  And it just so happened that both the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons were about missionary work.  Coincidence?  NEVER!  Oh happies!  Better yet though, Katie and I read through the quotes I had written down from the MTC and we laughed till we almost cried.  The BEST!

4. I have been delighting in my job.  I'm still in the "I'm new/training stages" of my job, I still love it.  I'll just love it more when I get to finally BE an SLP and not have to learn lots and lots of billing/insurance/documentation/safety and fire regulations.  It currently hurts my head, and makes me SO grateful for the awesome office staff secretaries--they make it all happen and know SO much!

5. I delight in the unexpected.  You just never know what is going to come next and I'm slowly learning to embrace that fact (don't fight it, invite it!).  A friend asked me last week how I was dealing with my life changes, particularly a few I had been a bit (or a lot) pessimistic about.  I told her I was trying to have a change of heart by changing my attitude.  President J (my first mission president) always said "Attitude is Everything."  And you know what, he was completely right.  Attitude really is everything.  It is like an infection because it affects everything you do, everything you think and everything you are.  Since we can rarely change our circumstances to be just the way we'd like (or in other words, our idea of perfect), we can find another way to make it through...by changing our attitude.  Mind you...I'm still working on this (thank heavens life is a work in progress because I by no means have it all figured out) but I think realizing it, is a step in the right direction.  I'm hoping at least.

6.  Finally, I'm really delighting in and grateful for hope.  Hope of a new tomorrow.  Hope of future change.  Hope through the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation which truly is THE Plan of Happiness.  Hope in the promises the Lord makes to his children.  Hope in the ability to act and not just be acted upon.  Hope in perspective.  Hope in Christ.

This is a little video from LB and I to you.  Made in the middle of the lake.  

lessons from a long day.

"Important components of faith are patience, long suffering, and enduring to the end. The Apostle Paul recounts the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sara, concluding that 'these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth' (see Hebrews 11:4 13). These faithful Saints knew that this earth life was a journey, not their final destination."

Spencer J. Condie, "Claim the Exceeding Great and Precious Promises," Ensign, Nov. 2007, 17

I delight in the hope of the future.

Thanksgiving was great. Pictures (all 3 that I took) to come. Delicious turkey, salads, vegetables and desserts--yum yum! Being surrounded by people I love, playing games, and chatting it up with family I just don't get to spend enough time with--it was great.

The downside (because somehow there always seems to be one), paperwork. And so, after a good family fix, down to my cave I retreated to write some final reports/soaps.

But then, I had an epiphany--this is the last Thanksgiving/Holiday I'll be spending doing homework! Ah ha!!! Once I made that connection, I was a happy camper. Somehow it all seemed just about time!

And so, a few more things to add to my thanksgiving thankful list:

21. This being the last thanksgiving I'm doing homework.

22. Watching my parents happily prepping thanksgiving dinner together

23. Watching Christin try to take back the garden hose from Rubes. Can you say tug of war?

24. Watching my adorable brother smile as he ate the unique dessert made devised for him

25. Getting a hug from the sweetest Grandpa in the world who I hadn't seen in ages (the one downside to not living in P-town).

26. Cutting out turkey's with Christin

27. Chatting about the day and Christmas with my parents around the table at the end of the day.

28. Knowing I was finally going to see a good friend I haven't seen in ages.

29. The list goes on and on but I'll stop here.

I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving friends/family/mystery readers who read about the things I delight in. Thanks for letting me share. Thanks for your kind comments. I want you to know that I really do believe in hope. Hope of good days today and better days to come. Hope of the hard times getting better. Hope in "an High Priest of good things to come."

I delight in hope.

The theme of my week has been hope.

I am grateful that we are to hope all things.

To dream big.

To hope for some things

and to hope in other things.

I believe one of the greatest gifts we can give to those around us is hope.