I delight in the strength to do hard things.

Life has a way of bringing hard things our way. We can fight it all we want but the hard things will always be there. But they don't have to be quite so hard. In fact, the Savior said:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." — Matthew 11:28-30.

and some snippits from one of my FAVORITE chapters in the Book of Mormon, from Alma 37:

6Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

7And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord dothconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

13O remember, remember, my son Helaman, how strict are the commandments of God. And he said: If ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land—but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence.

17For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers.

35O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.

36Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thydoings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

38And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it.

39And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship. And behold, it was prepared to show unto our fathers the course which they should travel in the wilderness.

40And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.

41Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works. They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey;

42Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.

43And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a shadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual.

44For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

So maybe, its not as hard as we think it is. The theme in all these scriptures is that we can't do hard things by our own strength but by the strength of the Lord and the power provided through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I believe God wants a powerful people. He does not give us trials to weigh us down but to lift us up. But that 'lifting' part can't come until we let it, until we actively invite it and let it become a part of us. Its easy to be slothful. As one of my favorite hymns puts it, sometimes "I'm prone to wander." Never too far, but far enough that I can feel the weight of the hard things and think...what's wrong? Well, I'm grateful for the 'heart' check happens and for the 'return' that is always possible.

I truly delight in the strength to do hard things. I delight to have people in my life who live in their lives an example of delighting in the hard things. To be something we've never before been, we must do things we've never before done.

I delight in a "Christin-ism."

The scene: Christin is showing me her new 'Kool-aid' shirt and coloring book. From the kitchen, Mom says: "Girls, come and eat." to which Christin replies "Not home." She's so whitty.

Next, we're discussing various things over dinner. Christin chimes in "my friend is 'pek-nek'"--to which my Grandparents faces begin to look very confused while my Dad and I begin chuckling (knowing what she's intending to say). Dad says, "Oh she's going on a picnic?" Christin: "No Dad, 'pek-nek.'" Finally after going back and forth a few times, we clue my grandparents in...she's saying "pregnant." Then we all begin to laugh. Grandpa says, "Well pregnant, picnic, same thing right?" Maybe you had to be there but it was funny.

I delight in my fluency class.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

This is my fluency professor featured here.

I delight in a blogging break.

Yesterday's delight: catching up with Sarah and hearing all about her time in America. Eating at Crown Burger--nothing beats their fry sauce. And finally, a late night trip to Smiths including a sit-down adventure on the cosmetics aisle and a lesson in comparative Australian/American make-up pricing. Yep, it was a pretty entertaining and all around hilarious day/night/morning when in the wee early hours I finally retired to bed. But oh hey, today is a new day and not quite as 'delightful' as yesterday.

This may or may not be a delight you can relate with but today, I'm seriously delighting in a blogging break. No no, I'm not taking a break from blogging, I'm just taking a break from the other 10 million things that need to be done before, oh when? Oh that's right, Monday to blog--reach out to the outside world and remember for a moment that there are other things in life besides clinic, planning for clinic, writing clinic case histories, writing treatment records and re-writing clinic goals, methods and baselines. Right now I'm not sure what those other things are but I'm sure they exist. And so, when this post you see, just think of me...holed up somewhere in isolation writing away! Have a glorious weekend unless you're in my program then I wish you the most productive weekend of your life!

I delight in good quotes!

“The system by which the gospel principles are weaved together in a fabric…keeps them in check and in balance with each other. You see, the doctrines of Jesus Christ by themselves are dangerous. Any principle of the gospel, isolated, spun off, and practiced in solitude goes wild and goes mad. It is only the orthodoxy of the gospel that keeps it together, …to focus on one principle of the gospel and exclude the others produces [a] kind of madness and wildness. To preserve orthodoxy is the great balancing act. It is the mission and the excitement and call of life in the institution of the Church.”

(Neal A. Maxwell, In Charge to Religious Educators, p. 96 )

I delight in inspired trips to DI.

Monday, Mom and I ventured to the Deseret Industries (also known as the DI, a fabulous thrift store of sorts). I'd spent the day doing homework and was in dire need of a break and since the DI has moved so conveniently close, Mom and I pop by there occasionally when I'm home. On the way there we discussed why we like to go to DI. Our conclusion? Tradition and the possibility of finding a treasure--colorful pyrex dishes, jadite, cool record for Craig, good church books--yes we go mostly for the 'antiquing aspect.'

So we wandered in, took our usual route back to the glass dishes and then met back up at the books/collectibles cases. Mom asked me what books I was looking for when something caught her eye in the glass case..."Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder and Scribe" by Stanley R. Gunn. It took a minute for me to connect the dots but I clued in when she said, "Its Uncle Stan's book."

You see my whole life I've heard about "Aunt Mary." Aunt Mary this and Aunt Mary that. To me, she rivaled Wonder Woman, the way Mom talked about her. It seemed she taught my Mom everything from sewing to painting. She was in so many of my Mom and her sister's childhood memories that my cousin and I have joked for years how we can't wait to one day meet this "Aunt Mary" who is so 'highly acclaimed' by our mothers.

Well, Aunt Mary's husband was Uncle Stan who once upon a time in 1962 published a book--the very book we found in the DI. My Mom had always wished she had a copy of the book and there it was, sitting underneath the class in the collectible session in perfect condition. Coincidence? I think not.

Why do we go to the DI? Well apparently sometimes we go because we're inspired, because there is something we're supposed to find when we go.

Another treasure? Uncle Stan had also personally addressed the book to a former seminary student of his and signed it.

I delight in a voice.

Afflictions in life can easily act as a blockade. Whether its something inside of you or outside of you that somehow in someway 'keeps you' from becoming who you want to be, who you think you could be. A thing called potential. Your potential.

Potential is a powerful thing and for some is a great motivator to keep pushing, keep trying, keep fighting to become something great. However, for others potential can be like a stormy rain cloud like you see in Charlie Brown cartoons, always reminding you that 'if things were different' you could be somewhere different than where you currently are.

I am grateful to those who give afflictions a voice. Who teach the rest of us that in-spite of hard things we can achieve greatness.

Recently, I have been deeply intrigued by the attention the topic of stuttering has received due to the recent release of the movie, "The King's Speech." Considering that I am currently enrolled in a graduate course on the topic of Fluency Disorders (which in effect is an entire course dedicated to the subject of stuttering) I find my own set of 'myths about stuttering' being debunked and my heart being continually drawn out to those who have at some point or still do struggle with stuttering.

I am impressed by the reaction of the media to "The King's Speech" and I truly hope that persons who stutter find a greater voice and a greater power to achieve greatness and fight for their dreams. Coming from someone who has found what they loved and is having the opportunity to do what they love...I want that for others as well. There is such great power, motivation and drive to learn, grow, become and serve when you're able to pursue and do something you're passionate about!

This write up was initiated by this article, found here.