On Sunday night we had our Young Women's New Beginnings at church. Each of the leaders read a part of the book (which is actually taken from a talk) called Your Happily Ever After by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It's really a wonderful book. My favorite part of the talk is,"Once upon a time. Aren't those wonderful words to begin a story of adventure and romance, a story of princesses and princes. It may include tales of courage, hope, and everlasting love. In many of these stories, nice overcomes mean and good overcomes evil. But perhaps most of all, I love it when we turn to the last page and our eyes reach the final lines and we see the enchanting words "And they lived happily ever after.""
"Isn't that what we all desire: to be the heroes and heroines of our own stories to triumph over adversity; to experience life in all its beauty; and, in the end, to live happily ever after?"
Sisters, those words are true! They are not made up in a fairy tale! Isn't it remarkable to know that our eternal Heavenly Father knows you, hears you, watches over you, and loves you with an infinite love? In fact, His love for you is so great that He has granted you this earthly life as a precious gift of "once upon a time," complete with your own true story of adventure, trial, and opportunities for greatness, nobility, courage, and love. And, most glorious of all, He offers you a gift beyond price and comprehension. Heavenly Father offers to you the greatest gift of all-eternal life-and the opportunity and infinite blessing of your own "happily ever after."
It goes on to talk about how each of us has a journey in between our "once upon a time" and our "happily ever after". And he talked about how our journey, like the princes and princesses in the fairy tales, will have adversity, challenges, sadness and, at times, despair. But we know that if we can endure them well, over come those difficult times, by doing all we need to do to stay close to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and ask for their help and the companionship of The Holy Ghost and if we do all we know they would have us do, then we can achieve our "happily ever after" which is essentially, eternal life, returning to Heaven to live with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and our loving families. He also said,\
"It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life's story will develop."
Later that night, after I had come home and changed into my nice comfy sweats and cuddled up to my Facebook phone ap, I read about things like...my cousin, John, who lives in Paris, France, was celebrating his 40th birthday. My friend, Emily, had celebrated her 35th birthday by going on a week long cruise with her husband. My friend, Cindy, welcomed her sweet baby boy, Tanner, into the world. Then my mom texted me and told me that my sister, Stephanie's, friend, Dr. Greg Nielsen, had passed away. When he opened his pediatric practice, Steph was his first nurse. She loved him and his wife and children. When she was blessed with her first child, she left her job so that she could raise her son. Of course, Dr. Nielsen became her trusted pediatrician. I remember how much I loved my doctor and his nurse when I had my Zacky and how sad I was when his nurse passed away. There is a bond between you and your children's Dr. and nurses when you have those precious little babies to care for! I understand that Dr. Nielsen had a staff infection which caused sepsis. His fever got so high that he had a stroke and later passed away. This is such a sad thing! I just feel so bad for his wife and children. What a loved man! What a great loss!!!
I had been so spiritually fed at church and, later, at New Beginnings. I felt joy for the people I know who had reason to celebrate. I felt sadness, and cried for Steph and all of the people who knew and loved Dr. Nielsen. It all felt kind of surreal. I was thinking about how life is going on all around us. All around the world. How many people all over the world happily celebrated birthdays that day? How many people all over the world were born that day? How many people all over the world died that day? How many people all over the world experienced the devastating loss of a loved one that day? The circle of life. Life is so incredibly sad and difficult at times and so beautiful and lovely at other times. Sometimes both extremes are experience at the same time. I am so very grateful to my Heavenly Father and to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to The Holy Ghost!!! They are always there for me to help me through whatever pain or suffering I experience. I know they are there for all the people who are mourning the loss of loved ones and any other sad, horrible, tragic thing they might be experiencing. They are also there to rejoice with us when great things happen. I am so grateful for the knowledge and testimony I have of them. I am so grateful for missionaries of all faiths who preach and teach of the love and support God and Jesus give us in our lives. Everyone should know that they have wonderful Father in Heaven who loves them. Everyone should know what their Savior, Jesus Christ, did for them and for all of us. Everyone should know that The Holy Ghost is there for us to comfort us, to guide us, and to help us through this earthly life. Everyone should know that there is a plan and a reason for us to be here in the first place, to have an understanding of their very existence! I cannot fathom how difficult life must be when you don't know these things! How lonely and lost they must feel. I feel so blessed! You know, for a while there I was feeling really down. My health problems are frustrating (I am grateful my pain is helped so much by medication, I just wish sometimes that I didn't have to worry about it in the first place. That I wouldn't have to take stupid medication. That I could be out in the cold without having pain. I could go on and on but I wont (o: ). Brian is out of work and has been since November. That brings so much anxiety, frustration, and difficulty to our lives as well as to our marriage. My house and yard are total disaster areas because we are too big for it and for a while there, I was gone a lot, working. The pay checks have been wonderful but our family has definitely been affected by my absence, and so has the house! I was just really not a happy camper. Until, I started thinking about one of my all time favorite pictures of Jesus that hung in our little chapel in Dodge City, KS when I was a little girl. You know, the one where he's standing at the door, knocking, and the door has no knob. He's waiting for us to let him in our lives. I feel really humbled! Our problems are NOTHING compared to so many other people's problems. We have been blessed in so many ways it's unbelievable. We need to be more grateful!!! We need to be more diligent in doing the things we know we need to do to bring Him in our lives more, which ultimately leads us to the greatest joy we can possibly feel as human beings!!!
I can't find the one that hung in our chapel but this is lovely too!
