i have had quite the week. a good week. fantastic actually. my favorite day? maybe monday. which is mostly because i have very little friends that are still in utah county while the rest are saving souls around the world. and for all you mothers, missionary girl friends, and best friends, monday has possibly become the greatest day of the week. right? it's email day! and personally i check my email at least 10000 times because i LOVE getting everyones emails.
however this week has also been so great because of something i believe in. along with most of you i am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. and this week i have felt extremely loved, watched over, comforted, and cared for by my Heavenly Father.
i am currently taking two religion classes at BYU and i must say my D&C teacher rocks. each class she is so powerful and close to the spirit. there have been many things that she has said that i have needed and have had to hide the tears in my eyes. one day while doing the reading for that class the very last paragraph said "He loves you. No matter who you are or where you have come from. No matter what you have done or who you have been. He is waiting for you to come to him and no matter what has happened He is there." what a profound statement. NO MATTER what you have done He will forgive you. NO MATTER how alone you feel He is there. He knows us better than we know ourselves and is ALWAYS by our side.
i have tried to make the goal of while driving to work to try and listen to a talk from conference and the other day i chose to listen to a broadcast by President Uchtdorf at the Relief Society Broadcast in 2011 called Forget Me Not. if you haven't heard of this, listen to it. it is so so good. but my favorite part is when he reminds us, "The love of God and the power of the restored gospel are redemptive and saving. If you will only allow His divine love into your life, it can dress any wound, heal any hurt, and soften any sorrow."
throughout this week these little messages of love and forgiveness have been appearing everywhere! the other night after so many more of these little lines i said a prayer thanking my Heavenly Father for not forgetting me and who i am and what i need. being a girl, feeling forgotten is quite easy. but to each of you may i say you are never alone. He is there and He is waiting.
as i have been thinking about this thought of "never alone" i have thought of all the girls i graduated with and may have done a little facebook/instagram stalking. but it's amazing to me that though many are on missions, out of state, married, or just living life, there are so many that are so supportive of eachother. from watching madeline vance talk about how great ashlyn rire was during the wedding process to cassidy vansolkema being a rock for each girl older or younger to rely on to tiffanie allen making sure each girl feels love to tori ware ashlyn rire and chelsea clayton being so supportive of eachother to annie madsen writing the best blog post about social media to skylar olsen being the cutest and one of the strongest girls i have ever met, i look up to them all and the amazing friends they are to each other. they may not realize it but i think the rest of the world might that these girls and so many more i didn't name are making sure others never feel a lone or forgotten. how lucky are we all to have a friend like that? but we must remember we can be that friend to someone else.
what a week. what a lovely week. thank you all for being someone i look up to. you all make an influence big and small.
may i just say i love the gospel of Jesus Christ. i love the comfort i feel and the joy it brings. i am not perfect but with a gospel such as this, i can be perfected. to those of you who don't feel like you are loved or feel they are a lone i give you the amazing words from my most favorite general authority, “Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”
I am truly truly grateful that i know i am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me and i know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel i will be able to return to Them and be with my family through the eternities. what a wonderful blessings. enjoy your weekend everyone.
chills. seriously. i love you!
ReplyDeletebeautiful post Jan!!!
ReplyDeletewow. that picture is simply breathtaking. i love how much emotion is in one picture!
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