My Road Trip

My Road Trip - who I want to be in my life; how to forgive people, and how to love them regardless.

I can honestly say that I have been extremely blessed in my life with people surrounding me that love me. I went through a somewhat abusive situation in my younger years, in fact I can think of a couple of them, and I have had my struggles getting over them. It isn't an easy thing to do. I actually thought I was doing pretty good at handling them, until a few days ago, I was in a situation that tested me and I failed miserably. I was walking into a room full of people and I thought I saw a person in that room that had at one point in my life, offered me some pretty extreme verbal abuse. I thought until that moment that I had forgiven that person, and that I was okay to be in the same room with them, if that situation ever came up. Well thankfully I mistook someone else for this other person, and I panicked. I couldn't go into the room. I froze. Okay, so I still have some work to do to get over this. What a tough thing. I still love this family member dearly, but am terrified of letting this person in again, because I am afraid of what might happen. How sad. I want to have all of my family be a part of my life.

How is it that we can let other people control our lives to this extent? We must fight it and learn to get over it, and love again. We can turn our hearts to the example of the Savior who showed love and compassion on everyone, even after they placed Him on the cross. He still asked the Father to forgive them because they didn't know what they were doing. I guess I have some more turning my heart to get to this point. To really understand love and forgiveness like He did.

None of us are perfect. We can love others though. We can rise above the situations we might find ourselves in and be better. We can love people. We can trust people. There are good people in the world. We just need to seek them out. They won't be hard to find if we are looking in the right places. The right places – I think we can all figure out what those places are.

Learn to love again, because the world needs people who love people. Here is a great way to find people to love: “In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day looking for someone to help.” M. Russell Ballard. I guarantee that if you will find people to help, you will find some of the dearest friends to love in your life. You will also find that you will love yourself.

I love this quote by Marjorie Pay Hinckley -

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.... I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.  I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.  I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.  I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.  I want the Lord to know I was here and that I really lived."  

Amen to that!  

Burnout - Don't Quit!!

Do you ever have those days where you just want to quit everything?  Do you ever have those weeks?  Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed and exhausted that I feel like I just want to say to heck with everything and quit it all.  But, now......... let's be realistic because we can't just do that.  So what do you do when you feel like that, because I am sure that I am not the only one who feels it?!!  I had a chat with one of my boys the other day and told him that often when I feel like that - because he thought he was the only one who ever felt that way - I just make myself go through the motions, because it is the right thing to do, and eventually I come to the point where I understand again why I do what I do, and then I can go on again with a renewed energy.

I can't tell you how many times I just go through the motions, because it is what we are supposed to do, not because I WANT to do it, but because I NEED to do it.  There is a difference for sure.  But "always" I come away eventually feeling like I can do it again for a short while.  Just go through the motions and try to put a smile on our face, and eventually you will be smiling again for real.  Not an easy task sometimes, but it works for me.

I have always liked this poem Don't Quit

 

I just keep telling myself this and I make it through again.  There has got to be victory around the next corner right?  Well we just keep walking the road and going around the corners and eventually, as we look back, we will see the little victories, the big wins, and all of the successes along the way that have helped us get to where we are today.  So don't quit! Persevere! Endure! Fake it if you must! Keep smiling!

Just don't quit! 

Be Grateful

Sometimes it is really hard to see life clearly, and to see the things we should be really thankful for, until we come across someone whose story is far worse than our own.  It is so easy to sit back and see our own life as one that is miserable - and don't get me wrong, sometimes it is really miserable - but there is almost always someone who has it worse, especially if we take time to count our own blessings. You know, the blessings that really matter and the things we are really grateful for - like flush toilets, and a soft bed to sleep in. 

I know that sounds kind of silly that we should be grateful for these little things, but have you ever really stopped to think about them?  Have you ever really wondered what life would be like living in another place or time, where these little pleasures didn't exist? 

What would your life be like if you didn't have running water available to you?  I for one am so grateful for this little luxury.  I can't imagine having to carry water every day from a stream, if there were any water at all.  I often take for granted the fact that we do have running water.  I posted an article on water and the importance of it in our lives on one of my other blogs some time ago, if you are interested in reading a bit more about it.

I am really grateful for the simple little luxury of flush toilets and toilet paper.  I know that sounds silly, but can

you imagine??  Need I say more?  Every time you flush from now on, be grateful that you can!  There are many places in this world where that isn't an option.

I am really grateful for technology, and I actually mean kind of old school technology, like stoves, microwaves, and refrigerators.  It wasn't really that long ago, when they were cooking things over coal stoves and fires, (in their homes!) and keeping things cold was a real problem, so everything had to be preserved, or kept in ice chests, water streams, or outside in the winter.  Now I love camping, I really do, but I love to take my propane stove and fridge with me - my trailer.  I can rough it camping, and I have many times just to learn and experience, but I sure am glad I don't have to live like that every day.  It is so much work.  I really think that God blessed us mothers with these modern conveniences because He knew how much work it is.  I am grateful! Again, there are many people in the world today, who still don't have these conveniences and I wouldn't want to be without them.

I am grateful that I don't have to sleep on a straw mattress, or a dirt floor, or live in a tent! I know people who have done all of these, or less than these in their lives - today!  My body would hurt so bad, but then again, I probably wouldn't know any different so perhaps I would just not complain because I would be grateful for whatever I had.  But, I do know different, and I am so grateful not only for good beds, but memory foam!  I love my memory foam on my bed!

I am also grateful today for modern medicine, even though I think our lifestyles have created most of the medical problems that we have, I am grateful that we have options to fix these problems.  I have a minor heart issue, and it is totally treatable with modern medicine, and possibly a surgery.  There are many places in our "modern" world, that these options are not available.  Many places where people would just die, and do die every day because they don't have these options available to them.  Thank goodness that we have medicine and doctors to help treat all of the mental illnesses that we have created for ourselves.  Thank goodness that we have modern medicine to be able to treat all of the actual disease that we have, some of our own doing and some that just happens.  Thank goodness for modern medicine.

These are just a few of the things that I am grateful for today. I hope you take time each day, in all of the little things that you do, to be grateful for something.  Whether that something is big or small, be grateful that you have it in your life.  There is someone, somewhere, who doesn't have what you have.

Be grateful.