Mmmm, Lemonade

This week I happened upon a very cheesy looking magazine article about taking lemons and making lemonade.  (Or rather, I creepily peaked at it from my periphery as the person next to me read the article.  I was bored?)  The author talked about making the best out of your life and your challenges.  This is a lesson I have heard over and over and over again.  Be positive.  Learn from struggles.  Yay! Trials are blessings!  *commencing eye roll sequence*

However, as I read, I was intrigued by the way the woman put it.  She had recently found out her marriage was over.  She had to face her children, family, and peers. And one thing she said in particular was simply that, yes, the situation sucked.  Yes, she was heartbroken.  But she had seen people in her past let ordeals make them angry and hardened.  She wrote that she would not allow this challenge to make her bitter.  

I have so much admiration for this woman.  I think it is easy to say that you know trials can be for your good.  But when I am in the middle of one, it is very easy to forget that I control how the situation affects me.  I control how it shapes me.  And I cannot allow the trials I face make me bitter either.

2 Corinthians 4:17-

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."  

I'm understanding more and more as time passes that every detail of my life has shaped who I am. Every happy moment, and every tragedy.  We each have experiences and perspectives that are truly unique.  And many of them come from the unique challenges we have faced.  

The wise, Brigham Young once said:

"Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation."

Whoa!!!! EVERY trial?!  If every trial and experience I pass through is leading me toward salvation, then sure.  I say, bring it on.  Because I have the faith that a path is being laid before me, and that if I face my challenges with my God and those I love, it worketh for me "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

charity never faileth

Happy Valentines Day(ish)!  Today I'm writing about l-o-v-e.  <3.

More specifically, a perfect love.  The pure love of Christ.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vauteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemingly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

To have charity is something I think we all strive for.  But we discussed in class that it is a concept that is a bit misunderstood.  When we try to have charity, we try to love others, we try to serve them.  But this is not charity.  Charity is the pure love of Christ.  It is specifically and exclusively Christ's love.  His love for us.

I cannot generate charity, but I can try to reflect it.  I don't have the capacity to perfectly love, but Christ perfectly loves me.  My actions can reflect that love.  My attempts to serve others are efforts to become more like Christ.

True charity was only seen on this earth once.  In the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I look around me and observe my life and the people in it and I feel so much love.  Christ loved us all so purely that he gave His life for us.  I want so badly to be deserving of that love, and I want to reflect His love to everyone around me.

The Next Step

Sometimes I worry about my future.  A whole lot.  I worry about whether I am headed in the right direction.  If I'm following my proper path.  I wonder if I will be happy with my decisions, or if I will regret them someday.  Stepping into the unknown is terrifying.  It's uncomfortable.  I am so blessed that I don't have to do it completely alone and completely blind.  And as it turns out, no one does.  

In Acts 16, Paul and other disciples were traveling and preaching.  One night, Paul had a vision that instructed him to travel to Macedonia.  

"And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us, for to preach the gospel unto them.  Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia... and we were in that city abiding certain days" (Acts 16:10-12).    

The Lord told Paul where to go, but he did not tell him how to get there, or what to do once he arrived.  And although Paul responded immediately to God's instruction, God did not immediately respond to him.  "we were in that city abiding certain days."  The answer as to exactly why the Lord had called them there didn't arrive right away.  But it did arrive.

God doesn't always tell us exactly where to go or what to do.  But often, he gives us the next step.  And sometimes that step is a pretty big leap of faith.  But when we do as Paul did and immediately obey, we will only be blessed.