I'm baaaaaack!!

Wow! A ten year hiatus from writing on my diary blog! That must be some kind of record. 

I have looked at the few entries I made from back when my G was a baby...and now she's almost 11! It is so true the saying, 'the days are long but the years are short'. So precise!

Since I have been gone for ten years, I have also had another beautiful baby girl, who is six! Little S is a sassy, sweet and overly affectionate child. She's the girl that loves mermaids, unicorns, princesses and anything sparkly. After only knowing G as the sporty and low maintenance kid, S has been new territory. They are both such a blessing to me in my life, and I love them with all my heart. 

So, I have since had a change of heart myself! What with it being 2020 (that number alone should inspire reasons as to why I have decided to start up my blog again, considering how CRAZY this year is!), I wanted to use this blog as more of a reach out to the world with my thoughts. I am known on my other social media pages as the one who posts inspirational quotes from church leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (of whom I am a member). I want to use this platform to extend my thoughts beyond just a quote, and more of a narration of how those quotes and other inspirational things, have brought peace and comfort to my life when the world seems to have lost its bearings. 

Anyway, this post is all kinds of crazy, as it's the first one in a long time, so I will just keep it simple by saying, "I've returned, and I look forward to sharing thoughts with you."

Before I sign off, here is a thought for today:

I was reading a talk from Ezra Taft Benson (it's called Beware of Pride), who was a prophet back in the late eighties. He was known for his powerful testament of The Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is my FAVORITE book by far! It is scripture that testifies of Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, but the book tells of accounts of people that were brought (by God) to the Americas both before the birth of Christ, and throughout his mortal ministry. I encourage you to read it! It's amazing and was truly written for our time.

But anyway, back to what I wanted to share about Ezra Taft Benson. He gave a talk once about Pride, which I have recently reread. He shares that we need to understand what pride really means. It's not self-centeredness, conceit and arrogance, etc., but rather, 'enmity' toward God!

What does enmity mean? It means that we put our will against God's will. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren't interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's. Pride pits us against everyone else. We think we know everything, or at least enough, and don't need to know more. We put ourselves on a pedestal. So, in today's terms, we make ourselves to be a big deal, thus overshadowing others, and ignoring God in our lives. 

Why does this subject resonate with me and cause me to write on a blog that I haven't written on in ten years? Because this world today is FILLED with pride! There is a saying that I once heard that goes, 'If envy were a fever, then all the world would be ill.' I see that to be true also with pride. 

When I was pregnant with my little S, we were going through some pretty tough times. I am a control freak, and I drove myself crazy trying to figure out what I could have been doing to make my life better. I kept on trying to tell God what it was that I wanted, and 'the heavens were silent'. I felt no direction, no comfort, no peace. I then had the sudden realization that I was edging God out of my life because of my pride! I thought I knew better about myself and my situation than the very being that CREATED me! 

Once I came to that realization (and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this, by the way), I finally prayed and asked God to 'take the wheel' of my life, and I promised that I would let Him do so, forever. Then, the miracles began. Because God can do so much more with my life than I can, He started to make changes in me, and in our situation, that over the course of a few years, took us on a remarkable physical and spiritual journey, that I would have never assumed would happen. 

Get rid of pride in your heart! Get rid of it in your life! God does so much more for you than you can ever do for yourself. The biggest lie is that we can do things without Him, and we just can't (and really shouldn't!)

Give Him your will. It's the only thing you can give Him, anyway. Let Him take your life and do some pretty amazingly awesome things with it. He loves you, and WANTS what's best for you!

That's my thought for today! See you soon (sooner than a decade from now, I promise!)

P.S. Another great talk to read is called 'Desire' by Dallin H Oaks. He talks about overcoming worldly desires in order to align yourself more with God. It's a great read!