Learning Experience..

Well this blog has kind of gone down the tubes hasn't it? :) Even if I only serve the purpose of journaling for myself and my posterity, I wanted to share something I've learned this past year. So I'm not giving up on this blog and I may even make it a "weekly journey" blog or something. So I'll write about things I'm embarking on for the week or month or whatever. Just something interesting :) Hopefully people still read this blog.. but maybe not. Oh well :)

I have learned a lot this past year--mostly because I became a Personal Trainer and realized that it's easier than you think to get in over your head and forget what is truly important in life. I've realized that working very hard at what you do is important, but we have to ask ourselves, is what we are working on what we should be working? We can engage ourselves in so many different things, but where should our primary focus be? Maybe we are not good at something because it's not what we're really supposed to be doing.... and working to be better at it really is fruitless since it's not what God wants us to focus on at all. There is a time and a season for everything, but I've learned that the most important mission and calling in life for me is that of a mother. Right now, my children are young and impressionable and I want to be there for them so they know how to be there for others--how to serve them and love them. I want to teach them hard work and compassion and respect, and how can I do this if I am not fully engaged in my work as a mother? I fully understand the feeling of wanting to quit. And some days you just feel like you can't do it all. But then I think, there will be a time when I will be done with this and what will I feel like then? Will I have any regrets about not being there for my children. Our children are such precious gifts given to us from Heavenly Father. He has entrusted us with their spirits to help them through this life, to show them the way. And if I feel like I don't do anything to contribute to society, I am seeing with a limited perspective. The thing our society needs most is loving and dedicated and available mothers and fathers. So many of them nowadays are just not there, not available to teach and show an example.

Work has it's place and I am thankful for the opportunity I had to help others physically and make friends and be a motivating force for good in others' lives. But if it's at the expense of my other job, the one Heavenly Father gave to me, then it's not worth it. I truly believe one of Satan's greatest tools is helping us to fill our lives with good things, so we have no room for the best things. I have learned this and I am grateful for this lesson. I love that I can learn and repent and change my course and move forward, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for this Gospel that has been restored to Earth and for the chance we have to be with our families forever. I love this quote by Elder Eying, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, "And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow, and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you." What an amazing feeling that will be when we can know that God trusts us! I want to feel that as a mother, as a wife, as a family member, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--that God trusts me to do what He would have me do.