This week, I am thinking about starting new habits. Good habits. It hard. (Anyone who has every tried to break a hard habit or start a good one knows this-probably all of us.) So I am in a sense trying to do both because I want to replace a bad one with a good one! :) Good luck to all those who have goals to make good habits.
I have found with goals, it's good advice to 1. keep it simple and 2. set goals you can achieve. If you find your goal's too hard, reevaluate, and make a different one that's more doable. Same if it's too easy. Try to stretch yourself reasonably inch by inch.
I just got to the last twenty pages of my latest leisure read Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson. I've mentioned it a few times before starting at the turn of the year when I made the goal to read it (if you follow the link: scroll to the last full paragraph where I attached a link to a YouTube video about it). I did not have a set "finish" date, but made small daily or as much as you can type daily goals that helped me get just inch my way through it. (My "inch" phraseology comes from a quote often going through my mind lately that goes like this: "Life by the yard is hard; by the inch it's a cinch." Pres. Thomas S. Monson.)
It worked! I am in my home stretch reading now...can't wait to get to the end but sad to be done with such a great book!
Just a recap: it's about a mom who had a wonderful life and then survived a brutal plane crash leaving her with a very broken body and tried to as gracefully as possible start a new life full of as much happiness as it could hold.
Today I read the pages near the very end of the book where Stephanie Nielson is describing a visit that she had with Elder Jeffery R. Holland, an apostle in the LDS church. He spoke with her about her scars. She was understandably disappointed about them because she wanted to be attractive -as a woman would naturally desire- but he encouraged her to be proud of them. He said we think of Christ's scars as a symbol of what he did for us and her scars are a symbol too. They symbolize her beautiful opportunity to live and create a new life, overcoming special and very difficult challenges. She appreciated this view and took it to heart. (pgs. 290-293)
He also administered a priesthood blessing. She went and wrote down everything she could remember from the blessing he pronounced. The one thing that stood out the most was a confirmation of God's individual love and awareness of her and her trials. Before she mentioned this one standing out and was just listing some of the messages in the blessing, my spiritual senses noticed that one in particular also and felt the reality of the same truth in my own life-right now. I felt the power of the blessing that she described and the truth of those precious promises of a rich and happy life. Look and see what kind of life she is living now. She updates her blog daily with pictures and messages that are usually simple but dear to her heart and it is apparent she is still living in a sense "happily ever after."
I am wishing you all the best in living your "happily ever afters"! :)
If you need some good inspiration, Stephanie Nielson's book is amazing! :)
your friend,
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...and a sneak peak of the recent coast trip pictures! :)
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