Choose Friends Carefully

I found todays thought in President Hinckley's Stand A Little Taller, yet again. I have had the thought of friendship on my mind for some time, but wasn't sure in which way to organize my thoughts. President Hinckley's words mirror my thoughts:

"CHOOSE FRIENDS CAREFULLY

But I have prayed for thee, that they faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy bretheren. ~ Luke 22:32

Everybody wants friends. Everybody needs friends. No one wishes to be without them. But never lose sight of the fact that it is your friends who will lead you along the paths that you will follow. While y ou should be friendly with all people, select with great care those whom you wish to have close to you. They will be your safeguards in situations where you may vacillate between choices, and you in turn may save them."

When I first read this, I thought of the youth and how important their social interactions are. I thought of how influential friendships can be and how important it is to keep the company of friends that enjoy the same things you do and for the most part, stand for the same things that you do. While as a youth, I had a lot of friends that were of my faith, but just as many that weren't. All of my friends had special strengths that they brought out in me, and the friends that didn't share my faith and standards, respected me for what I believed. I am grateful for the diversity that I enjoyed in my high school friendships and that I didn't limit my friendships to only those that I went to church with. I am also so especially grateful for those good friends who did share my beliefs and were the glue that held me to my standards when I needed help holding on.

But I also was thinking about friendship during adulthood. Again, I have been blessed with such amazing friendships. Much of them are family relationships that I have been born into and have married into. I am grateful for the friendships that have come from these family associations and know that this is not always the case, so I feel blessed to call my family my friends.

I, as well have friendships that have lasted twenty years and I know will continue on for ever. Nothing can replace the friendship of memories and time. Those girls know me...every age of me, better than anyone else. I have friendships that have budded and grown through my young adult life that I know I could not live with out.

Ultimately, I'm so blessed that I can call my husband my best friend. No other relationship can compare and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

I think President Hinckley's counself to caution ourselves on whom we choose to have close to us, is very wise. If you are like me, you are a pretty open person. I have had a hard time in my life knowing who I can trust, and at the same time, I think there are times I've struggled with being trust worthy in my friendships. Gossip is so rampant, especially in friendships and associations with women. Those kind of relationships are not ones of much depth and definitely are not trustworthy. Realistically, not many people who participate in gossip actually admit it or feel unashamed about it. Most people wish they could stop. I've been there...I've been someone who gossiped, and occasionally, I find myself verging the line of venting and gossiping. It's so important that we are trustworthy friends and that we keep the company of trustworthy friends. Gossip ruins relationships and sometimes lives. For me, trust is the basis of any friendship. Without being able to trust that your friend can be honest with you, there's not much that is real to base a relationship upon.

Hand in hand with honesty is the ability to show who you really are. To not be a fake person. A friendship that is based upon fake pretenses can not ever truly be real. I, again, have made this mistake. Having to pretend to be something that you aren't is like living in a trap and ultimately is a lie by omission. It's unfair to yourself and to those whom you are associating with.

Lastly, there has to be love and respect. You should care for your friends deeply enough that there is a mutual respect. Friends who do not respect your wishes, standards, or beliefs ultimately have their own selfish interests in mind and friendships such as those will never be more than one sided. Friends that have respect for you will understand your needs and sympathize with your situations.

I am grateful to have friends in my life that we share trust, love and respect. It's a constant progression, learning to be a good friend, but I truly believe that surrounding yourself with good friends teaches you how to be one. A good friend will make you want to be a better person, and you will desire their righteous qualities for your own. I am the person I am today, because of the influences of my friendships in my life. I am grateful my friends have let my learn by their examples, and I hope I can continue to try to be the same kind of friend to them, that they are to me.

Because as President Hinckley stated above, "Everybody wants friends. Everybody needs friends. No one wishes to be without them." And no one should have to be.

Procrastination

I won't be as long winded today as I usually am. Yesterday's post was long enough for three days I'm sure. But, I had this thought on my mind and I wanted to read about it just a little bit. I needed some good motivation to stop perpetuating my problem of PROCRASTINATION!

When I was working and had a set schedule in my life, it was so easy to keep up that schedule. I was expected to be up in morning with my running partner...she counted on me and I counted on her. I was expected to be at work. I was expected to be off by a certain time to pick up my child. People expected me and my absence would have caused a problem.

I have some areas in my life where this is still so...but not nearly as much. No one cares now if I sleep as long as my baby. No one expects me to get up and work out with them. No one knows that I threw out my healthy eating and had cake for breakfast. No one knows that instead of reading my scriptures this morning, I checked my email. No one except my husband knows that instead of studying last night, I fell asleep.

And my resolve is always this: I'll do better tomorrow. I'll start Monday. I'll begin at the beginning of the month next month. Yada-yada-yada! Yeah right...even I don't believe myself anymore. I feel like calling myself a liar...and I will, You are a liar. And the reason I am a liar about this, is because I have not tackled the real problem, which is procrastination. And really, there is no time for it.

President Spencer W. Kimball said,“One of the most serious human defects in all ages is procrastination,” and then he defined it: “an unwillingness to accept personal responsibility now."

I don't want to be someone who puts off my personal responsibilities. How can anyone ever trust me with a responsibility if I can't even trust myself?

Now, obviously I am being a little exaggerative. I'm not a lazy couch potatoe, in fact I don't even watch TV much anymore. But the things I want most in life have simple answers. For me to just take some action and "Do It"! That was President Kimballs motto..."Do It!"

This article I found on the church website, by a Ron Woods, called Taking Control of Your Life and Other Odds and Ends had some great tactics for helping get over the habit of procrastination. I would recommend reading it.
One of the tactics is to "Sneak up on it!"

And so my goal is to do just that. Sneak up on the things I want in life, little by little. I don't have to do it ALL today...but I can make little steps towards the future and make the decision that today will be a day of progress and not one of procrastination.

And to end it, some fun quotes from my new favorite quote site:


"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

"How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time."~Fred Brooks

Don't put off today. Because you'll never get it back.

The Virtue I Lack

I have been thinking all morning about what topic I want to study today. I found some great focuses and tried to head in that direction, but no matter what I thought, my mind diverted back to what I am REALLY struggling with right now.

Patience.

To be completely blunt (and a bit crude) about it, I suck at it. I always thought I was a patient person...but you never know what you are really all about or made up of, until the test comes for that virtue. And for me, my patience has never truly been tested, until I became a parent. Let me revise that, a parent of an almost two year old.

So, naturally, I don't feel in any position to post on patience today . I have no words of wisdom of my own...and frankly, absolutely NO clue as to attain this virtue. But, no matter how I tried, I couldn't write this post on anything else. This makes sense to me, since (selfishly) this blog, for me, is about me learning more about things I need to work on. To find the strength, down within myself, which usually that comes for me when I organize my thoughts on paper (computer...paper, same thing).

So, I don't know if this post will help anyone, or even give anyone any comfort. I pray that it doesn't diminish the AMAZING JOY that is parenthood, or deter anyone from that precious calling. I WOULD NOT CHANGE A DAY IN MY LIFE, TO GO BACK TO MY PRE-MOTHERHOOD DAYS!!! I want to say that loud and clear so as not to confuse how I feel about the sacredness of my duties, and how much I love them with a love that's deeper than I can even describe.

But, one of the reasons parenthood is so amazing, is because it teaches you about yourself, and teaches you to be a better you. And you want that, because children deserve nothing but the best.

So, I went to the church website and searched the Gospel Library under "Patience". I found a First Presidency Message, from the Ensign, September 2002, written by now prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. He began with a story about a conversation he'd had with a stake president in Texas some years earlier. "I was met at the airport by the stake president, and while we were driving to the stake center, I said, 'President, how is everything going for you?' He responded: 'I wish you had asked me that question a week earlier, for this week has been rather eventful. On Friday I was terminated from my employment, this morning my wife came down with bronchitis, and this afternoon the family dog was struck and killed by a passing car. Other than these things, I guess everything is all right.'"

Now, I won't compare my situation to the above. My husband definitely didn't lose a job, I'm not sick, and although our dog did pass, it was over a year ago. But, honestly if you were to call me right now, and say, "How are you?" I may mask it and say a casual "Fine" and move on, because I'm a little relaxed now since it's nap time. But, if you'd have asked me an hour ago...and I actually had a spare moment to answer the phone, I would have said, "My daughter screams bloody murder if someone even LOOKS at her the wrong way. I have my windows wide open so as not to run the AC because, well, we have to eat, (haha), my neighbors probably think that I am beating the heck out of her because of the screaming! I spent the entire day yesterday mopping my floors and scrubbing down the kitchen and bathrooms, and three times today my child has spilled her juice and thrown her food from her high chair. I had to put her in time out five times within an hour, she hit her cousin, and her favorite new word is 'Mine'. On top of it all, I was up past midnight studying last night and so I'm cranky and tired. How are YOU doing?"

I know EVERY parent knows what I mean when reading that, and many of them have dealt with much more, and magnified by more than one child. For me, this is not about comparing. I know I don't have it any worse than anyone else. It's just realizing who I am, and dealing with trying to better myself when I get to those breaking points. And believe me, I'm there.

President Monson gives some great words of advice: "Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required. The counsel heard in our youth is still applicable today and should be heeded. “Hold your horses,” “Keep your shirt on,” “Slow down,” “Don’t be in such a hurry,” “Follow the rules,” “Be careful” are more than trite expressions. They describe sincere counsel and speak the wisdom of experience."

I feel like I have learned patience in other areas of my life. I am less anxious for "tomorrow" to come than I used to be. I used to feel like I always wanted the next "good thing" to happen, and I was so impatient with whatever current frustrating situation I was in. I feel like in most instances, I have learned to recognize the good and the lessons I am to be learning from those circumstances, and have been able to endure with faith and patience.

But, every morning I get up and pray for patience. And the thought that's on my mind, is developing patience so that I can be a better mother, (and so that I don't go running from my house screaming and end up in a straight jacket). I should know, that when I pray for something I am going to be tested. How would I learn patience just by the problem being taken away. I can't pray, "Father give me patience", and expect the lack of the need for it to teach me. Right? I mean, it seems like one that prays for a virtue, should understand that the lesson that comes with it to teach them the virtue, is inevitable. I know that I will learn patience...and I also know, for a fact, that I will lose it as well.

Often.

It will be a back and forth battle continuously, but as I pray and try each day, I know that I am working towards that virtue, little by little. This lesson to learn is a small price to pay, to be entrusted with this most important calling. I found a 1990 Ensign article by James E. Faust that describes this sacred duty well. He said, "While few human challenges are greater than that of being good parents, few opportunities offer greater potential for joy. Surely no more important work is to be done in this world than preparing our children to be God-fearing, happy, honorable, and productive. Parents will find no more fulfilling happiness than to have their children honor them and their teachings. It is the glory of parenthood. John testified, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 1:4) In my opinion, the teaching, rearing, and training of children requires more intelligence, intuitive understanding, humility, strength, wisdom, spirituality, perseverance, and hard work than any other challenge we might have in life."

There are so many challenges in life. I have many more to come aside from parenthood, and I will need patience to persevere in those. I know that what I am learning now, will serve me for a life time.

So: Thank you, my dear Father for this sacred opportunity of motherhood, You thought me worthy enough to attempt. Thank you to my husband, who learns and parents patiently along side me. And most especially, thank you to my child, and future children, for letting me learn to be a better person, with you as my teacher(s).

Lastly, I found a cool quote website, wisdomquotes.com. There's some pretty cool stuff on here. Here are two of my favorites on patience:

"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world." ~Hellen Keller

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."~John Quincy Adams

And then on children. I couldn't choose. There were a lot, but they are good if you have the time to read them.

"Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction."~Annie Sullivan

"Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home."~Bill Cosby (Haha...I love that guy!)

"It is very difficult and expensive to undo after you are married the things that your mother and father did to you while you were putting your first six birthdays behind you." ~Bureau of Social Hygiene Study, 1928. (Talk about pressure, haha)

"One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade." ~Chinese Proverb (Future son and daughter in laws, this is for you!! )

"The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant -- and let the air out of the tires."~Dorothy Parker

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."~George Washington Carver

"Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life."~Maureen Hawkins

"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much."~Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

"Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted."~Garrison Keillor

"There never was a child so lovely, but his mother was glad to get him asleep."~Ralph Waldo Emerson

And my very favorite:

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." ~Elizabeth Stone

And I end this post, renewed with faith that I will make it through a million more days like this, and find the patience within to endure. Because I am doing it for my heart, who is napping in her crib upstairs.

Prayer

It's late at night, you are falling asleep watching TV or reading a book and a thought flickers in the back of your mind. Your eyelids are heavy, and you can't remember what you just watched or read for the last two minutes and save the two seconds that it will take to flip off the tv or light, you could fall asleep this very second. The thought is still flickering that you have not yet prayed-sometimes, you fall asleep thinking that thought, "K, I'm going to kneel down in thirty seconds to pray." Sometimes I even start counting; I don't remember getting to ten. Or sometimes, I bargain with myself to fold my arms lying flat on my back in prayer...just tonight, I'll pray laying down. I don't remember getting past my thanks for the day that day, and the next thing I know, it's morning.

I could continue this example on into the morning...the busyness that is our lives jumping into our morning, before we get a chance to turn around and kneel beside our bed in the morning to pray to Heavenly Father. When you sit and think about it, about all that we may or will encounter that day, the safety that we need for us and others, and the strength and guidance to get through the trials of our day, how can we forget such an important step?

I will rat myself out and tell you the above two situations are more frequent than I'd like to admit in my personal life. Why is this so hard for me? We do great with morning and evening couple prayers, but finding that personal time to talk with the Lord, seems to be a bigger struggle than it should.

Like anything else, prayer is a process. You know you have a relationship with your Heavenly Father, but how comfortable is it? Like any other relationship, how well does the conversation flow? It flows easier when your talks are more frequent and you feel you can open up to that person. I think its the same thing with the Lord.

" 'We learn to pray by praying. One can devote countless hours to examining the experiences of others, but nothing penetrates the human heart as does a personal fervent prayer and its heaven-sent response.'~Thomas S. Monson (Ensign, October 2004)

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed,

The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast...

Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach

The Majesty on high. (Hymns, no. 145)

'We build a relationship of love and trust with Heavenly Father through sincere and frequent prayer. Heartfelt communion with the Infinite can soften souls and draw our thoughts and desires heavenward. In humble prayer, we realize our dependence upon God, the Giver of life and everything in it. As we express sincere gratitude and meekly supplicate, we remember that we are His children and that He loves us with a pure and constant love. May we ever seek to pray.' ~Lloyd D. Newell" (Come, Listen to a Prophets Voice, Lloyd D. Newell.)

I know that deep within my heart, I truly want the Lord to feel what I'm feeling and know the desires of my heart. Sometimes, I think I assume that just because He knows me so infinitely well, and knows my mind and heart, that maybe that's enough. While it is important to go through out our day with a prayer in our heart, its not enough. The Lord wants to be asked. He wants us to formally recognize our blessings, and we owe Him the gratitude of a sincere thanks.

My Relief Society president shared a story with us this last Sunday about one of her daughters. This particular daughter is having a hard time conceiving a child. She had described that while her daughter was raised in the Gospel, she is not too active in the church. My Relief Society president had attended the temple recently and spent hours there, praying and pondering on each of her six children individually. When praying for this daughter, my Relief Society president said she was inquiring with the Lord about her daughters ability to get pregnant. She felt the Lords reply, "She needs to ask me." Now, even though the daughter was not as active as before, my Relief Society president had assumed she had still been praying. In speaking with her daughter after this experience, her daughter was expressing her desperation and sorrow in her inability to get pregnant. Her mother asked her, "Have you prayed and asked the Lord?" She replied that He knew she wanted to have a baby. How could He not know? And she again said to her daughter, "But have you asked the Lord?" Her daughter expressed to her mother, that she hadn't been praying and that she didn't feel worthy to pray for such a thing, especially when there were so many other women out there that were having the same difficulties, that maybe she felt were more worthy of motherhood.

We are ALL worthy of prayer. The Lord is there for each and every one of us. Yes, it is true that He knows the desires of our hearts, but He wants us to acknowledge His hand and presence in our lives. We do that, through our sincere prayers of gratitude, and our sincere pleas for comfort, peace and blessings.

As the above Mormonad states, "If you're missing PEACE and seeking answers, prayer might be the piece you're missing." (See 3 Nephi 18:20).

In a world of chaos and uncertainty, He waits for us to come to Him, so that He can guide us.

Opposition

Everything has its opposite. Light and dark. Hot and cold. Happiness and sadness. Pain and pleasure. We have been taught, through the fall of Adam, that we were sent to this earth to experience opposition, so that we might know the good from the evil.

In Moses 5:11, Eve says, "Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient."

It's hard whilst in pain, darkness or sadness to see that these things are for our learning, so that we might be able to recognize our blessings. Sometimes it seems it might be easier, just to have everything be perfectly wonderful all of the time; to not have to worry...but without the opposition in life, we would not know the beauty of our blessings. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "The valleys of discouragement make more beautiful the peaks of achievement."

How do we do that? How do we sit back in our despair and trial and "see the bright side," when all we are feeling is lost? It's very hard to do, but luckily, we have the ability to go to our Heavenly Father in prayer and ask for His comfort. Sometimes, that's all we get is comfort. Not an answer that everything is going to be okay, or that we will not deal with despair any longer, but just the assurance that everything will be okay.

We are promised that when we live righteous lives, and do what the Lord says, that He will bless us. “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise” (D&C 82:10) So, our comfort comes in knowing we are doing the right things and progressing towards becoming more like Him. We have great blessings promised to us, when we are living God's law.

I, personally, am a worrier. I am a stress-er. I am an anxiety attack waiting to happen. I have let that kind of thinking debilitate me in so many ways, but lately, I have been really trying hard to accept the opposition in life. Things can't always be wonderful, and the reality is that! That there is opposition in all things! Until this time in my life, I haven't been able to truly look at our trials and struggles with an appreciation for the lessons that I can learn from them. It's a daily battle, to find the courage to get up and fight through the feelings of stress, anxiety and worry, but I am comforted in the Lord's promise, and in the words of a prophet that assure me that we must taste the bitter to know the sweet. And in my heart, through the comfort that the Spirit of the Lord provides, I feel that sweet assurance and peace, that we can and will endure.

Love

(Written by a teenager)
Love. The most frequently used word in the English language. I wonder why it is used so often when there seems to be so very little of it left in the world. Maybe someday like me, you’ll learn the real meaning of it.

I suppose the whole story started the day my sister was born. From the moment she was carried into the house, my life has been one big contest.

You see, I was five when she was born and had always been the center of attention. Everybody spoiled me with candy and toys. It was always, "How's my little Leslie? I have a big surprise for you!” After that they'd take me to the circus and buy me everything in sight. So you can see that for someone else to just come along and steal the spotlight was a terrible blow.

Yes, the second she entered that house I was thrown aside, while she was smothered with "ooo's" and "aaa's" It's understandable though. She was a beautiful baby. Visiting relatives would lean over her crib and she'd smile, gurgle, and kick her chubby legs at them.

I remember once when I was rocking her to sleep in her cradle I gave it one mighty shove and she came tumbling out. She wasn't hurt, but I was punished.

As Julie grew up matters got worse. She had this terrible habit of following me around wherever I went. It was always "Can I come with you. Leslie?"

"No! So will you layoff, you little brat! Beat it.” She'd always start to cry. Then my mother would come running and I'd get in trouble. The same thing all the time. Wherever I went, Julie went. All her little hints of love and affection just made me hate her more.

Once I tried to tell my mother how I felt about Julie. I guess my wording wasn't right. "Mom, I hate Julie ... " but before I could finish my sentence I got a Slap on the mouth and an angry answer.

"Why Leslie, how dare you say such a thing about your sister who loves you! You go to your room this minute!"

Well that's how things were in our household. That is, until two weeks ago. It was just a regular Saturday. I was bored to death and awfully cranky. My homework wasn't done, but I was in no mood to it. After lunch my mother asked me to mail a letter for her. The mailbox was just two blocks away and I had nothing to do, so I agreed. I was about to leave when Julie, as usual, asked if she could go.

I was too tired to argue so I said okay.

As we were walking I began to feel better. It was a beautiful day. The air was cool, and the wind slapped my face until it really woke me up.

Before I knew it, we were almost to the mailbox. Julie, who was getting bored because I hadn't spoken a word the whole way, suddenly grabbed the letter and yelled, "Race you to the mailbox!” She darted out into the street, heading for the box on, the other side. She never made it.

It all happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to call out. A car suddenly swerved around the corner, heading right for Julie. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. The next thing I knew she was on the ground.

Everything after that was just a blurry nightmare. I guess the man who hit her called an ambulance. I think I just froze in my place with my mouth open, waiting to scream.

I suppose most people would have cried or gone hysterical, but I didn't. I didn't feel a thing. Just empty, as if someone had cut a big hole in me. Empty. That's all
Finally, somehow, they got her to the hospital ... I was in the waiting room with my parents. After what seemed like a century, the doctor came out. One look at his face, and I knew.

My parents rose as he walked toward us. They probably knew too, but you could still see a tiny glimmer of hope in their eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking down at his hands. "I don't think she'll make it; she's got one in a million chance."

Then I felt it. That thing called love. It came in a rush from way down deep, after being hidden all these years. Hard to believe, isn't it? I loved my sister and didn't know it for ten years.

That night I asked to see her. Of course, at first, they said no; but finally I was allowed a short visit.

I tiptoed into her room hoping she wouldn’t be asleep. She wasn't. She was lying very still, staring at the ceiling. When she heard me come in, she turned and smiled weakly. Oh, she was so pale.

"Hi Julie."

"Hi."

I sat down by her bed and held her hand tightly.

"Leslie. "

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?”
"Sure”.

"Leslie, why did you come to see me?"

With tears streaming down my face I answered, "Because I love you, Julie.” For the first time in her life she looked really happy. I mean really happy!

I leaned over and kissed her gently on ,the cheek.

"I love you too, Leslie."

With a smile on her face she died. LOVE. You never know you have it until you lose it!

My dad had used this story in a talk he had given and it really touched me. I will never forget it. Recently I asked him to email it to me, because I have to give a talk, and so I thought I would share the story with you.

There's not much else I can add to this story, it was said so well. It just made me realize how much love I have in my life, and that so much of it, I take for granted. I think if we thought of every moment that we get with the ones we love, as if it was our last, our hearts would be forever filled with love and compassion for those in our lives.

"We Love to Laugh...ha, ha, ha, ha...Loud and Long and Clear!"

I love the part in Mary Poppins when they went to check on their friend (the doctor or something? I don't know, whoever that guy was) because he was laughing so much he was on the ceiling. And then his laughing was so infectious that soon Bert ended up in gut busting laughter, with Michael and Jane following soon after. Finally, Mary Poppins gave in and joined them on the ceiling for a tea party, and they had their fun. I love the song they sing, "I love to laugh, ha ha ha ha, loud and long and clear."

I think its important to laugh and have humor in our lives. In Stand A Little Taller, it says:

"A TOUCH OF HUMOR

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.- Proverbs 15:13

We need to have a little humor in our lives. We better take seriously that which should be taken seriously, but at the same time we can bring in a touch of humor now and again. If the time ever comes when we can't smile at ourselves, it will be a sad time."-Gordon B. Hinckley

I was raised in a family of very funny, witty people. I then married into a family of very funny and witty people. Humor is a big part of my life. I have learned to laugh at myself and I think its a good thing. I can be a klutz, and a ditz, and I think its good to be able to laugh things off and make fun of yourself every once in a while.

It's important that we remember that we need to, as President Hinckley says, take the serious things seriously, but we need to allow ourselves the joy that is humor. After all, "...men are, that they might have joy."-2 Nephi 2:25.

I found an article by a BYU Professor, Gary K. Palmer: Teaching Professor of Recreation Management and Youth Leadership. He talked of the power of laughter. He told personal story about finding humor in his own stressful situations.

"One Sunday in sacrament meeting, my four-year-old son was making a major disturbance. After several minutes of trying to calm him down, I picked him up, tucked him under my arm like a sack of potatoes, and headed for the nearest exit. Shocked by the sudden departure, my son looked up at me and said, “Hey, Dad, where we goin’?” His innocent comment caught me by surprise and defused my anger instantly. He had no idea he was in trouble. He thought we were going out to play."

Children are great examples of finding the simple humor in life. Sometimes, I think we all need to just RELAX a little, and laugh. It's healthy for you. For "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” says Proverbs 7:22 .

Brother Palmers talk gives some great references to this:

"Studies show that humor and laughter help people live longer, happier lives; be more creative and productive; and have more energy with less physical discomfort.

*Humor reduces stress, fear, intimidation, embarrassment, and anger.

*Laughter also has extraordinary healing power.

*When a person laughs, blood pressure decreases, heart rate and respiration increase, the body releases endorphins, and depression declines.

*After the laughter subsides and you relax again, that good feeling has a lasting effect, even until the next day.Not many medicines will do that."

A study also referenced in Brother Palmers talk states that "On average, children laugh 400 times a day, while adults laugh about 15 times." Personally, I think I could use 385 more laughs to get me through my day. Maybe I need to start taking cues from my toddler, and instead of getting upset when she comes in covered with my make-up, just grab my camera and laugh.

So, that is my challenge to myself, and anyone else who wants to do it. To laugh more today; to laugh more everyday. To find the simple humors that make this life so enjoyable.