Lately

Have you ever had so much on your mind that you don't even know how to gather your thoughts and get them recorded? That's me. I know it's been waaaaaay too long since I've blogged, but I've honestly had so many deep and personal things/ thoughts/ lessons learned that I just didn't even know where to start. I have learned some important things though...

1. Family is so very important. It's so hard to watch your own family struggle in various ways, but it's so comforting to see my family rally around whoever it is that may be struggling and just try to serve them. Sometimes we may wonder why our family goes through certain trials that seem impossibly difficult, but maybe these trials are more of a blessing than we may realize... I've been noticing in my family that although we are going through very difficult trials right now, we have never been closer. We've never been more concerned for each other and eager to serve each other and what a blessing it has been to grow so close to them through these trials!

2. Heavenly Father is intricately involved in the tiny details of our lives. When things aren't working out for me, I sometimes find myself starting to wonder if He has forgotten me... And then tender mercies like this happen to me and it brings me right back to what I've always known to be true.. Last Sunday i was driving up to Ogden for my friend Lauren's farewell. As I was getting ready to leave I decided to call my friends who had already left and asked if they could pull off the freeway so I could follow them (Heaven help me and my sense of direction... I swear I could still manage to get lost driving to my parents house... hahaha). I was enjoying a peaceful Sabbath morning drive when we had just gotten off the freeway and stopped at the first light. When we stopped, I noticed my overheating light turn on and saw the temperature gauge shoot all the way up past the red zone. I was turning my car onto a small rode in front of an empty parking lot as this was happening and not even 20 seconds after the light went on, my car started shaking and then it was dead. I turned off the car and called my friends to come back and get me and as I was waiting, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the timing of my car to die. Although it's never fun for your car to die out of nowhere, i realized that it could have been so much worse. I had only been off the freeway for about a minute, I last minute decided to follow my friends and they happened to have an extra seat in their car to get me back home. As if this wasn't enough of a tender mercy, my brother's old mission president owns a repair shop in Ogden that is about 5 minutes away so we were able to get it towed to that shop, my brother-in-law was traveling out of town last week which meant my mom took his car and I took her car all week so we all could have cars AND the parking lot where my car died was Lauren's dads office, my friend's farewell that I was going to! If that wasn't evidence of the "divine clock," then I don't know what is! He is in every single detail.

3. Life is too short to get hung up on the little things. I feel like I am still a child in the Gospel and in life, but the bigger my perspective gets, the easier it is to just let the little things go. I am nowhere near perfect, but I definitely am noticing weight being lifted off my shoulders the more I choose to let go of things that just don't matter.

4. This world is spiraling downward at a rapid pace and I would be lying if I said that it doesn't terrify me sometimes. I feel like there are so few places that are "safe," in the world now... Out in public, on the internet, TV, the radio, books... Satan has been hard at work for years slowly poisoning the world in such sneaky ways, and I believe that hollywood is his greatest tool. I just feel like more than ever before it's so important for us to be so sensitive to the things we are learning from hollywood. It's so important to be aware of the Spirit that is brought into your life from the media and to make the Spirit of Christ the most important thing in our lives.

5. The small and simple things are the biggest form of protection, the best medicine, and the best way to combat doubt, fear and depression. Every time I read my scriptures, choose to do a small act of service, pray, take the Sacrament, go to the Temple, I feel my soul getting stronger. A testimony isn't one big event, it is the culmination of a lot of little events. I'm so grateful for the small and simple things that bring me confidence and peace everyday. 

Life is so great :) the Church is true folks!

xoxo, 

Alliecat