Here's to Journeys

As it is still the beginning of the year and many of us are making goals, or feel pressure to make goals and commit to growth, this quote seems very fitting. 

Setting goals feels very overwhelming to me.  I’m really great at thinking of goals or thinking of areas in which I want to experience growth.  I would love to actually one day grow a darn plant, no not grow it, keep an existing plant alive!  I desperately want to take part in a healthier lifestyle through balanced diet and consistent exercise and researching and implementing “cleaner” eating methods.  I’ve always wanted to become a yoga instructor.  I feel the need to travel more!  I want to be more of a reader.  I want to learn how to make pasta from scratch, quilts, candles, soap, canned fruits and vegetables, delicious cakes, SO MANY THINGS!!!

Here’s the issue: following through and achieving my goals and dreams. 

I guess they just seem so big and the pressure of completing them makes me feel like I’d rather go take nap and dream about flying through London with Peter Pan on my way to Neverland (yes this is a frequent dream of mine). 

Obviously from this blog and its theme, one of my main focuses this year is to become more active in my spiritual development and journey.  Since I was about 12 my main priorities and focus have been on my education and developing my talents in music, theatre, and dance.  I’ve pretty much chosen theatre and my education over everything else in my life up to this point, with the exception of my husband of course.   I put everything else on the back burner, even church, because my focus was on my higher education but I always told myself in graduate school, just get through this and then you can focus on church, then you can focus on better daily habits.  Well I have to say...that’s exactly what I did and looking back even in just these past 7 months I am disappointed in myself for thinking that way.  However, in a different way I’m proud of myself because I did exactly what I said I was going to do;  I have put my priorities back in order and my relationship with Heavenly Father and working to build His kingdom is back to its proper number 1 slot.  And it’s not like I was doing anything bad previously I just...wasn’t “doing.” I was...just floating by on the lazy river.

So this year I have decided and I officially decreed that there will be no goal setting for me- nope not a one.  Instead I have decided to start a journey.  A journey doesn’t have a defined destination and does not necessarily ever have to end.  I can keep learning and growing and know that it can be infinite and while that can be a bit overwhelming, it also brings me peace. 

Our greatest and most important journey is our journey of spiritual remembrance and development: our journey with the Savior.  We follow Him, we look to Him, we rely on Him, and we become like Him. For me this has always been the most overwhelming “goal” I’ve ever had.  It felt so big, so on going, long lasting and I felt so unworthy and human that it felt unattainable.  However, as I have looked to the Savior and come to know His love and feel the love He has for us, and the love our Heavenly Father has for His children I’ve realized that this, this quote from Elder Bednar, this is what He requires from us.  He doesn’t require us to move a mountain, to heal a heart, to be perfect.  He requires us to do our best and tomorrow, do a little better, and the next day, do even a little better than that.  It is through our daily growth and obedience that He causes mountains to be moved in us; mountains that look like little hills of bad habits and sharp peaks of despair and pain.  It is through our daily obedience and growth that He causes our hearts to be made whole again through His infinite atonement.  And it is through life-long daily learning, obedience, growth, and journey that we become like Him, perfect and fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. 

As President Thomas S. Monson said concerning this journey, “Life by the yard is hard; by the inch it’s a cinch.”

These words, to simply do better today - just today - than I did yesterday, give me so much hope for not only my journey this year, but also my whole life’s spiritual journey.  When I find the mistakes I've made in the day I have hope knowing that tomorrow I can just not do that one thing and that will be good, that will be enough improvement.  Or one day if, Heaven-forbid, I have a really horrible spiritual set-back, something that totally turns my world upside down, I can have peace knowing that tomorrow I just have to do a little better than what I did today and that will be enough for Him, that will be enough to prove my obedience and commitment.  It helps me to not only have more patience, love, and understanding for myself, but for everyone else around me and their own personal journey of growth and development.  That knowledge and understanding gives me more peace than I've felt in a very long time.

So here’s to our 2014 journeys:  may we learn more about ourselves and others and may they bring us happiness beyond measure.

~emmy jean


To see my 2014 Journeys click here.

"In Sunshine and in Shadow..."

(feel free to share on instagram, pinterest, or facebook) 

What a powerful quote from our former Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley.  He was just the sweetest man.  I remember the first time I saw him I was attending the dedication of the Houston LDS temple and as he walked up to address the crowd gathered there he began to put his hands out so that all of the children could shake his hand.  I certainly wasn't going to let an opportunity to shake the Prophet of the Lord's hand pass me up so I reached as much as I could and I got to shake his hand.  It was a very memorable and wonderful experience for me.  

I first came across this quote when I was attending an EFY session in my youth.  It touched me more than almost anything I've ever read or heard and I had kind of forgotten about this quote for years and then last year I came across it again.   I was having a hard day, you know we all have those, where you accept that your make-up is just not going to make it through the day, and I had started collecting inspirational quotes to try and help pull me out of a spiritual slump that I had been in for what felt like forever.  I came across this quote again and it brought back a flood of memories, mostly memories of what it felt like to, for lack of a better term, feel on fire!  You know...that burning in your chest that confirms to you that you are loved, you're worth it, and that you are willing to do anything and everything it takes to "fan the flame of your faith."  Ever since that time I've kind of made it my mantra, which is why it is the first quote I wanted to share. 

So the first part of the quote: “like the polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God...” President Hinckley is referring to the North Star and I just think that’s such a beautiful way to say it; “polar star.”  It isn’t just the North Star in the sky; it’s the polar star in the heavens.  It feels poetic!  And looking at the word polar it can refer to more than just the geographic location of the north and soul pole, it also refers to magnetism and electricity which denotes that we are naturally drawn to it.  I love the analogy of the Savior and the North Star.  It is how we stay on the path, how we can prevent ourselves from getting lost and if we follow the Savior, He is as clear and constant as the North Star.  And how true is that; constant, sure, unchanging.  Even if we feel like we can’t see the star, if it’s covered by clouds in our life or forests that we’ve created, it’s still there shining just as it did on a clear night.  What a beautiful analogy. 

President Hinckley uses again, an analogy stating that the Savior is the “anchor of our immortal lives.”  Anchors keep you grounded, safe from storms, implanted deep in the earth while waves make the boat seem rocky and out of control.  He then says, “He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith...” which for me is a very critical part of the quote/mantra.  Focus is something that I have a lot of respect for.  It takes a lot for our minds to focus, especially with our over-stimulated culture.  In acting some people use the Suzuki method, a method not only help actors with breath and core strength, and balance, but also to assist with actors ability to have a single focus in a matter of seconds and to hold that focus.  The actor will pick one tiny, specific spot and focus on it and it really starts to feel like you and that spot are the only things that exist, everything else around you kind of becomes insignificant.  That’s what I think of when President Hinckley says, “the very focus of our faith.”  We have to be that focused on the Savior that other things of the world become insignificant and we have to hold that focus with all of our core strength, which to me is your soul and testimony of the Savior because our testimony is what gives us that strength. 

And finally the greatest part of the quote, “In sunshine and in shadow we look to Him, and He is there to assure and smile upon us...” and then if I may add, that is when we truly LIVE!  If we continue to LOOK to the Savior and to our Heavenly Father whether it’s our brightest day or our darkest hour, He will look down on us, He will assure us that we are LOVED, and then we will truly LIVE a life worthy to be with our families, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father forever.  What greater promise is there?  Well I’ll tell you right now, there isn’t one.  This is IT! This is answer, what life is about, why we’re here. Isn't it awesome?!

So here’s the challenge for all of us: with the Savior serving as our North Star for this immortal life, constant and unchanging...what are our clouds that cover Him up and make the sky unclear?  What are our forests that we’re building, trapping ourselves under a canopy of trees that we have built around ourselves?  What will we do this year to clear the forest, blow away the clouds to create the clearest, brightest view of our Savior?  I know I have A LOT to work on...lots of trees to cut down in my forest of pride.  Lots to ponder and many resolutions to make!! How exciting!!! 

Resolutions to come in the next post and I would love to hear some of your resolutions in the comments as well! 

Till next time dear friends!

~emmy jean

Click here to read or watch the complete talk, "We Look to Christ"  by President Hinckley given at the April 2002 General Conference

hello blog world

hello friends!!  welcome to my new adventure!  i'm really super excited and kind of nervous to start this blog.  i always thought that i would be that one mormon girl to hold out on making a blog and stay the most private person ever but alas i feel like i've been sucked into the blog vortex...and that is NOT a bad thing at all.  i always felt like my life was way too boring and uninteresting to write about.  then i realized that i could use a blog to help me accomplish something, and someone writing about goals and achievements is definitely more interesting than just....my everyday-boring life.  SO HERE GOES!  

so the idea of this blog is that i will post at least 2 inspirational quotes a week (wednesday and sunday), mostly religious, and then i will discuss my feelings about it and then possibly provide further reading on the subject or a song or video.  i chose to do this because, really and truly, i need to study my scriptures, general conference talks, and ways of bettering myself WAY more than i do now.  it's totally selfish, i'll admit it.  but then again, i'm hoping that in some way it becomes a benefit to others from reading it and contemplating and pondering things that are discussed here.  this is also open for anyone to comment with their feelings, experiences, and questions but also know this is a no-hate zone.  if i find any comments hateful, or with ill feelings i will delete it, it's just the way i am.  poking and prodding with the intention to make someone look bad or hurt someone is just not acceptable to me.  this is a place for me to learn and express myself and hopefully have others do the same, in a healthy, safe environment.  i will also post other things about my life too that i want to share; good recipes, fun crafts, pictures that i take (i just say that cause i'm not a photographer and definitely can't claim to be one), cat things, probably lots of Disney stuff that i'm obsessed with, who knows!  we'll see where it takes me!  

so i'll leave this post at that and hope that maybe one day someone else will look at this besides me and that we can all do little things in our lives every day to make ourselves a little better.  

~emmy jean