Se revela la gratitud a medida que la buscamos

I woke up this morning with an intense feeling of gratitude for my Heavenly Father and all He's done for me. When I am quick to recognize the Lord's hand in my life I am always humbled. Lately I've been distracted by my own problems and worrying about what I'll be doing with my life after I graduate and where I'm going to live, what kind of a job I'll be able to get, and I complain that my life is up in the air and I don't know what's going on. But I know that Heavenly Father knows what's going on. I know He has his hand in my life, both hands, and that he is guiding me and will continue to guide me as long as I am humble and listen. Yes, it's true, life is scary sometimes. Yes, sometimes I feel I'm completely alone and there's no one who understands what I'm going through and I get mad and I complain some more. But always after I've got my head on straight I realize that my Savior knows what I'm going through and I repent and stop thinking about wo is me. I always feel better when I stop thinking about myself long enough to help other people. I think that makes Heavenly Father happy to see us not being selfish and helping his other children who many times have greater problems than us.

On a different note, last night (Friday) I went to the showing of paintings by Carl Bloch from Denmark. He painted over 250 portraits of the Savior and of other random people. I was touched by several in particular, and while I'm not an art major and I don't know the names of the different paints he used, or the brush strokes, or how to describe how he plays with light and dark to give a certain effect, I still appreciated the overall effect it had on me as a Christian, looking at a painting of her Savior. Looking at the paintings was almost a religious experience for me. There was soft music playing in the background to invite the Spirit and everyone was talking in hushed tones, as if the paintings themselves called out for silence, for reverence for the Subject of the paintings.

Another thing I appreciated about last night was the frames used. I love picture frames and I have several back home in Decatur that are just sitting on my desk gathering dust, waiting for the perfect picture to put inside them. In my mind, a photograph or a piece of art isn't complete unless it has the perfect frame to display it.

In closing, I am recommitting myself to be more awaringly grateful (is that even a word?). And as Carl Bloch said, "God helps me, that's what I think. And then I am calm." So be calm, and know that God is in our lives.

My Greatness

So do you ever have those days when you just think you're so cool? Well, I had one of those days this week. I mean, I'm awesome!! I think too many times we get down on ourselves and it's too easy to let the world tell us how and what to think. I think I'm one of the best people I know. I'm kind, considerate, passionate about what I love, honest, an amazing friend, diligent, punctual, hard-working (when I'm not looking at the lights out the SWKT window), sweet, and cute as all getout. :) I mean, what's not to love? I think I'm pretty cool and I love the days when I think this way. I could go on and on about how great I am; I mean, the list is huge. But I won't. So yeah. I'm great.