Lessons Learned

This is going to be a really long post. Read it if you want, but beware. It's just another product of my late night thinking sessions. Here is a partial list of some lessons I've learned in the past few years of my life.

Lesson 1 – no complaining allowed.
Complaining is ugly. It is hideous. Most of all, it is contagious. It brings about dark clouds in your life and the lives of anyone around you. Just don’t do it.
Lesson 2 – “happiness, like faith, is a decision.”
It’s EASY to walk around with your head down, feeling sorry for yourself. It’s EASY to get depressed to the point that all you want to do is sit in bed and cry. It’s EASY to feel that you have nothing to smile about. I don’t like easy things. Happiness is a decision that only you can make, and sometimes it’s HARD to choose. You can choose to have a good day or a bad day. You can choose to smile or frown. You can choose to be a pleasant person to be around, or the person that everyone tries their best to avoid. Happiness can sometimes be a hard decision to make, but I’ve always enjoyed a challenge.
Lesson 3 – prayer is necessary in times of distress and times of joy.All of my life I have prayed when I needed something or when times were tough for ME. If I lost something, I prayed to find it. If I was sad, I prayed to be comforted. If I needed a blessing, I prayed for one. If I was hungry, I prayed to bless the food as quick as I could so I could get to eating. What I have failed to do is pray when I don’t need things. It took experiencing the hardest years of my life to figure out that I need to “pray ALWAYS, that you might come of conqueror…” (D&C 10:5). If you want to succeed when times are hard, or when they are pleasant…you’ve got to pray. It may have been in front of me the whole time, but I’m glad I finally picked up on that…twenty-one years later ;)
Lesson 4 – if you want to find yourself, you’ve got to lose yourself.
This sounds a little bit oxymoronic. However, it’s true. Service is the best, perhaps the only, cure all. Get caught up in it and your life will never be the same. Seriously, make a daily goal to go out of your way to do a kind deed for someone else, perhaps a complete stranger, and see how much better your days are.
Lesson 5 – cry. cry. cry.
Sometimes, especially for girls, crying is a miracle worker. Sometimes crying even when you don’t know why you’re crying, makes your world seem like a brighter, better place. Sometimes it’s good to even put your face in your pillow and scream as loud as you can. A little stress release is wonderful.
Lesson 6 – true, pure love is rare. when you find it, hold on to it with all you’ve got.
Self explanatory. Has anybody ever said something to you that just made you think “wow that is the most honest, loving, unexpected thing I’ve ever heard.” That’s when you know, that’s when I knew, that I had to hold on to this person with everything I have and make sure I am the type of person who deserves their company and friendship.
Lesson 7 – God has a plan and He knows what He’s doing.
Yep, He really does.
Lesson 7.1 – “come what may and love it.”Life sucks sometimes, trials are inevitable. However, like I said in lesson 7, God knows what He’s doing. He won’t put us through trials or hard times that we don’t have the strength to get through. So make the best of them, and learn something from them. “Come what may, and LOVE it.”
Lesson 8 (perhaps my favorite) – Sunday will come.
From a book written by Elder Wirthlin titled Press On.
“I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross. On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Fearsome storms lashed at the earth.
Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day, His enemies stood triumphant.
On that Friday the veil of the temple was rent in twain.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb Man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross. On that Friday, the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior-the man who had walked on water and raised the dead- was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by those who hated Him.
On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.
It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.
I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the gloom of that sad day did not endure.
The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bands of death. He escaped the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.
And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise-for Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the first-fruits of the Resurrections, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays-those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death-Sunday will come.
In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.
No matter our depression, no matter our grief, Sunday will come.
In this life or the next, Sunday will come."