Apple Pie

Today was a good day. I spent the afternoon with my old roomates. I miss them. They were my best friends. I always had someone to come home to; someone that cared how my day went. At the same time, though, I love my house. My best friend helped me transition into living alone. He was always there for me. I didn't even realize that I was alone most of the time. That's probably what made this week so hard...I was alone for one of the first times in my life. Don't get me wrong...I know that my Heavenly Father is always there for me, but sometimes, I just need that actual human. Dumb...probably...but it's the honest truth of how I feel. I ate dinner with my grandpa and my parents. Then I came home and made homeade apple pie with one of my best friends in the whole world! I love her so much! While we don't always get along; we know how to work through our problems. My pie was just so pretty that I had to take a picture of it so that I could post the goodness onto the blog. Today my very best friend introduced me to a blog that I have since fallen in love with. One of the things that really stuck into my mind from reading was this statement, "Your Heavenly Father has prepared you for these trials that you are going through." Wow. I just really loved that. I was prepared for everything that I was going to go through in this life...and still I chose to come and to show my Heavenly Father that I could do it. I was prepared. I was chosen to handle my individual trials because my Heavenly Father knew that I could do it.

I struggle with happiness. I always have and, most likely, I always will. Things have drastically improved since high school, but they are still hard. I am sad...A LOT. I try to hide it and make it go away, but my sadness is always there taunting me. I am reading this book right now called "When You Can't Do It Alone: Take the Savior's Hand" by Brent L. Top. I want to share a little passage from this book. I will be jumping around a bit to include the pieces that I want...but you get the jist.

"We could remember that even with such a solemn mission given to Him, the Savior found delight in living; He enjoyed people and told His deciples to be of good cheer. All things which are good cometh of Christ (Moroni 7:24) Those of us who are so blessed could remember the courage of those around us who face more difficulty than we, but who remain cheerful, who do the best they can, and trust that the Bright and Morning Star will rise again for them--as surely He will do (see Rev. 22:16) ...we can remember that Christ was also "troubled on every side, but not distressed;...perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:8-9).

This pretty much brought me to tears. The Savior was happy. He was tried beyond belief. He suffered so much. Here I am wasting time worrying about being stood up at the airport or losing my best friend. Kind of made me put things back into perspective. The Savior was not destroyed throughout all that He endured. He has already suffered so that I won't have to. The Savior found delight in living. If He can find delight in living...I had better be able to do the same. Others have things so much worse than I do. I have been blessed with so much, and for that, I am so grateful. I was blessed with this wonderful person that helped me so much for an entire 10 months. I was blessed with a best friend. I was blessed with the ability to speak and to communicate and to share my emotions with others. I am blessed! When I think of my many blessings; it makes it much easier to find delight in living. I guess that's why we hear the phrase "count your many blessings" so often. This book has helped to strengthen my testimony and bring me closer to Christ. I feel my Savior's endless love for me when I focus my life around Him.