Great Advice

I thought this was awesome advice...advice we should not only listen to but act upon!

"Be loyal to one another, your friends and associates. Look for the good in those about you, and emphasize that good. Never go around gossiping about your associates or speaking unkind words concerning them...What I am suggesting is that each of us turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom we associate, that we speak of one another's virtues more than we speak of on another's faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears." --Pres. Gordon B. Hinkley

This is something that I constantly think about. The past couple years I have worked really hard on looking at the good of other people, instead of the bad. Even when those people have really hurt me, I still see the good in them over the negative and I've found that it makes the biggest difference in me and my spirit, it sure makes it hard to hold a grudge against someone that annoys me or has really hurt me. It makes the hard stuff easier to process and handle. But I also have noticed that while I see the good in people, I am very pessimistic about life and human nature in general. Its funny though, because when other people around me are having hard times and are pessimistic about their circumstances, I hear myself telling them to look on the positive sides. Sometimes I dont tell them but I think about the good things that the situation hold. So maybe I'm actually "A realist, masquerading as a cynic, who is secretly an optimist."(from the movie HITCH, lol)

So in short....I'm truly trying to continue to find the VIRTUES in people, while being and looking for the optimism in lifes circumstances. something we should all be trying harder to do. If we all really truly take this advice from President Hinckley to heart, then the world will be a much better place. I'm positive we will find that as we try to find virtues and optimism, pretty soon "try to find" will be replaced by "always see". Everyone will be much happier and the Spirit of the Lord much closer to everyone we come in contact with. A worthy goal, yes? So lets do it!!!!!!!!

Okay...seriously...shouldn't we have a judge on America's Got Talent....that is actaully talented?????

Thought for the upcoming weekend.....

" "Salvation is not a cheap experience." We should remember that. Never let any trial stand between you and your allegiance to your Heavenly Father. Never let any unintended slight or insult separate you from partaking of the sacrament and lead you to spiritual weakness and possibly toward spiritual death. Hold FAST and remember what you know to be true. A friend said it better: "If I don't endure now, I'll have ETERNITY to think about why I didn't." "

Thought for the weekend....

"All of us will experience difficult situations we desire to change. What the Lord may change is not our circumstances but our character. As our faith matures and or perspective broadens, our success in life can often be measured not in the outcomes we expected but in the attitudes we acquire--patience, love, caring, hope, and faith. We can measure our own progress by noting an increased capacity to be tolerant, to be spiritually in tune, to be in better control of our temper, to be more accepting and forgiving of those around us. We are meant not to mark time but to make it purposeful and make a mark on the world around us."

Something to think about

From my previously talked about book, "In her novel The Face of a Strangeri, Anne Perry, herself a single, faithful Latter-day Saint woman, writes words that had significance to me. She writes of Hester, who is fast approaching age thrity, and the advice given her: "Do i detect a note of self-pity, Hester?...You will have to learn to conquer that....Too many women waste thier lives grieving because they do not have something other people tell them they should want. Nearly all married women will tell you it is a blessed state, and you are to be pitied for not being in it. That is arrant nonsense. Whether you are happy or not depends to some degree upon outward circumstances, but mostly it depends on how you choose to look at things yourself, whether you measure what you have or what you have not."

I love it!