Love Life & Learning.....

I am supposed to teach a Relief Society lesson this coming Sunday and it is entitled, Love Life and Learning. I have been feeling very unqualified to give this lesson because I struggle with loving life sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for my good life and do feel very blessed, but I am not one of those people that can always just "roll with the punches." I tend to fight unpleasantness all the way, and....I don't have more than a high school education so what am I doing? As I have been pondering what I should say some things have come to mind for me. First of all, I don't think that life is meant to be easy, or necessarily fun, but we are to glean from our experiences lessons which give us perspective, wisdom and joy. This is learning. I came across something I wrote a couple of years ago, struggling to make sense of some of the adversity in life and here is a sampling of what I learned that year.

*I cannot get along in this life without my Heavenly Father.

*I can receive comfort and peace whenever I ask in faith and humility.

*His timing is better than mine, and He does not always give me the direction I want when I think I need it. He gives it when I am still enough to hear and accept it.

*His creations bring me joy.

*I am never alone.

*Jesus Christ loves me.

*Faith is not the absence of doubt, it is the choice to trust and obey in spite of doubt.

*I've learned to appreciate "old" mothers, especially my own, who have raised families.

*I know what it feels like to have "joy and rejoicing" in my posterity. This is GOOD!

After I read over my list, I felt more confident in my ability to give this lesson. I think we are all too hard on ourselves sometimes, and not hard enough other times. Does that even make sense? I think we can rationalize things away when we maybe should be doing better, in some things, for me that would be wasting time etc., but then I am way too hard on myself when it comes to human tendancies and weakness when I should just give myself a break and know that I really do try to "give my all" most of the time. I love my children so much. They are more precious to me than life itself but sometimes I focus on the things I didn't do or did wrong. I hope that I can learn to just let go of things I can't change. I believe our God is a "God of compensation", and where we lack, He will will make up the difference. That is Grace to me. Enjoy your day. I love you all!