florizell

Pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who “act” rather than objects that are “acted upon."

- David A. Bednar

Lovingly borrowed from here http://www.flickr.com/photos/stockmanphoto/5023457715/in/photostream

Sometimes we think, "life will be better when" or "if this happens, then I'll be happy." And I have to admit, I'm probably one of the biggest culprits! It's as if there is something missing and I need to go and find it. Often times we pray, and we don't get the answer we want, but we always get the answer we need. On lds.org under the "guide to the scriptures" tab, it says, "The purpose of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but we should ask for." It's hard to know what God's will is and sometimes, when we do know, it's hard to swallow. But I think the most important thing to understand is that our Heavenly Father loves it. It's easy to forget that and look at all of the things in our life that are going wrong, but as my dad says, "Focus on the positive, no matter how hard things are, and that's how things will be." 

A lot of us have a really hard time with this, me especially. We get stressed out, we get discouraged easily, or we have a very low self esteem, which results in thoughts to ourselves such as You can't do this, why are you even trying. You're too scared, etc. But we CAN. WE CAN DO HARD THINGS.

If you notice in the picture I chose for today, the train tracks stop and straight ahead, the way is blocked. A big wooden door stands in your way, and you have to look closely to see that on either side is a small road. One has a bicycle, one has a walking stick. (Alright, I know it's a pole, but let's use our imagination). At first glance, this is the end of the road. The beaten path ends, and a wall blocks our way. But there is always a choice.