How To Be Truly Beautiful

See, the world is cruel. The world is ugly. The world will tell you time and time again that you're not good enough. The world will tell you that in order to be "pretty" or "beautiful" that you have to be a size zero and have flawless skin. The world will tell you that you have to have the perfect body shape, perfect hair that curls or straightens to look like a Pantene commercial. They will tell you that in order to be beautiful, you have to look just like those Victoria Secret models. 

Forget the world for a second and listen to me. The weight on a scale is NOT what makes you beautiful. The $500 pair of designer jeans and that $1200 pair of Jimmy Choo pumps do NOT make you beautiful. 

What makes you beautiful is the way YOU see yourself. What makes you beautiful is when you can look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that no matter what the world says, YOU ARE good enough. When you see yourself as beautiful, the world around you will see you as beautiful. When you are beautiful on the inside, it shines outward. Internal beauty extends to outward beauty. If you have outward beauty, good for you, but that only goes as far as the eye can see. When people can see into your soul, and they think THAT is beautiful, you have achieved true beauty. So be truly beautiful. Be the kind of beautiful that makes people want to be more like you. Be the kind of beautiful that makes people realize what true beauty is. 

It is so sad when I come across a person who thinks that they are not beautiful because they don't look like the people on the front of a tabloid. NEWSFLASH: Thats not real. Those people are fake. 

So take time and really think about what kind of beautiful you're trying to achieve. 

Here's a little video clip from one of my favorite people on this planet: Hope this makes you smile a little bit. 

His Grace is Sufficient

This talk given by Brad Wilcox changed my life. It helped me to realize just how loving and kind our Savior is. Please take a break from your crazy schedules at some point and listen to Brad Wilcox's words. I promise it will be time well spent.

The Light of Christ

Today, as I attended my Sunday church meeting, a continual message kept popping up with each person who spoke. Each of the speakers had a common theme of bringing others unto Christ, even if it is just one soul. A scripture was quoted that can better summarize this recurring theme:
Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

A question was asked by one of the speakers that I want to invite all of you to consider. He asked this: 

"Can you think of a person who's life would be better with the light of Christ in it?" 

Of course, we all thought of someone, as we as Christians firmly believe that everyones life would be better with the presence of the light of Christ. He then invited us to write down the person that popped into our heads. I invite you to do the same. 

The purpose of this exercise was to inform us that that person didn't just come out of no where; it came from the Holy Ghost. Your mind was directed to that person, or that family, because you might be the only person in this world that can help them find the light of Christ, even if it be for the first time, or for the hundredth time. 

Being an example of Christ is the best tool you can use when trying to bring others unto Christ. If you're trying to bring others unto Christ, yet you're not trying to live as an example of Christ, how do you expect them to develop that light? 

This message is a short one, but I felt that it needed to be shared. I hope that you are able to find the courage to bring others unto Christ. If you're struggling to find the light of Christ yourself, I pray that you will utilize the tools that we have been given, such as scripture, to find that light. The resources are there for you. 

I want to leave you with a quote that was said by Jeffery R. Holland that will hopefully give you that push to prayer for your answers, whether you are trying to be an example of Christ, or if you're trying to gain belief and a testimony of him. 

It is not MY will, but THY will be done.

This is a pin that I ran across while scrolling through my Pinterest this morning. My initial thoughts were extremely selfish, as certain things in my life right now are not going the way I wanted them to. I was even a little bit bitter towards this certain pin when I saw it. More than once, I have asked myself why things aren't going the way that I thought they should have gone. I'm trying my best to be a Christ-like person, I reach out to those in need, I dive into the words of the Lord every so often, I pray daily, so why can't anything in my life seem to go right? It's one thing after the next. 

At about 1:00 pm today, I received a message via Facebook from an old friend letting me know how much she needed to read my last blog post and how much better it made her feel. She said she admired me for putting my love for God out there and not being afraid of what other people thought. 

Little did she know, that her message made me realize what a selfish and ungrateful person I have been lately. The number of times I talk about what I want in a day should be illegal. She caused me to think about this pin that I saw earlier this morning. 

God isn't punishing me. God isn't trying to make me miserable. God is saving me. God is helping me become the person that he meant for me to be. 

So often, I have to remind myself that it isn't MY will, but it is HIS that will be done. Sometimes, we interfere with what God wants and our plans that we make for ourselves end up wrecking us, like the pin says. God never wants that. He wrecks the plans that we make for ourselves because he knows all and he knows that our plans may be what ends up wrecking us. 

Have you ever prayed for something over and over again? Something that you think you got the answer for, but you ignore it because it isn't the answer you wanted? God gets sick of giving us the same answers over and over again. Eventually, he will just let us have our way. 

I spent two years of my life praying about something that I knew wasn't right. God had, in different ways, told me no over and over again. "No" is NOT what I wanted to hear. I, being the selfish person that I am sometimes, ignored God and continued to pray to him about this endeavor that I was pursuing. Eventually, I didn't get a "No" anymore. I didn't get anything. So that obviously meant that God thought that it was okay now, right? WRONG. And let me tell you, boy did it wreck me. 

Now, I'm sure that this has never happened to any of you because I know you're not ever as selfish as I am, but I felt the need to share this message. So why, when you seem to be doing everything that you can to be a Christ-like person, does it seem that nothing is going right? When pondering this specific question, I came across a quote by Thomas S. Monson that is well known: "We can't direct the winds, but we can adjust the sails." So what exactly does that quote have to do with God wrecking our plans that will eventually wreck us? Well, it simply has to do with our attitude. When you put your full trust in the Lord, he will steer us in the direction that we need to go. He has full control of the winds, and it is up to us how we will adjust the sails. 

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

I’m lined up to shoot the game winning shot. Come on, it's just a free throw. I’ve done these time and time again. This shot wins us the game. Shake off the nerves and shoot.

The ball circles the rim. The anticipation for whether it will go in or fall off the side of the basket is killing me.

Just when I thought I might pull off a win for my whole team, the ball falls off the side.

Cheers and shouts are all around me.

"We won! We're going to the championship!"

I made that possible. I made it possible for myself to feel like the LVP....the least valuable player.

I just allowed the opposing team to go to the championship game. I just let my entire team down.

Have you ever looked around a room, and without anyone even saying a word, you know that they don't want you there? You feel their negative energy and can almost see it radiating off of their faces like a ray of sun burning through your soul.

That's how I felt in this very moment. My team was disappointed in me. My team, it felt at that time, hated me. I lost the game. There was no turning back; nothing I could do to possibly fix the mess I had just created.

Sometimes, we feel like we've let the world down. We're not good enough or worthy enough to be considered a winner. You plea for something, anything to go right in your life, and just when you think it can't get any worse, life proves you wrong. You're not really sure just how much more you could possibly take.

I tell you this story and these feelings because I've felt this over and over again in my life. I've been that person to walk into a room full of people that didn't want me there, more than once. I've been that person that didn't think they could handle much more. I've been that person who wondered if others lives would be better off without me.

I've also been that person who was slapped in the face by God by thinking those things.

Now, I'm sure that some of you who are reading this are sitting there thinking "Oh no, not another God centered preachy blogger...", but this goes beyond being "preachy". This goes beyond God himself. This post is to give you a glimpse of Gods love, understanding, comfort, and even that which many people forget to mention -- Gods anger.

Imagine yourself as an artist. You have your biggest and most famous showcase coming up. Thousands of people will be at the show to witness and to observe what you consider to be perfect artwork.

The night of the show is finally here. Your guests start showing up. As they observe your pieces of art, you start to notice that every piece is being drawn or painted upon. You go up to one of the guests and ask them what they are doing to your perfect piece of art. They answer with, "Your art is good, but it is no where near perfect. I'm just trying to help you achieve greatness. This piece of art can hardly be called that. It needs a lot of help."

You do this several times as people are doing this to every single piece of your artwork. You receive similar answers as the previous one that your artwork needs help. You created it in your image, not theirs. You created it perfectly in your eyes, not in theirs. To you, this artwork is everything you meant for it to be. How could these people come in and destroy what you considered perfection?

This is how God feels when we try to "fix" ourselves. To him, we are his perfect artwork. He is the all-mighty artist.

Now what does this have to do with the first story I told?

When we feel unwanted or that we are not desired, we tend to point our fingers at ourselves. We try to fix whatever it is that people don't like about us.

We spend 5 hours a day practicing our free throws so that next time, we won't miss the winning shot.

Take a minute to really think about the rest of the game. Look at it a different way. You got the last shot because the other team fouled on you. You got the OPPORTUNITY to win the game. We can't win everything in life, and from those losses, we gain knowledge. We figure out what we need to work on, but it isn't by any means, completely our fault. You didn't play the game by yourself. You didn't score fewer points than the other team by yourself.

Just like life, you didn't cause others to dislike something that you did by yourself.

It's not on your hands the way that others choose to react to your situations.

Sometimes, well, a lot of the time, we beat ourselves up over something that we cannot control. So what do we do when these trials confront us and tear us apart?

In Isaiah 41:10, it says, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Give your problems to God. Jesus Christ didn’t suffer for your sins so that you could suffer them, too. Jesus Christ didn’t hang from a wooden cross, with a crown of thorns on his head, nails in his hands and feet, and a spear in his side so that you could feel the pain of guilt or of loneliness.

The wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is that he is whatever you need him to be: a support system, a friend, a brother, a comforter, a listener, an advice-giver, the list goes on.

Now, you may be one of those people who shake their head at the statement I just made.

Maybe you’re one of those people who has tried the whole “Christian religion thing” and you find that you don’t believe there really is a God.

Let me be the first one to tell you, this is one of those situations that ARE all on you. YOU have to allow the Savior to be a part of your life. YOU have to allow him to act as the friend, brother, comforter or whatever it is that you need. YOU have to have faith that he will take care of you. He will carry your burdens.

Now, with that being said, just because you have faith in God and believe in him doesn’t mean that you will make that game winning shot in every single game you play.

It means that you will have the confidence and the ability to have the opportunity to decide how you will act after that shot is taken. Whether you make it or not, decide before how you will act. Will you let Satan have power over you? Will you allow yourself to be brought down by the people that you are surrounded by? Or will you get up, practice your free throws and dominate at the next game?

You decide your fate. You decide who you will follow, but “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 25:15)