On My Mind

A lot has been on my mind lately in the sense of what can I do to clean up my life and help those around me? Christ was always in service to those around Him, how can I follow in that footstep? Be it small or big I want to give, my heart feels the need to give I just need to figure out how. Another blog I read, the author, has created a website which you can link to from the sidebar as well called HandsIn. This website is for all those mid-20 aged people who want to help or want to start. I think this is a great idea. As it has just started there aren't a lot of people but I am excited to follow this group and begin my life in service - even if it just means my husband, family, friends, or a stranger on the street. I want to help others.

Cleaning up my life? That's another topic. I watch a lot of TV, I'll admit it, I know it's not the best thing to do with my time but I do it and I enjoy it - I just need to tone it down a little. I haven't read in centuries and need to pick up a book and go to the park, go for a walk, organize a closet, things I haven't had time to do because I'm wasting it somewhere else. I came across a great talk from the 1993 Liahona by Elder Costa of the Seventy, "Fun and Happiness" here are a couple of excerpts that I love and have inspired me to do more of the things that bring happiness and fewer that are fun (I'm not completely giving up fun things - I just need a little less of them)

An old friend of mine came to me and asked what I had found so different there (LDS church). I answered, "I have found true happiness." To which he replied, "There is no such thing as true happiness-only happy moments". I understand that my good friend did not know the difference between fun and happiness. What he called "happy moments" were in fact the moments when he had fun. What he did not know then was that happiness is much more than just fun. Fun is just a fleeting moment, but happiness is a lasting thing.

In Luke, chapter 15, we find the parable of the prodigal son. In this parable, the younger son asks the father to give him his share of the inheritance. The father does so, and this young man goes out into the world, seeking what he believes to be true happiness. He starts to have fun, and for as long as he has money, he lives surrounded by many people who claim to be his friends. When his fortune is totally wasted with all the fun he has had with his so-called friends, all of them turn their backs on him, and he is left without a penny. He then goes through much suffering and disappointment. He starts working for a man feeding swine, and, starving, he tries to eat even the husks that the swine would eat. He thinks of his father's servants, who have enough bread to eat and to spare, and he does not have anything to eat. He decides to return home to his father and ask him for a job as one of his hired servants. He returns, repentant from all he has done, and his father, a righteous man, greets hime as a special son. He finally understands that true happiness is there, in that simple life with his family.

As we keep His commandments, we are blessed and come to know true happiness. We learn that happiness lies in doing small things that building us up, that increase our faith and testimony. Small things we do in our everyday lives, such as: Prayer, Feeling the Spirit, Being with Family. 2 Nephi 2:25

My favorite verse on this topic is Mosiah 2:41: "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell wit God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; fro the Lord God hath spoken it."

What am I going to clean up?

Less TV time, more scripture time.
Less friend time, more husband time.
Less movie time, more piano time.
Less me time, more time for others.

What are you going to do to find the true happiness in your life?