i will rise

earlier this week matt and i went to a CES holiday dinner for his work.  while there, we got to listen to a performance of this song.  

i haven't been able to get it out of my head all week.  

i love the lyrics.

hope it makes your day.

Empty Jar

“My wife often cans peaches and pears in the fall. A great deal of work is necessary just to prepare the fruit. Then, once it is prepared, she puts it into jars, places the seals on, twists the lids tightly into place, and sets the jars in boiling water. Then she waits for the seals to set.

She has performed this operation dozens of times with hundreds of jars. In all that time I have never seen her seal an empty jar. Unless the jar is loaded with fruit, a seal is not placed. I doubt if anyone, among the thousands who can fruit every year, has ever sealed an empty jar. There must be something to preserve or the seal has no significance. 

The sealing of temple covenants is similar. When we are married at the altars of the temple, the Lord, from one point of view, gives us an empty jar. Then he instructs us to fill it with the wonderful fruits of righteous marriage. We fill it with love and compromise and forgiveness and joy and peace and shared trails; we fill it with all the things of life, all the good fruit. As we keep our covenants, returning often to renew them as we work for the dead, the jar begins to fill. As we grow older and our love deepens, we desire to preserve forever all the good we have stored. 

Our abiding in the covenant allows the Lord to place the seal on our covenant relationship and preserve the fruits of our righteousness for all eternity. This is the same for all temple covenants. Nobody seals an empty jar; neither does the Lord seal empty covenants. First there must be fruit to preserve.

In the temple, you were given an empty jar as a present. Eternal marriages are not made at the altar. They are made by the things that you will do together and for each other every day thereafter. May you spend your lifetime filling your jar with all of the sweet things of your life together."

best friend

I woke up this morning and checked my email to do a few things for work.  While it was loading I made myself some apple butter toast. :) Matt and I are addicted now.  You will be too.  Cracker Barrel changed us.

When I flipped to a news-feed I found multiple articles challenging the existence of God.  This one in particular.  The arguer expressed some powerful opinions that I'm sure many round the world were nodding their heads to.  He went on to express that there was no God, that deity was a fiction that people ignorant to science and facts came up with to satisfy their need to understand.

I felt a knot in my stomach and wondered why.  I've heard many express their opinions before and I don't take offense to any.  I know maybe some reading this or many close to me don't believe all the same things I do.  I love you all the same, no matter the ground we stand on.

But what hit me so deeply was wondering how my life would be different without this man.  I could no sooner deny the existence of my Savior than I could my own mother.  I cannot and will not deny the life and message of my best friend, after He has been there so much for me.  I know faith can sound like a foolish thing.  But it is not ignorance.  It's not something I made up.  It's something I found in my searching.  By years of asking questions, pondering, and researching.  I love science.  I crave to learn constantly.  But to me it proves nothing more than the existence of a higher being. 

I look back at my life and my challenges, however small they may be compared to those of others going through more than me.  Regardless, there are some mornings He is my motivator to get out of bed.  In my darkest moments where no other soul has been with me, He was there.  And whenever the future seems hard to bear, He is in it.

He is my anchor.

He gives me the peace I need every day.

He gives me hope.

He gives me eyes to see the good in every day.

He is my best friend.

He is yours.

And I could never deny that I KNOW He exists.  

"Each of us has a fourfold responsibility. First, we have a responsibility to our families. Second, we have a responsibility to our employers. Third, we have a responsibility to the Lord’s work. Fourth, we have a responsibility to ourselves."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Wednesdays

Most people don't look forward to wednesdays.  Wednesday can be that ugly day in the middle of the week signifying you're barely half-way through.  However, Wednesdays are some of my absolute favorite days.  :) Reason being, I work at an incredible facility called the missionary training center.  Every Wednesday the parking lot is extra full, and as I'm walking in to work I remember why.  Proud parents stand embracing their now-grown child for a 'see you later' that will change their lives.  They trust their children to Heavenly Father's hands as they see them eye to eye for the last time in 1 1/2 to 2 years.  You forget how long that really is until it's you.

The thing that I'm lucky enough to see every week that parents, family, friends, and loved ones miss after that goodbye is where those missionaries go.  It's not a black abiss, though on the other side it can sometimes feel that way.  They come to us.  And we get the incredible blessing of helping them struggle, learn, and grow for the next few months before they hit the field worldwide.  We get the tremendous, sacred responsibility of being a sort of first parent away from the incredible parents they just said goodbye to.  We get to be Heavenly Father's hands in helping them gain their footing in their newfound special calling.  And they become a part of the family in your heart forever.

Well, today is Wednesday. :) And today 5 elders and 4 sisters will become my new family.  I love looking out my window and watching the embraces, knowing soon they'll be walking through the doors to the other side of this incredible journey! :)

I absolutely cannot wait to meet them.

To moms and dads..... I promise we will take good care of them. 

I promise HE will take good care of them. :)

Hasta ver!