Finding joy in the journey...

Thank you to everyone who left NICE comments on my last post. I was really having a bad, bad day, but I am feeling much better thanks to good people like you and my sweet friends and family.

Today I was excited when the mailman came with my copy of the Ensign's conference report. I have really wanted to read President Monson's talk on Sunday morning. I guess I could have looked online at LDS.org but didnt. I'm glad I read it this afternoon. In his conference talk his remarks are about enjoying the journey that we are on. He talks about how the one thing that is constant is change. It is so true that life comes at you fast, and it can change in an instant. But his remarks are about those changes that happen gradually, like that of raising children. I just want to share a couple of his quotes:

"...If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will-to your surprise-miss them profoundly."

He also talks about telling people now that we love them... "...Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It's so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they're gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of "what if" and "if only." Said author Harriet Beecher Stowe, "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

I want all of my family and friends to know how much they mean to me. I will try to be better at letting you know this. I will be a better daughter, Mother, Wife and friend. I know i'm not perfect, and I definately am not allowed to have a bad day, but I am trying. I am trying to do what my Heavenly Father needs and wants me to do. I have 3 fantastic children and an amazing Husband who loves and cares for me. I love my extended family and Steve's as well. I know that they don't think i'm great, but we are all doing the best that we can, and for me...that's all I can do. I know that I am a daughter of God. That I was sent to this Earth for a purpose and that if I continue to stay on the path i've chosen, then I will be blessed beyond measure. I can look at myself in the mirror everyday and know that God loves and cares for me because I am His daughter. I have asked Him to help me feel of his love for me, and I feel it. I know He is there. I know He loves and cares for each of us individually. He knows our hurts, our wants and our needs and I am going to be better at finding joy in my journey.