I have delayed writing this blog because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I had a vague idea about improvement and goals, but had trouble putting into words how I felt. After some thought and prayer I think I'm ready to begin.
"Ready to begin what?" you may ask.
To begin my life. I don't know how I got to this point. I feel as if I'm just getting by. I'm jut scraping the surface of who I can and want to be, spiritually, physically, financially, and in so many areas. In the past I have been content with 'good enough,' but it never felt right. I know that the changes I envision for myself won't happen overnight. I'm going to have to overcome some bad habits and establish new ones. Man's natural inclination is to go with what is easy and familiar. Life continually puts obstacles in our path to perfection.
Some of the things I know I want to improve include:
- Getting back into shape after the baby
- Making my home more like the temple (clean, orderly, peaceful, and happy)
- Making time for spiritual renewal, including temple worship
- Controlling my spending habits and living within our budget
- Preparing for the future
- Finding ways to be a better friend and serve those around me
As a beginning I read "Our Refined Heavenly Home," by Elder Douglas L. Callister. (Ensign June 2009; pg. 55) Some thoughts he shared:
"President Brigham Young said, 'We are trying to be the image of those who live in heaven; we are trying to pattern after them, to look like them, to walk and talk like them.' I would like to peek behind the veil ... and paint a word picture of the virtuous, lovely, and refined circumstances that exist there."
"Is Friday evening a frenetic flight to see where the entertainment and action will be? Could our society toay produce an Issac Newton or a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Can 85 channels and uncountable DVDs ever fill our insatiable appetite to be entertained? I don't know whether our heavenly home has a televsion set or a DVD player, but in my mind's imagery it surely has a grand piano and a magnificent library."
"Women ought to be praised for all the gifts they posses - including their attentiveness to thier personal apperance - that so unselfishly add to the richness of the lives of others. We must not let ourselves go and become so casual - even sloppy - in our appearance that we distance ourselves from the beauty heaven has given us."
"Some flippantly say, "How I look has nothing to do with how God feels about me." But it is possible for both earthly parents and heavenly parents to have uspoken disappointment in their offspring without dimished love."
