January Weeks 3 and 4

Hello, all!

This is my version of short, hopefully everyone's version of sweet, and your version of "to-the-point".

January Week 3's focus was

"Charity suffereth long."

I learned something last week.

17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours. (D&C 78:17-18)

Our Heavenly Father also wants us to succeed. He loves us as His children. Through the Atonement of Christ we can change and become something new; we can accomplish the righteous desires of our heart.
It will not necessarily be easy. Just because we're focusing on charity this semester does not mean that we will be blessed with these Christlike attributes from on high.

But I know that He will bless me with opportunities in which I can grow and become more like Him.

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This week's focus is

"Charity is kind."

For this I have one itty bitty bit of advice: Listen to yourself. Listen to the words you say, and the thoughts you have before you speak them. I believe we are inherently good; we are children of our Heavenly Father. Your innermost part desires to be kind. Listen.

We cannot be arrogant. We cannot be self-righteous. The very situation in which the Lord has placed us requires that we be humble as the beneficiaries of His direction.
While we cannot agree with others on certain matters, we must never be disagreeable. We must be friendly, soft-spoken, neighborly, and understanding." -President Gordon B. Hinckley

Let us be long-suffering. Let us be kind. Let us be firm in the faith of Christ, for through him all can be accomplished.

Game Plan Pt. 2: The Charity Project

Guess what, internet- 

We're BACK!!!

And brutal as ever.

After a lovely Monday evening chat, we've decided to shake some things up this semester!
Namely, we will focus on a specific SCRIPTURE every week that correlates with our chosen VIRTUE that we're developing. 

 "A memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend that is not weakened with the passage of time." -Robert D. Hales

We'd also like to welcome kindred spirit Chelsea Eversole as a new blog author!

(Interested in posting with us? If you are also a goal-setting, marriageless, missionless blogger, contact Cebre or Lauren. Devotion to girls' nights and the series Once Upon a Time an extra plus.)

January
Week 2: The Kick-off!
I read this over Christmas break and it blew me away. I'm taking it as my personal theme for the semester. It encompasses everything I need to work on and want to be. 

"Therefore, dearly beloved sisters, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for His arm to be revealed." D&C 123:17

At this point, we are turning our attention to CHARITY. And all the things it does. Each week will focus on a specific aspect of charity- and have an accompanying scripture to be revealed at the beginning of that week. We can feel your suspense building already. 

Week 3: Charity suffereth long.
Week 4: Charity is kind.
  
February 
Week 1: (beginning Feb. 5) Charity envieth not.
Week 2: Charity is not puffed up.
Week 3: Charity seeketh not her own. 
Week 4: Charity is not easily provoked.


March
Week 1: (beginning Mar. 4) Charity thinketh no evil.
Week 2: Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
Week 3: Charity beareth all things.
Week 4: Charity believeth all things.

April 
Week 1: Charity hopeth all things. 
Week 2: Charity endureth all things. 
Week 3: Charity never faileth. Cleave to it!
Week 4: Charity is the pure love of Christ. 

Props to Cebre for finding our closing catch-all scripture:
"Wherefore, my beloved sisters, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which He hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of His Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the daughters of God; that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as He is pure." Moroni 7:48

December Week 2

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

What, you ask? DECEMBER WEEK 2!!

OMGee how awesome! The glory of finals! The thrill of packing! The ride to the airport!

These things and more are just around the corner!!!

There's a good reason I'm posting this.
No, not really.
But I will give you 25 points if you can identify both of these American Girl characters.

So what is the deal? In the midst of our crunchiest of crunch times, we decided long in advance to
BE GENEROUS. GIVE! 
We hereby pledge to focus on PEOPLE instead of PROBLEMOS.

Personally, I plan to do this by scheduling them in. Instead of studying, Tuesday night I will be wrapping books at Barnes & Noble and taking charity donations. Wednesday I will be chilling in my favorite building in all of Provo reading bedtime stories with Rosa (so she can, in turn, read them to her grandchildren during the holidays!) Hopefully I'll be able to go to the temple so I can decide whether I can work 3 jobs and keep up my grades. (Even as I write this, I feel like the answer is "no.") Ok. Hopefully I'll be able to go to the temple and feel good about my decision.
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But you know what I would like to give right now?? I would like to give some thanks.

At the commencement of the FINAL WEEK OF THE SEMESTER (crazy!) I would like to acknowledge how blessed I have been.
It's weird. When I think about it, this semester had a lot of "downs." But on the whole, I feel like the "ups" outweigh them 100 to 1. Really. I can't remember the last time I felt so peaceful and so happy so consistently over a period of time. I love school. (I am posting this before my finals because I don't want the possibility of a bad grade to skew my perspective.) But I do! This semester has blessed my life in ways I would have never ever anticipated.

I got to know- or got a lot closer to- lots of people who I initially found intimidating or thought I wouldn't be friends with. I got a better idea, at least, of things I could do for the rest of my life and things that would kill me. I discovered and redefined what things that are important to me and what I can live without. I had lots of heart-to-hearts. I tried to say "yes" as often as possible- did a lot of new things- made a lot of good mems. I made mistakes and I made good choices and I felt it all.

And after this week, I can say that I made it! One year from now I will be done with college. I used to be scared of graduating but now I'm kind of excited- excited about the time I have left and excited about the future. I have no clue what I'll be doing this time next December, but I think I am going to like it. Whatever "it" is. Moral of the story is, the Lord looks out for us.

            Story Time:
        I know He cares about the intimate details of our lives because on the first day of school I just happened to bump into a friend buying school supplies who just happened to mention the 472 class she was in- that she ended up dropping, but I added. Besides being my favorite class, that was where I heard about Washington Seminar, which prompted me to act on the feeling that I should go to Washington D.C., which led me to change my minor and graduation date. Just one example of the many extraordinary coincidences and tender mercies I've had. I can't even list them all.
           Just last week I called Cebre to discuss some things that had been on my mind. *LITERALLY* every time we talk about topics from this blog- our experiences are so similar, it's a little uncanny. Which means: I CAN'T WAIT to come back from break and plan next semester's goals :)

Dear 2012: I love you already. Here's to the best year of our lives thus far!!
(And yes, I am already planning my 12/12/12 Apocalypse Party. You may start getting excited now.)

December Week 1

 Hello, friends!
As our semester is ending and we're spending all of our time in front of computer screens and textbooks, we're working on the following goal:

1.) Hunger for the gospel- assess where we want to go, strengthen our relationship with Christ

And to be honest, after Lauren's eight hours of studying in the library, and my own eight hours of typing up papers and final projects, this will take more dedication than desired.

But really, this is the perfect time to redirect our thoughts and actions to the Savior.

Last Sunday, the First Presidency gave the world a gift. You can view this by clicking here. Merry Christmas, and happy finals!

The Thing About Dating

I believe in being honest.
Even when what you are honestly feeling is not warm-and-fuzzy-fresh-out-of-the-oven-cookie-goodness.

Truth is: I'm tired of dating.
Don't tell me it's a good problem to have, because trust me- I've been on the other side of the spectrum and I know how that goes, too. But honestly? I am rather burnt out. 
It's like that feeling you get after you've been in Bath & Body Works for a while. You remember you told yourself you just wanted one thing- and you "already had an idea of what you were looking for" so it wouldn't take too long. But they were having a sale... With a new seasonal collection... You had a little extra cash to spare... Your hands were feeling especially dry... The cute store girls were really nice...etc.

So you perused. You weren't in a rush and they have tons of merchandise, so you knew you could afford to be picky. You took your time and you started playing with all the "try me" bottles. They were all okay... but with each flirtatious squirt you didn't know if you really wanted to smell like that one thing every day for the rest of your life (or at least the next few months.) So you kept browsing...

Twenty samples later, you realize you have lost the ability to smell. Your hands are slippery and moist after going through rows of lotion bottles. Your neck, forearms and shirt are saturated with a dozen different body sprays. You thought you knew what you wanted but now you can't tell the difference between Cozy Autumn Vanilla, Warm Vanilla Sugar or Vanilla Bean Noel. Suddenly, all you want to do is get out of the store- get out of the whole mall- faster than you can say, "Juniper Breeze."

I have this dream that a year or so from now, I will just wake up married.
One morning my eyes will open to find myself in a little flat somewhere out East. I'll look down and think "Wow, this bedspread is really cute and significantly less tacky than the one I am familiar with."

Then I'll look to my left to behold some nice, glasses-wearing husband. The smart kind who likes to cook and play with his buddies in a low-key indie band.
And I will say, "Awesome."

After some deliberation, I have concluded it would be deceitful and wrong to wear my ring on my left hand when I go to the library. I know that God is not inclined to help liars... especially ones who shoot themselves in the foot by sending an unmistakably clear message that they are off-limits.
But I am tired of creepers AND I am tired of the nice, normal people who think you might be worth seeing again.

Well... guess what? You don't know me- and that's okay! The good news is, cute girls are dime a dozen round these parts!
So go fish, in the nicest possible way I can say that.

(Remember? I can't smell anymore.)

November Week 5: Stay Classy, Provo

Back in August when we first came up with our list of goals, we both laughed when we came to this week. We had already filled in the rest of the calendar with lots of emotional, mental and spiritual ideologies- trying to politely overlook the obvious:

"You need to become the type of person you want to marry." 
Neither of our lists included things like 'dark hair, blue eyes.'

However, psychological studies show that you gravitate to people who are on your same general level of attractiveness. (Ask Google if you don't believe me; I am not making this up!) So that said, as people of normal attractiveness, we recognize that we would both like to end up with people who are also of normal attractiveness. 

And we knew that this would be a critical time in our semester- right after a week of Thanksgiving gluttony, and right at the beginning of Library Lockdown: Finals 2011. It is easy to skip the seemingly regular, civilized things people do like getting dressed, wearing makeup, showering, etc., when it seems like your GPA is about to teeter off a ledge and into a giant chasm. But being gross feels gross (after the first few days.) Therefore, we have taken a preemptive strike against looking like we've just returned from a week at Girls Camp by making it a priority to:

Be physically attractive- take care of our bodies- be classy.

There are already way too many blogs out there advocating the benefits of healthy eating and exercise. This week, we pledge to follow the Word of Wisdom and do these things in moderation. Time for Lauren to bundle up and run the streets of Provo.... and go grocery shopping for real food. (no, literally- I have NOTHING but condiments, half a can of soup and a few frozen strawberries.)

But beyond that, we are going to work on our INNER BEAUTY!! #IloveYoungWomen's

"No amount of time in front of the mirror will make you as attractive as having the Holy Ghost with you."

Sheri Dew, It Is Not Good for Man or Woman to be Alone

True that, Sheri! Personally, the people I am most attracted to (on all levels) are the ones who are
confident and happy.

Besides a haircut, there is really nothing that we can change about ourselves overnight. I'm not pretending that I don't like to look pretty, because I do. And I try- sometimes  I try really hard.
BUT let us all remember that being cute can only get you so far or last for so long- so hopefully, that is not the place we base our worth.

Taking care of yourself and your body means remembering who you are:
I am a daughter of God.

Luckily, the way I look is not my most defining quality. Your true friends are the ones who like you because you are kind, smart, funny and interesting... not because you know how to assemble a good outfit.

(...but just for the record, we can do that, too.)

November Weeks 1, 2, 3, ... and 4

November

1.) Consecrate our time to things that really matter

My only comment on this is that perhaps blogging wasn't what really mattered, at this point.

2.) Be intellectually curious and discuss it with others

... and obviously we were so busy conversing and exploring that we submitted just a single blogpost...

3.) Be a hard worker- put whole heart into whatever you’re doing

... need I mention that we were so fully invested in school, friendships, and work that we didn't blog?

4.) Develop good friendships- reassess our most important relationships

I am going to address this topic in FOUR ways (for it's the FOURTH week!)

Relationships with Peers (aka Friendships)

Being at BYU is amazing, let me tell you.

You walk around with the recognition that every body has the potential to be your best friend. I mean, you can find people who appreciate the Gospel, Disney, and family.

BAM. Best friends. You can just party in the Harold B. Lee Library study rooms, watch musicals, and eat cheap foods.

But friendships are supposed to be more.

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being."
-Goethe

We have the opportunity in our lives to learn from those around us as well as help others grow.  Furthermore, as friends we can provide service.

God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom.

- Spencer W. Kimball

Romantic Relationships

Let's remember, I'm a twenty-one-year old girl. 

I have re-played the heart-melting scene from "Becoming Jane" when Tom Lefroy shows up at the ball so many times that my DVD is permanently scratched.

This is why:

He is so romantic.

Relationships further than just friendships are for growth, experience, and ultimately, marriage. It's easy to get caught up in relationships, in Happily-Ever-After's, because as M. Gawain Wells (a clinical psychologist) stated, "It feels good to invest in a relationship. To care. To want to share. To want to give."

And also because marriage is simply that important.

Twenty-nine years ago, the same M. Gawain Wells wrote an article for the LDS church. The article really altered my perspective, as it explained that it is better to move on and look forward to the future eternal relationship, than try to hang on to and suffer through a mediocre, poor, or past relationship.

According to Brother Wells,when one is working through a relationship, they should have the following:

• Inspiration of the Lord.
• Communication
• Genuine interest in each other
• Shifting in which both partners can look to each other for support and strength
• Love for God and for yourself. 
• Honesty and Vulnerabilitiy
• Belief in your own lovableness.

  "As you develop those abilities, the love in your relationship can be sustained by a mutual conviction that you are loved by each other. Then you can know the delight of being trusted with one another’s ideas and feelings. And you can know the joyous, awesome capacity to give that comes with loving." - M. Gawain Wells 

  
  
   Relationship With Yourself
  "Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world." - Eleanor Roosevelt
  
  
  It is important to maintain one's health, both mentally and physically. Healthiness in both respects enables us to be more aware, alert, and energetic. Thus we will be able to help serve those around us more fully.

  "When you have a secure, spiritual knowledge of yourself as a child of God, you will find a sense of personal confidence and identity that makes a good relationship possible." 

  M. Gawain Wells

  
  

Relationship with God

All of our relationships can bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.  As His children, we have been blessed with talents and qualities that, if developed, will help us become more like Him. As we hearken unto Alma's words, we are reminded that by "small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Thus, in our effort to become closer to and more like our Father in Heaven, we should focus on developing spiritual qualities.

The desire to develop spiritual qualities will lead us away from other unrighteous desires. It will cause us to pray more intently and to be a little more forgiving of our neighbor’s faults. We will love more and criticize less. If we seek personal growth in a Christlike direction, we must make our life’s purpose the acquisition of these spiritual qualities. - Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

I know of my Heavenly Father's love for me. He has blessed me with both talents and trials that have helped me become who I am today, and provide further potential growth. Furthermore, he has blessed me with relationships in my life that have given me experience and insights that I would not have gained otherwise. I am grateful for my family and friends, who continue to help me grow and are an additional blessing from God.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.