"People DO really change"

So I have been through a mini journey lately. I was watching the movie frozen, which I love, and was a little thrown by one line in the troll song "cause people don't really change." This little line kinda threw me into a self worth downward spiral. Now, I understand what was meant with this line, but the gospel contradicts the simple interpretation of this line. 

The very next day I read the conference talk "what manner of men?" He talks a lot about how we can choose to make self improvement permanent. The Lord promises that the changes we make can be forever. We are not stuck, we are ever improving. This was so vital for me to remember. We should never define ourselves by our faults, but we do not have to "just live with them." In the above mentioned talk he tells a story about a man who offends many, and his response was "that's just the way I am" FALSE!  You can be what The Lord wants you to be, that's what he spends his day encouraging you to be! 

Now getting back to my frozen reference, the next line says "people make bad choices if they're sad, or scared, or stressed." (Tangent: so true. If we really knew the entire why behind the actions of others, or factored in all the emotions that effect how we act, things would be a lot better for everyone.) then the very next line says "throw a little love their way; true love brings out their best!" Again, TRUE! Now, true, the love of others does bring out our best, but even more powerful is the love of The Lord. He is the one who will inspire permanent change, and bring out your true best! A best that we cannot even fathom!

I love seeing this principle work miracles in my life, and the lives of those I care about. I'm still a lot of talk on this one, but I'm working on it!  Feeling blessed! 

What upsets your ok?

So do you ever feel like nothing really terrible is going on, but your ok has been upset so things are a little rough. I know it's completely strange grammar to call this feeling an "ok" but that's all the best way i can explain how I'm feeling right now. The words peace, or balance came to mind, but they seem to deep in emotion or physical activity. When I say ok, I'm referring to the normal circumstances that you find yourself in that in some way defines your inner self assurance. Wellp, now that I've over explained myself let me tell you how I've discovered how vital my ok is to my emotional well being. 

My family is all traveling away for the summer (except for one brothe, and my amazing grandma) and it has completely thrown my ok out of whack! I have honestly bitten off the head of anything that attempted to speak to me this last week, and I finally broke down to my best friend today. I blamed it on the ever growing to do list, and my failure to be who others need me to be, but he saw right through it. I am really upset because my ok is going to be seriously messed with and my subconscious just doesn't know how to deal. Yes, those other things are stressfull, but as much as I try to put on my big girl face I am going to miss them SO MUCH! 

I'm convinced that we all have moments where we just need to be accepted completely, and loved unconditionally. That is my family. They are loud, childish, unorganized, and my favorite group of people in the whole world! Thinking about not being able to drive the short distance and be in their extremely comforting environment at a moments notice. I realize that most people do not have this amazing oppertunity, but now that it is flying across the nation, and to the other side of the world I am understanding how incredibly blessed I am.  It is also humbling to realize how much those who are staying near me mean to me. I am so blessed to be loved, and recognize fully that it is a direct expression from my Heavenly Father of how much he loves me by blessing me with these amazing people in my life, and allowing me to more fully appreciate that expression by completely throwing off my ok! 

I LOVE YOU MY CRAZY BUNCH!