Trust Him, and trust His timing.

While I was sitting during the passing of the sacrament, I decided to read one of my favorite passages of scripture about the Atonement, and I had these thoughts:

Alma 7:11-13 is one of my favorite passages about the Atonement. It really emphasizes more of what Jesus felt and had to go through for us. I love that it emphasizes 'according to the flesh'. It gives me a better idea of what kinds of things He went through for me. He knows how difficult it is to overcome temptations, and He knows how hard heartbreak is. He knows how much I try to rise above my depression and anxiety, but He also knows how hard it is, and how disappointed in myself I am when I can't rise above it. He knows it all. And He knows how to help. Each person and each situation is completely unique, but He knows exactly what you need. <3

One of my favorite things that some people said in their testimonies today was that Heavenly Father loves us. And He wants what is best for us. And sometimes what is best for us is different than what is best for someone else, but that doesn't mean that what is best for you or them isn't what is best for you or them. Does that make sense? Just because someone else's best isn't your best doesn't meant that your best is any less.

Kelli said in her testimony something that I loved. "It's not the sin that makes Him cringe; it's when we don't repent that makes Him cringe." I loved that! It doesn't matter if it's the same sins over and over again...as long as we keep trying, and we repent, He is happy. He knows we are mortal and human, and we make mistakes. He doesn't expect us to be perfect right now, but He expects us to try to be better today than we were yesterday. And it is up to us to determine how close we are to God. God is right there waiting for us; we have to make an effort to draw close(r) to Him.

Kaitlin said, "Sometimes we don't know where we're going in our lives, but when we trust Him, and trust that He has a plan, He will guide us and bless us." I loved that. It's important to have a general plan, but honestly, most of the time we don't know where we are going in life. So we need to trust Him. He has a plan for each of us. He will guide us and bless us, and help us become who He knows we can become, and He can help us get to where we need to be.

Dallin said that, "Every time we follow the Spirit, we can be an instrument in people's lives." I loved this. It's so important for us to follow the Spirit and help those around us. We never know completely what's going on, but Heavenly Father does, and He sends us to help those who really need help and love.

Ingrid said, "He loves us and we are not forgotten." I loved that!! He KNOWS us! He LOVES us! We are HIS! How loved we are by the Creator and ruler of all! We are NEVER forgotten!! We are so important to Him, and we are SO LOVED!!

The answers will come in time.

Finals week is finally here and I could not do it without my Savior. This week has been really difficult mentally and I am so grateful I am not alone. I got my first two finals DONE! And although I am nervous for the remaining three, I feel like I will be able to focus and study more this week.
I am so thankful for friends willing to talk and listen. It has been so helpful this week. Finals week is always hard, but for some reason this semester's finals have seemed to be so impossible. I think it might be because of a lot of things, but I am slowly working through it with the help of my Savior. He has made this insanely difficult semester bearable, and He has blessed me with amazing roommates and friends that I can talk to. I can never thank Him–or them–enough for being willing to be there, and for being there for me on my darkest, most lonely, most depressing, most unmotivated days. There are some things, I've come to realize, I have to live with, and some of those things I can't deal with alone. So I am beyond blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son to die for me so that I don't have to go through it alone. I can always turn to Him and He will always be there for me. 

I had a wonderful day today, and I did a lot of thinking. I've done a lot of thinking these past few weeks.

College is so difficult.

Dating is so difficult.

Life is hard. You have to deal with lots and lots of people with many different personalities. You have to figure out how to deal with their emotions, and how to treat them properly. You have to go to work, and go to school.

It's hard to maintain an eternal perspective in life sometimes.  But God will bless you with people. He will bless you with experiences. He will bless you with exactly what you need to remind you of your divine potential. He will bless with you with exactly what you need to keep an eternal perspective.

You have to keep your head up.

You might be going through some crazy tough times, and it might have been happening for a long time, or for a short period of time. You might not understand WHY these things are happening to you. You might not be able to see HOW these trials will help you in the future.

But I promise you...the answers WILL come in time. God will not leave you alone, without answers or peace. He will bless you. He loves you and wants what is best for you.

Xoxo
Mattie

As long as you put the Lord first, everything will be okay.

Today's been a great day! Very uplifting and enlightening.

My thoughts during the sacrament:

This week was a struggle. I struggled so hard in so many things. It was quite a stressful week and the next two might also be as well. I'm trying to not worry about it but you know me–I will always worry a little. Anyway. My goal for awhile has been better/consistent scripture study and prayer and it's been touch and go. Last week the first half was great but the second half was chock full (spelling?) of tons of randomness and it was very stressful and busy and I wasn't quite able to study my scriptures. This week I will try harder. I know I can do it; I just need to focus. I'm so thankful for my Savior—this past week was insane and definitely took a toll on me but everything fell together and I made all my deadlines and things. I know I couldn't have done it without Him. Many times I wanted to quit but somehow I had the strength and capacity to do just a little more. I hope this week goes better or–if not–just as well. 

Some thoughts from sacrament meeting:
-You can receive the inspiration and guidance you need. Go to conference with questions. They'll be answered.
-Sort out your life to be able to hear the voice of the Master.
-Be willing to be inconvenienced in the service of others. As you do so your life will be blessed in marvelous ways.

In Gospel Doctrine:
-We have to do the little things that will protect and fortify our testimony.
-As long as you put the Lord first, everything will be okay.
—>Seems like this has been a topic that was focused on/touched on in multiple ways today. (Guess what's gonna be this week's quote? 😉)

In Relief Society, we talked about honesty and committing to God:
-It takes humility on our part to be honest with the Lord.
-This was interesting, I thought: People lie to solve problems on their own.
-Being committed to God is having faith in Him, even when things do not go the way you want them to. Reminds me of 'but if not': But if not... I'll trust that things will work out. (which I thought I'd already posted about to a point but I can't find it right now. I'll look and see and share it later if I find it. EDIT: I sort of did, but not really. It was basically what I said up there–the talk that it is from, though, can be found here).

After Gospel Doctrine I asked my home teacher if I could get a blessing after church. I haven't been feeling well this week and I've been struggling with a bunch of things and just wanted a blessing. After church, they came and one of my roommates' home teachers were also there. Long story short: a blessing of healing and comfort was given to me and all the things I've been stressing about were addressed. So thankful for worthy priesthood holders!! Also, I definitely started a trend: four of six roommates were given blessings today. Love my roommates!!

I'm blessed to have such an awesome bishopric. Went in for a meeting for a calling after church and was blessed to hear some things that I needed to hear. So grateful for the people in my ward. ❤️❤️

It's been a great day that has been very uplifting and I'm so thankful for that. So thankful for my Heavenly Father and for His love and guidance. It's been a good day. I'm so blessed. I love my ward, I love my roommates, and I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. Happy Sunday!

Xoxo
Mattie

Graduation announcements and blessings.

Okay, so we ordered my graduation announcements a while back and we ordered 50. I didn't realize that there would be more than 50 people that I would want to let know that I am graduating! So my orchestra teacher suggested that I do a photo announcement from Costco and my mom said that was a great idea and I could do it. So I have one of my favorite baby pictures and a couple of my favorite senior pictures, but I couldn't find a picture of just me right in the middle.

So I'd been looking at pictures for like an hour, and I had come across a bunch of cute pictures of me as a baby and as like a four to six year old, but none that I was just like, "Ah ha!", you know? I got to some pictures of my baptism; one with my sister Halie, and I was like, "This one would be cute," but I really just wanted one of me. A few pictures later, I found one of just me! I was like, "This is it! This is the one!" And I'm so excited because it's so cute and I just LOVED my baptism dress! And I think it's funny (ironic) that I chose that picture because I've got a picture from each really important part of my life–my baby picture, my baptism picture, and my senior picture–and I'm moving on to another really important part of my life.

I know that Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to find it. There were some pictures before that I thought would be cute, but I kept looking just in case I found a better one, and I'm so glad I did because I really do love the picture that I picked.

I know that education is important because our knowledge is all we're going to take with us when we die. I'm really nervous to start the next chapter in my life, but I'm also really excited. Just–remember to cherish everything. You never know how much you will miss something or miss being a certain age until you're a senior in high school–or a wife, or a mother–and you realize that your life has flown by. So I just ask you to cherish the moments. Life is fleeting, and you will find yourself wishing you could go back in time. Love every moment. <3