The way joy comes...

In our lives, situations arise.  As we go through life, there are experiences that come into our path, that often are those of which that help us to, and times, force us to grow.  We have things that bring us more joy than anything else we have ever imagined; we have trials beyond what we can bear alone; times and circumstance may bring such a profound sadness onto us, from such we may not know how to recover from.  The thing about life, however, is that it is not at all about how many times, nor how hard we may fall, but rather in that we get back up. First of all, God in no way put us here on the earth to suffer, but neither did He place us here for everything to be perfect.  I have grown up hearing the saying that there must be an opposition in all things; that to know the sweet, you also must experience the bitter.  As a child learns, they must come to understand what hot is, and pain that comes from it. Just as Nephi taught that, while speaking of Adam and Eve, "...having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good for they knew no sin."  And then a short verse shows the power of God when we look at life and these things; "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things."  This life has struggles, all here know that, and have many that personally are obstacles that are before our path of progression.  But with all of this, we are never alone.  Never does God allow us to be put before hardships that we cannot overcome; yet, one needs to remember that overcoming things, can't always be done by yourself; that to stand after we fall, it often is with those who lift us...

Sometimes, you have to wait and work...

I'm 20, and yes, I'm still excited for Christmas

Our Heavenly Father cares for us, and wants us to have joy, to have things in our lives that bring us happiness but sometimes, to receive that, you have to wait, and work for it.  One of the biggest parts of God's plan for us to come here to the earth, is to learn and grow, and to gain experiences and learn to persevere.
At times, the greatest of blessings that we can receive and things that we want more than anything else in life, are not simply handed to us; but requires us to work for them, and to wait.
 Now let me give you a few examples, to help illustrate that fact.  Imagine again being a small child, and seeing the Christmas Season unwrap around you, starting from about after Thanksgiving, building up for a month.  Seeing the lights go up, the tree decorated, the music and very essence of life shift; and as a small child, most importantly, the presents multiply underneath the tree.  Parents tell their children, if you want good gifts, you have to be good, or else Santa will only bring you coal (incentive to be good and charitable, in thought of reward in the end).  And to know simply that they cannot be....

Only in our day...

Standing with some Christmas lights

Have you ever taken a step back, and looked to the many blessings that we have been given in the world around us, with the technology and abilities that we have and are able to use. Like right now at this moment, you are (I'm guessing), not sitting right next to me or anything, and yet are able to read and look at this and read it at an instant with a click of your finger. Imagine living thousands of years ago, lets say, in the day of Moses.  If you didn't live right there with him, maybe if you lived only 100 miles away, think of the difficulty in getting to hear the prophet of God speak.  Or being able to listen when he teaches.  Now what is you lived on another continent during the days of Moses.  If you lived in the americas, you would most likely not even know the name of Moses, nor that he was a prophet of God or to hear what he was teaching from God. Now look at...