New Insight

I was reading a friend's blog post the other day. She is coming near her 30th birthday and was evaluating her life. She said a few things that got me thinking, one of them being wanting to document things of more importance, in addition to the fun, quirky things her children do on her blog. And I realized I've neglected this blog and want to get back into it-put down the things I'm learning and feeling, because there is a lot. I keep a personal journal, but I'm not the best at putting each entry in a specific book, so my entries end up here and there and I fear I have lost several important events.

So... there is so much I don't know where to begin. I think just mentioning some of the things that have recently happened that have caused me to re-evaluate my life. And none of these things have happened to me, I just read about them, but they have such a big effect on me. The first two I have mentioned before-

Ashley and Robert were friends of mine growing up. They began dating after he served a mission and were married in July 2006. In November 2007 he was first diagnosed with leukemia and beat 2 battles of cancer before passing in December 2009. When I was home visiting my parents last month I saw a wedding invitation for Ashley and was so, SO happy she was able to find someone else to share in this life journey with her. I went back to read the blog sharing her story with Robert's battle and each time I read I sit in awe at the courage and faith she had.

I learned about Stephanie Nielson, a burned victim survivor, from a mormon messages that touched me. She now has become 'famous' in the blogging world and there was a 20/20 recently done with her. We don't have television right now, but I browsed her blog and came across this post that I also loved. She is an incredibly strong person as well, and I just love what she has to say about motherhood. I am a queen, look what I just did. That is so beautiful, and so true.

Lastly, a friend of mine on facebook posted that a lady in her ward passed away unexpectedly. It caught my interest because she was so young with children. She was 8 months pregnant at the time, and though they were able to deliver the baby, it did not live long. I followed her page, noticed she had a blog, then read a post her husband did that day. Wow. Jack makes fun of me because he says it is my life-changing blog because I am constantly thinking about it and talking about it. I've gone back to it, and it must have had quite an effect on several people since it now has over 300 comments.

You may see future posts with more specific things that stuck out to me with each of these people, but right now I'll just say how grateful I am. These are tragic things these people go through. It makes you appreciate everything you have. And I feel so grateful that I can learn so much from other people. I mean, Jack doesn't like to read things like that. It just makes him sad. I read it and feel so inspired. I want to be better at everything I do and who I'll become. I'm glad it does that to me. It makes me hope and pray I never have to face something like that personally. I learn so much from other people's trials. I know I have my own, but I really hope I never have to go through anything like that. I thought that probably sounds bad, but realize no, it doesn't. I don't think anyone ever hopes for something like that.

I don't know if it's weird that I'm like this, but I am so glad other people are able to share their stories, despite how difficult they are, so I can better appreciate what I have, put my life in clearer perspective, and help me strive to be who our Heavenly Father wants me to be.