Life...

Life has been so different these past few months, and for the first time in my entire life I feel content. Content with how my life is, content with everything. I think this is a lesson that Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me since the day I was born. Patience has NEVER been my strongest quality, and I know that I still have a ways to go, but, I feel as though I am finally understanding the Lord's plan for me. I have been reading so many different General Conference talks and Ensigh articles that have truly inspired me to do the Lord's work, and to be a better person. One talk given by Dieter Uchtdorf talks about Patience,

"Patience—the ability to put our desires on hold for a time—is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter.

Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect. Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace."

.... He goes on to say...

"Patience is a godly attribute that can heal souls, unlock treasures of knowledge and understanding, and transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels. Patience is truly a fruit of the Spirit.

Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. It means reining in anger and holding back the unkind word. It means resisting evil, even when it appears to be making others rich.

Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.”
Ultimately, patience means being “firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord” every hour of every day, even when it is hard to do so. In the words of John the Revelator, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and … faith [in] Jesus.”

Patience is a process of perfection. The Savior Himself said that in your patience you possess your souls. Or, to use another translation of the Greek text, in your patience you win mastery of your souls. Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most. This was true in the time of the Savior. It is true in our time as well, for we are commanded in these latter days to “continue in patience until ye are perfected.”

I am just so blessed to have the gospel in my life, and to be blessed with so many AMAZING friends and family memember. Life is never easy, but its being patient and enduring that makes it worth while.