Embrace it! Embrace Life!

President Thomas S. Monson said, "Life's journey is not traveled on a freeway devoid of obstacles, pitfalls, and snares. Rather, it is a pathway marked by forks and turnings. Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed: the courage to say, 'No,' the courage to say, 'Yes,' Decisions do determine destiny. The call for courage comes constantly to each of us. It has ever been so, and so shall it ever be."

Life is a journey.  There are bumps in the road, hard times come, but each day we wake up and we have to decide whether or not we are going to get out of bed, and make it the best day, or the worst day.  Just like the newsies sing in Disney's Newsies, we must "Seize the Day." 

Each day is a day to wake up and turn it all around.  Life gets hard, life gets crazy, but we get to choose what we are going to do with the rough path.  Do we put our trust in God?  Do we laugh at the hard things?  Do we ask for help when we need it?  Do we make the hard decisions?  Life will not go as we want it to.  But that does not give us an excuse to give up just because things are hard.  Just like President Monson has said, when the rough times come we have to keep making the right decisions, hard and painful as they may be.


In college when I would complain about life, or school, or whatever seemed to be going wrong at the time, my sister would always say to me, "Embrace It."  Just enjoy it.  We only will be where we are for a short time.  So we have to embrace it.  Embrace the struggles, the curves, the things you don't plan for.  Take the challenges that come and find a way to deal with it. 

Often times the biggest decision we have to make is the decision to be happy.  At the very beginning of my mission I got a letter from my very wise father.  He wrote something that really changed  my perspective and attitude about my mission, and about life.  He said, "You choose what kind of day it's going to be.  Each day choose to make it the best day.  And always keep smiling!"  

He probably doesn't know it, but that changed my mission, that changed me as a person and how I view decisions.  Things have gotten hard at times, and they will continue to be hard the rest of my mission and the rest of my life I am sure.  But Heavenly Father has given us all the great ability to have choice.  We get to choose to be happy.  We get to choose what kind of day we are going to have. 

2 Nephi 10:23 in the Book of Mormon says, "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."

This scripture inspired the name of this blog, it's kind of become my life motto.  We have choice!  We have the wonderful ability, to get over the hard things, and choose to smile, and just be grateful that we have another day to make choices.  We get to choose happiness!   Happiness is a choice.  And often the hardest choice we will ever have to make, but knowing the Savior, and knowing His love for us happiness is attainable each and every day regardless of how awful or depressing life may be around us.  We have to make the choice to be happy. 


I'm including a talk that really puts it into perspective on how to be happy.  I love this talk. 


"Our Search for Happiness" by: President James E. Faust