When Is Enough... Enough?

I've had a repeating question in my life. "When is it enough?" When does the weight of a chronic illness pass? or the need to get my bills paid end? or the responsibility of meeting high expectations in my faith? or the necessity of going to work even when I'm so very tired? I've worried about having this perspective about my children someday when I feel like all I want is a nap but they still need my love and attention.

I've begun to see and answer That I hope I remember. The answer to my question is when I see the value, rather then the cost. Then it become more then enough to meet my needs and help me grow! I feel like this video illustrates this idea beautifully. 

Mathew 11:30; Mosiah 24:14-15

~Katie Jean~

Don't Give Up What You Want Most For What You Want Now

There are so many dreams I have, so many plans for the future and so many ideas and plans I have right now. Sometimes I have to take things back to the drawing board to remind myself what is most important. I've heard this most often expresses in the phrase eternal perspective.

There was a point in which I was dating someone who I didn't feel was the right fit for me. We fit together better emotionally and mentally than anyone I'd ever met yet spiritually there was a disconnect. I really cared about him but the longer things went on the more I struggled. I wanted so badly to just ignore the consequences and just date him. In the end the words from my mother, "don't give up what you want most for what you want now", were able to bring the perspective I needed. I was able to let go for both of our sakes. I will be grateful for that decision because of the eternal principle it taught. It taught me what I want most, and in the end what I want most is what God wants for me.

I am all about what your viewpoint is, what perspective you're looking at life from, as I hope is evident from my past post's here on this blog. It truly follow's in my heart that God's perspective is really the perspective I am striving to find and see in my own life.

In the LDS bible dictionary it says under the heading Prayer:
 "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." (italics added by me)

If I truly understand who God is then I want to have a true relationship with him. I, like Christ, seek to do his will and not my own. and thus I will be able to have an eternal perspective.

~Katie Jean~

Love = Worth

What do you love most? What is of greatest worth to you?

This I love, my family.

With Valentines just past I thought it might be a good time to look at love. I recently returned home from serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint's for 18 months. I was away from home and living a schedule that didn't stop or change for holiday's or weekends. I came to notice that holiday's only mattered if I made them matter, event's only had worth for me if I gave them worth.

I submit that worth comes from love. Value and the emotional connection (love) we place on an event or person are almost synonymous with each other.

There is a difference in the kind of love I'm talking about. I need to make that distinction. The love I am talking about is true love. The kind movies and fairy-tails talk about hero's fighting for. It's Charity, as the scriptures define it the "pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47). It's the love that provides meaning to our lives and gives worth.

For a moment I'd like to discus charity or the "pure love of Christ" in more detail. A perspective that I recently observed is that Jesus Christ loves on an individual basis. I believe that he know's me, on an individual basis. He loves me best because he knows me best. "We love him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). I believe also that to love is to truly understand something. The main character in one of my favorite books says it well. He said "I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves" (Enders Game by Orson Scott Card). It is my feeling that Christ loves each individual with that love, Charity, the kind that understands, that suffers long, the kind that means something. It also follows logically that if we are each loved with this love that gives worth then we are each of worth, because of that love.

Yet so many in the world don't feel that kind of love. We don't believe we are of worth. There is a lot of talk about self worth. I think if we focused more on Charity, understanding others, we would find worth because of our love for each other. In this world where understanding is valued so little is it any wonder that we struggle to see worth?

~Katie Jean~

Perspectives

Look around you, what do you see?

I am beginning a journey and I'd invite anyone and everyone to come along. I want to understand. That is my quest, to understand more of the world around me and then to act on what I learn. From here on out I plan to post my thought's and ideas. I want to share what I begin to understand, what I already understand and what I'm doing about it.

Where do you begin such a quest? What road do you take? Someone once told be the best place to start is right where you are.

So what do you see? I invite you to stop and look at your surroundings. I am sitting in a room full of things that mean something too me. All of these things belong to me and have meaning. I see my two bookshelves and I love them dearly. They have everything raped up in the pages of those books from religion to science fiction to romance and back. Each book has taught me to look at things from a new perspective. I think that's why I love them so much. :) In another corner of the room there is a small group of porcline dolls, each was given to me and each has a story and a name I have given them as I've grown up. I almost feel that they grew up with me. In yet another corner there are two pictures of two women who have played a huge role in who I am and what I want to become. Each of these objects mean something too me. Perhaps the room you sit in is not a full as memories and objects that are personal to you but I'm sure that there is something you see that is important to you.

So the question to ask is why do these things have worth? Why do they mean something? I think it is the way we view them, it is who we are, our view point, our perspective of the object that gives the object meaning and worth. In essence it is how we feel about it and why we feel that way.

I choose for the things in my life to have meaning. I will continue to see the why, to hold onto the why. I will seek to understand the perspectives of the world around us, especially my own.

~Katie Jean~