To Live

 25Jesus said unto her, I am the ^aresurrection, and the ^blife: he that ^cbelieveth in me, though he were ^ddead, yet shall he ^elive:

 26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never ^adie. Believest thou this?

-John 11:25-26

It has been brought to my attention that many of my more recent posts have been quite, well, worldly to put it in the LDS lingo, so lest you think I am going astray, I wanted to share a quick scripture from my New Testament study today!

In our NT class, we've picked out many of Christ's "I Am" statements. I am the light, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd. To me, this passage contains the greatest assertion of all--"I am the life." How true that is! Thanks to my faith in Jesus Christ, I have been able to embrace life more fully than I could ever imagine. My service and participation and learning in the church have helped me grow in so many ways and truly have defined my happiness today.

Especially after my dad passed away last August, verse 26 has grown in importance to me. He that believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? It's a question I've had to ask myself many times, and a question to which I will answer with a resounding "Yes, I believe!" And thank heavens for it! Through Christ we can truly live, and I am forever grateful for his sacrifice and role in my life as my Savior.

Knowledge

"That which is demonstrated, 

we accept with joy."

-First Presidency Statement, 1910

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Today, I am thankful for a freshman sister with a meal plan who buys me Easy Mac when the carrots in my lunch just made me hungrier

day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have

Man, it is hard to limit this all to one post! Somehow my parents drilled into my brain as a child the importance of making goals and always having dreams. So I have a lot! I'll try to pare it down a little bit:

Plans:
- I plan to go to pharmacy school after graduation.
- I plan to always make family the highest priority in my life.
- I plan to let Owen study this year instead of trying to convince him to watch Psych.
- I plan to join BYU's gamelan this semester and learn Balinese music.
- I plan to have about four children and experience the interesting world of parenting with my awesome husband.

Dreams:
- One day, I want to live in a house with either a wonderful library, stately study, awesome home theater, in-home gym, or outdoor pool or any combination of the aforementioned features
- One day, I want to donate enough money to the church to build a temple!
- One day, I want to be self-motivated enough to exercise regularly.
- One day, I want to go to New York, London, Rome, Sydney, and Paris.
- One day, I want to take a Disney cruise with my whole family!

Goals:
- To finish my undergraduate degree at BYU and maintain my scholarship.
- To develop more meaningful scripture study habits.
- To stay in contact with the people who have been a part of my life.
- To shadow a pharmacist in the local area.
- To show more gratitude and work on having a positive attitude.
- To reach outside of myself and make new friends.
- To serve others, and to make it a part of my everyday life.
- To not feel rushed and to focus on the important things.

day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have

I don't know if it is just that super stressful time of year right before finals or if it is the fact that our car is being psychotic and sadly is STILL not fully functioning, but for some reason I can come up with lots of habits right now I wish I didn't have! Chipping off my nail polish, messing with split ends, being awkward around new people I don't really know, blogstalking or writing new blog posts instead of studying for my tests (guilty at the present). But I think right now the most significant habit I have that I wish I didn't is getting into a habit of negativity. Sometimes I can be really negative and think that everything in the world is all out to get me. And the problem is that it is a REALLY easy habit to get into! Whether it is finding out that my microbiology teacher scheduled another dumb midterm on the last day of class in class just to torture us, or discovering that our headlights aren't working after all of that repair work and money we spent on the car and now we can't drive after 5 p.m., it is easy to focus on the things that are not going exactly how I would want them to. I'm hoping that all of these situations are just being exacerbated by the fact that it is almost finals and I am terrified out of my mind for my genetics and biochemistry classes, but I going to try (key word=try) to think of at least a few positive things every day to balance it out. As President Jeffrey R. Holland once said

 "No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." 

And since I am sitting here writing a blog post and being bored all by myself but not wanting to do homework, I would say that Owen's habit I wish he didn't have is procrastinating his humongous History of Creativity assignment that he has had all semester to work on but didn't really start until like a week ago and now he's cramming to do that instead of doing something awesome like watching Pysch with me :) But I do have to admit that the video portion of his assignment turned out pretty dang cute, I'll try to convince him to put it up here for you all to see. And in the meantime, I will put forth my first attempt at making cake balls. Wish me luck! 

impossible?

"Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -Alice in Wonderland


Though my brain isn't functioning that much between the twenty minutes I wake up and eat breakfast, I wish this was something I did regularly. I always am so logical with everything I do that it is hard to think up the impossible. But this morning I read President Eyring's talk from General Conference on having faith in God, and then going and doing. And I think that in this is just what I need. Some more faith and little bit of thinking of the impossible.  I mean, who would have thought that it would be possible that on Monday I would be auditioning for a Balinese gamelan? (Side note: if you think Bali is cool, then check out this video from a traditional Balinese chant!---> 






And another movie quote, just to wrap things up...


"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." -Say Anything

Puja

"The only reason to make your life worth living is to live 

your life for the same reason God created the world"

-Some professor who taught my World Music Cultures professor

(look! it is a short post! go me!)

Work and Family

Data Entry. The two devil words of being a secretary in the math department. When it's data entry time, it means that we get to enter the exam scores of EVERY single student taking calculus in the math department--both Math 112 and 113...and considering the fact that there are 750 students taking 112, and about 500 in 113, it is quite a mind-numbing task. Data entry means get ready for hours of brainless number keypad work coupled with a horrible neck ache that will probably last for a week. Not to mention the paper cuts you are guaranteed to get while rifling through those hundreds of tests. Don't get me wrong--I love the math department and my job here, but data entry is the one thing that I would wish to disappear from the universe. It's especially frustrating when students can't seen to figure out what section they are in (even though it's printed RIGHT THERE on your scantron) or they think that scribble they wrote on the page somehow represents their name. So since I've been doing data entry all day at work for the past two days, I'm going to take a little break and rant about it a little bit. Data entry is Lame!


In other news, this past weekend was General Conference! What an enlightening and motivational experience! I am always a little sad during the last session, knowing that it will be another six months that I will have to wait to hear from our inspired church leaders again, but I am so glad that the Nortons gave us a subscription to the Ensign so we can read the talks again and again. 


One talk that was delivered at Conference has been receiving a lot of press lately, and I thought maybe I should give my opinion on the subject. President Boyd K. Packer spoke at conference about morality, and the decline we are seeing in today's society. He declared that homosexuality is a sin, that it can be overcome, and that as members of the LDS church, we do not support voting to change society's view on how marriage is defined. The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, has asked President Packer to "correct" these statements, claiming to be offended. 


I know that this has been a hot issue in LDS culture--where do we stand between being compassionate and loving vs. rejecting a decline of values we hold important in our religion? 


Though many people may bash our religion for being intolerant and anti-gay, what they need to realize that our religion is really just pro-family.


What is the most important thing to you in your life? When the demands of work and school and everything else fades away, what is the most important thing?


I know that I would definitely answer that my family is the most important thing, just as many of you would. Without my family, there would be little point to everything I do. And not just my immediate family, but my progenitors, and my future family that I will have with Owen as well. They are the reason I do everything I do--why I suffer through all this data entry stuff, why I am obsessed with blogging, why I spend hours studying my brains out. Because in one way or another, I want to make sure that I am prepared to serve my family and support them as best as I can. They are my stronghold. 


I want everyone to experience the kind of joy and love I find in my family. There is nothing like being a part of family who loves you and who works together. And this is my greatest opposition to homosexuality. Developing homosexual relationships cannot lead to the kind of happiness which can be found in family life. It's just not biologically possible. Men and women have innate differences that are both key to building a family. 


Now, being a Physiology major and having studied body functions and genetics extensively, I do not openly reject the idea that some people are born with homosexual desires. It may be true that some people are born with a genome that causes them to be attracted to the same gender. 


However, it is also true that some people are born with genes that make them more likely to be alcoholics, or to have compulsive behavior that leads to gambling or other addictions. Just because you are born with a genetic predisposition to immoral or destructive behaviors does not mean that you must act upon those desires. It may be harder for you to make these sort of decisions, but it is possible for you to "overcome the natural man" as we say often, for you to act beyond your natural desires. 


Our church may not be a popular church, but at least we do not waver from our moral decisions. If you are going to believe in something, like a religion, don't you want it to be steady and sure? It is much more comforting to believe in something that never changes despite the conditions and ideas of the world, rather than put all your hopes and effort into something that modifies itself with every popular opinion and whim. 


I am so grateful for the words of the prophets and for their leadership in the church. President Monson's talk on gratitude will lead to a new feature I'm hoping to add to the blog--Thankful Thursdays. There is so much in my life that I should express my gratitude for, so of course I will blog about it!


Until Thursday,