Burdens

Yesterday, while at an establishment, I overheard the conversation between two men. At first their conversation seemed light enough as they spoke of their children and some of their accomplishments, then as their words turned direction I felt a sense of sadness for them. It seemed that they had both been active members of the LDS church at some point in their lives but were now very inactive and attending other churches. It wasn't that information that necessarily saddened me the most, rather it was what they had said about the church that had more of an impact. They began talking about all of the callings and so-called obligations that they had while they were active members and how burdensome it all had felt. One man continued to say, "I just want to go to church and worship and then be able to go home or go out to eat if I want and enjoy my time and my day without being expected to help out all of the time." Now, I wish that I could say that I never felt burdened by a calling but I cannot. I was and am fortunate enough to be able to realize that the problem is not with the calling nor the church but rather within myself and my own attitude and once I am able to recognize that I know that I have the power to change it. Citing Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8 and a quote by Elder L. Whitney Clayton:

7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

"Our own mistakes and shortcomings produce many of our problems and can place heavy burdens on our own shoulders. The most onerous burden we impose upon ourselves is the burden of sin. We have all known the remorse and pain which inevitably follow our failure to keep the commandments."[he also includes that burdens may be natural products of the conditions of the world, or can be imposed on us by the misconduct of others.]

I could go on and on but I will just say that I hope that those two men will come to the realization that though the churches which they are currently attending may try to spread good messages, they do not have the fullness of the gospel. We can go to school or church every day and listen to the messages that are shared with us but we will never truly learn or understand those principles and practices until we begin to apply them and use them in our lives. I am grateful to those men for helping to remind me of my love of the church and Christ and for helping me strengthen my testimony.

I know that if we keep His commandments that He helps us with our burdens and offers us the strength and ability to overcome all. If we are obedient to Him we will be richly blessed. We can strengthen and grow our faith and testimony by doing His works. I leave these words with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Problem solved

This is a follow-up post to my last entry. Last time I wrote that I was desperately seeking suggestions on what I could do to get fit without the aid of my "precious" gym membership which I begrudgingly parted with when we moved to Arizona. Well, since then, I have rethought that cry for help because it turns out that I got what I asked for and then some as my aching body is now the one making the cry for help.

I have begun walking/jogging nearly five days per week with a superb partner(who will remain unnamed, though I must say he has been a truly wonderful support for the past 10 years ;) ). Then, this past week, I spoke with one of my neighbors who was just getting done working out with another woman from our neighborhood/ward and invited me to join them to work out three days per week. I am very thankful to these amazing women for allowing me to join them and am even more thankful that they don't outwardly laugh at me while I make a fool of myself doing certain exercises. Well, I must go and play Little People with Jake because I was just informed that if I did it "right now" then I could get a hug-and-kiss from him. Soooo.....bye!

Desperately Seeking Suggestions

Ok. So, now that I am finally done nursing I am ready to get back in shape, since I have one of those body types that actually holds on to all fat while nursing.

Well, I've gotta be honest, the desire is there but I'm going to need some help from those of you(if anyone) that reads my blog. Those of you that have known me for a while are probably aware that I'm not exactly in my peak physical shape like I was before Noah. Before our move to Arizona I was pretty good about going to the gym three days a week and getting some light exercise in on other days(I would typically run on average 25 miles and do my kickboxing/tae bo class three days per week) . I LOVED having a gym membership that enabled me to physically and mentally remove myself from my at-home distractions and I found it pretty easy to get some exercise in on other days since we were biking, walking, or running distance to numerous city ammenities(library, zoo, park, farmer's market, Riverwalk, etc....), and having those things so close to home made it so much easier to get out of the house on a consistent basis. Maybe it's just because I'm still not totally used to being in Arizona, maybe it's my attitude, or both, but I just can't find anything appealing around here to make me want to just get out of the house, at least not that isn't a 10-15 minute drive first, not to mention that I have a phobia of snakes. I don't want to feel as though I have to drive somewhere first before I can enjoy the outdoors. I'm pretty comfortable biking to get to where I want to go but there are a lot of busy, fast-moving roads near our home that make me very uneasy. Also, I have initiated a Couch-to-5k plan and mapped my routes, though they are just between our boring old subdivision and the boring old subdivision across the street, but it's just not motivating me. I was always so good about staying self-motivated and self-disciplined before, now I'm more like self-sabotaging. Ho-hum.

I need any advice I can get to get myself motivated around here and I need suggestions on what I can do and where I can go. I would love to have a gym membership again but it's not exactly in the budget right now. So, with that being said; HELP!!!!