Counting Beans.

 A few years back I had the most marvelous opportunity to live with my family in Portugal serving a mission for our church.  It was indeed the greatest and most shaping experience of my entire life.

While my family remained in the country for three years, I only stayed for two so I could return home for college.  Though leaving my family was one of the hardest things I've eve done, I knew it was necessary for my growth and I knew a new chapter awaited me back home.

As the days were drawing nearer for me to leave my family and my beloved country of Portugal, I wanted desperately to be able to enjoy each and every day.  So I took two jam jars and counted out a number of dry kidney beans to equal how many days I had left.  Then every day I would remove one of the beans and set it in front of the jars, reminding me to enjoy and savor this day to its fullest.  At the end of the day I would take the bean and place it in the other jar, almost ritualistically.  As the beans were slowly but surely transferred from one jar to the other I was saddened, but also grateful for the inspiration to do this small task.  It helped me visually see the days I had left and not waste a single one of them.  A year later when my family was preparing to leave, they followed suit and did the bean countdown to savor each day.

Now, seven years later, I have found another use for dry beans.  This time to inspire a love of reading in my children.  Every time my children read a book or I read one to them, they get to put a bean from the bowl to the jar.  When it is halfway full, I'll take them to the bookstore and they get to pick out a book, and when it is all the way full, they get to buy several books.  I'm excited.  I love books and I hope to be able to foster a love of books in my own little ones as well.

One Happy Challenge.

Today I just want to give you one Happy Challenge.  It's simple and it's something each one of us can do.  Are you ready?

Monday's Happy Challenge:

Express gratitude to your spouse or a member of your family each day this week.  It can be as simple as a "Thank You" or as elaborate as a handwritten poem.  Take a deep breath and sincerely express heartfelt appreciation for your loved one.  Then feel your heart happify.

Starting my Book...

Yesterday afternoon I officially started writing my book...the one that's been rolling around my mind for a while now.  It scares me, this full commitment to doing something that I've always wanted to do.  I have wanted to be an author since I was about 8 years old, and I can't believe I'm finally taking the lunge.

Why is it that daily posting is so much easier than writing an all-out book??  Maybe for the simple reason that I desire so much to inspire and uplift that I want everything to be perfect?

But even if it is scary and a bit daunting, there is something so satisfying in trying something new, something that the Spirit has pointed me towards.  There is something so soothing and refreshing in striving to use my talents in a way to bless others.  Wish me luck and send a few prayers my way! :)

Happy Challenge:

What are you feeling prompted to do with your talents?  Or maybe you have something new you would like to try but have always felt a bit reluctant?  Commit to take the plunge and do something TODAY to begin following your dreams....

Lessons from a Corn Cob

Two Lessons Learned as I prepared corn cobs for my family:

1. We are so very much like a cob of corn.  Each of us has incredible treasures within us, just waiting to be discovered.  All we need to do is husk off the layers of green...remove our fears, weaknesses, insecurities, doubts, and failings.  The sweet yellow kernels of our potential, talents, abilities, strengths, and influence lie just beneath the green husks--just within reach.

2.  After we remove the layers of green, we must be refined.  Corn on the cob goes from raw to juicy through the process of great heat and/or boiling water.  Likewise, it is only through great trial that our natures are changed and refined and made ready to benefit others.  We must learn to refrain from resisting these challenges and instead welcome them as necessary parts of becoming glorious.

Happy Challenge:

First, ponder what talents are hiding just beneath the green husks in your life.  Commit to remove these husks and unearth your God-given abilities.

Next, think back upon your life to at least one significant trial that was placed before you.  Ponder on how you grew and were refined by the experience.  Record the unique lessons you learned and the special abilities that were honed in your heart as you passed through this challenge.  Feel in your heart how blessed you were to have this trial so you could gain these valuable characteristics.  You will see that because of this refining, you are just a little more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lessons from a Melon.

Three simple lessons I learned from our latest watermelon:

Lesson #1: You can't always judge a melon from it's cover (or the sound of it as you gently tap it).  

The other night while at the grocery store I picked up a watermelon on my way to the checkout stand.  The hour was late and my cart was overflowing, so I didn't take time to check watermelons for the perfect sound of ripeness.  I went against my natural instinct and just grabbed one.  I wondered it it would be any good and was nervous cutting it several days later.  But to my surprise, it was rather tasty!  I guess sometimes you just get lucky. :)


Lesson #2:  Have courage to try new things learned from others.

While cutting it up, I remembered that my dad cuts watermelon differently than I do.  I thought it might be fun to try out his way and see how I liked it.  Well, come to find out, it was easier and made the pieces all nice and square. (I was even able to make a cute little Stonehenge out of my pieces).

Sometimes we get so comfortable in the ways we do things that we never want to branch out and experiment with the ways that our loved ones do things.  We share ideas with each other but like the comfort of our personal habits.  But sometimes by trying something new, we find even better ways of doing things.  We'll never know unless we try!

Lesson #3:  Watermelons are a miracle.

I can't eat a watermelon without thinking of my dear Dad.  During my growing up years, whenever we'd eat watermelon my dad would inevitably study a piece of watermelon and remark on how amazing it is that muddied water from the ground can go up through the vines, filter out the impurities, and become the sweet, pure juice of a watermelon.  It is a miracle--one of those simple things we take for granted.  But when we stop and think of the intricacy of the smallest things--especially those in nature--we will be filled with wonder.  And it's all the handiwork of our Heavenly Father--the Creator of the Universe.

Happy Challenge:

Study a piece of fruit today and see what lessons you can glean.

Bad Day or Prelude to a Happy Day?

Sometimes I tend to think that a bad day signals the end of the world.  But it doesn't.  A bad day can be just that--a bad day.  Not the end of the world.  And not a bad life.  Sorrows or anger or anxiety swarm around and snuff out happiness like a little candle.  But I mustn't forget that a snuffed-out candle today could become a blazing fire tomorrow.  Like a beautiful classical piece of music, today's bad day could really just be a prelude (written in a minor key) to tomorrow's grand finale (written in a major one).

Yes, for the most part, we can choose to be happy, but some days are just bad.  We need to accept them for what they are, do our very best, and then wake up tomorrow and try again.   Because tomorrow may be the greatest day ever.  Hope for this.  And let your thinking change for the better, even if today doesn't.

Happy Challenge:

Instead of trying to change your day around, just change your perspective.  Remind yourself again and again that today is just a prelude to tomorrow's miraculous day.  Then watch and see if happiness doesn't unfold, because it will.  And maybe even your bad day prelude will change a little too from the coloring of your hope...

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Happy Challenges

It's Monday again.  Which means, it's time for happy challenges.  This week I'm posting seven--seven choices, one for each day.  You choose which challenges to do on which days, but commit to do each one of these sometime this week.

Perhaps it will boost our happiness levels a little??

1. Do just one thing that has long been on your "procrastination list."  Feel the joy and the lift that comes from checking off or scribbling out that burden!

2. For today, choose to enjoy the moment rather than be efficiently productive each moment.  Then watch your joy grow!

3. Indulge in one simple pleasure for yourself.  We all have small and simple things that make us happy.  Choose one today and just do it!

4.  Think of someone who could use a little extra love today. Whether it be a call, a text, a letter, email, a meal, a visit, a service, a gift, a little extra cash, whatever that special person needs, give it wholeheartedly.

5.  Pick your favorite form of movement (jogging, walking, yoga, dancing, sports, etc.) and do it for 5-10 minutes today.  Don't overwhelm yourself with feeling like you need to engage for hours, or even a half hour.  Just for today, move for enjoyment.

6.  Write out a list of 10 positive character traits that you see in yourself.  If you can't think of any, ask trusted family or friends for what they see in you.  Keep this list by your bed and read it every night for a week.

7.  Try something new!  Whether it is tasting a new food, visiting a new place, developing a new interest, or just doing something completely different than you usually do.


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