"The Beginning of Love...

Thank you for the four of you who gave advice  (Sarah, Becky, Rachel, and Shara :)  ) , I thought it was lovely and I would love to keep it with me and try to bury it into my brain so that I can be a better wife and mother when the time comes!  And I am still very open to hearing advice, so the more advice the merrier :)

My friend Christie posted this quote on Facebook today and I LOVED it:


"The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”--Thomas Mertin

I think this is a lesson I have to learn better! It probably takes a lifetime to get there though, and its a lot easier to say it in theory than in actual practice, but it sounds to me like a good thing to think about.  I've also heard that to love someone means to see their potential and to focus on that and to love them for what they CAN be. I'm not sure how true that is but that also sounds good.

Marriage Advice Anyone? ;)

This whole recent break-up thing has got me thinking.....ha!

For those of you who are married, I know usually people only give advice on those advice cards during bridal showers and in wedding books, right? haha....(yeah right! ;)  )

But I really am asking:  What is some of the best advice or knowledge or lessons YOU have learned from being married?  What would you say to someone the vital lessons and things they need to learn before they get there?  What are the things you learned the hard way once you were in it??  What do you think are the hardest things to adjust to??  I dont even know what to ask, but share with me all of your secrets. :)  I am totally listening!

Loves,
Shayna :)

Breath of Fresh Air!

Oh man!  Today was SO LONG at work!!! But then again, it totally wasn't!!!

It began with some random car alarm going off right outside.  It kept going and going, and I was like "ugh....people!"  But then a thought went through my head, "Maybe the Lord is trying to tell you something, Shayna. Turn around and look at your clock."  So, I did it, for some reason....and it was 20 minutes PAST the time I was supposed to get up and get going!!  OH NO! and then again, as soon as I was alert enough, I realized the car alarm wasn't going off anymore...I've been wondering all day if that really was a car alarm, or if there was some alarm going off in my brain! ha!  (hey, it could happen!)  Talk about a tender mercy!!

Anyway, I was soooo dreading working a double!! That is 16 hours of work...crazyyy!   My one ray of hope was that I got to pick the unit I worked on for the second half, and I chose Children's!!! I haven't been there for about 2 months! OH MAN I have MISSED that place!!  I hoped that they weren't going to send me somewhere else...because, they do that. Thankfully, they DIDN'T!!

The second I walked through the doors, it was like a light went on inside of me!  This may sound really dorky, but it happened :)  I felt so many good things just walking into the building :)  And being around all of those wonderfully crazy kids was like a breath of fresh air.  I didn't even feel like I had worked at all that day, and the whole shift went amazingly fast and beautifully. We played basketball in the sunshine, watched some TV, ate dinner together.... It was like Heavenly Father was not only helping me through the day, but helping me to forget myself and just enjoy the zeal and vigor and happiness that oozes out of kids.  Even with all their wiggles and tantrums, they giggle, they goof off, they flip you off, they ask for hugs, they are so dependent on you as a mentor (so you better be on guard), they rip out their hair and get mad, they want to get up and do things every 5 minutes....and they are always coming up with the funniest things!!  HA Even when they are mad, its so cute! lol :)

I am definitely grateful for today :) And definitely grateful that I was able to work on Children's...it was just what I needed!  Kids are awesome.

I'm Not Perfect.

What? Yes I have come to this realization as of late. NOT PERFECT! Holy crap.

I even almost swore the other day...my roommate was talking and I was like "What the H....."I mean, where did THAT come from? And I had just gotten out of the Temple. HA!

Obviously, I already have known, for quite some time, that I am not perfect.

I guess this whole Peter thing has opened up my eyes to some things about myself....namely, my impetuous perfectionism, not only with myself, but with my companion and family...future family, that is. Just how I was with my family in the past. I should have known I am still the same person I was when I was 13 and yelling at my brother for disrupting scripture study....a scripture study that I (oh mighty one) had orchestrated myself, not any parental figure, so of course he was being a thug.  I still feel bad about that to this day and think that I ruined any love he may have had for the scriptures....

Anyway, I guess this is a good reminder that even the "best" of us need a Savior.  Because if I am walking around demanding perfection from everyone else, and not forgiving them for past mistakes, who am I? Someone with a shriveled up little heart that cannot forgive or have patience or love or kindness....Hello, that's the whole essence of Christ.  I feel like such a heel.....And yet I am grateful for this soul-shaking awakening of my utter vulnerability and dependence on God. I hope I can figure out how to be a better companion and let OTHER people need God and forgiveness as well (because, though they may have sinned differently than me, MY sin is to judge, which is considered the greater sin.).  Or else why would anyone EVER want to marry me?? I wouldn't.

Let Us Raise the Flag

Happy Flag Day Everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Kjgfq-7PQ&feature=player_embedded

Watching this video has inspired me to contemplate the state of our country at this time.
I believe there are many people out there who fear God, who try to live good lives, and who still stand for our freedoms.

I hope that we can all remember what it really means to be free, and to stand for something.  Flag Day reminds me of a passage of scripture in the Book of Mormon:  At the time in the Americas, there were two major groups of people, the Lamanites and the Nephites.  The Nephites were usually considered the people who feared God and tried to live righteously.  Your traditional story of good versus evil.  :)  At this time, though, the Nephites were starting to get a little bit selfish and haughty, and they began fighting amongst themselves, some trying to raise themselves above others and declare themselves "kings", even though their government was not ran by a kingship, but it had leaders somewhat similar to what we have in America today.  So the Captain of the Military, Moroni, got to action.  He was a very inspirational man, and desired freedom for everyone, not to be ruled by some dictatorship, especially a king who thought he was higher than everyone else.  So he pulled together his resources,....

Alma 46:
 12  And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.
13  And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—

36 And it came to pass also, that he caused the title of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land, which was possessed by the Nephites; and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites.

I love this scripture!  It is so inspiring.  He collected so many people by doing this, by inciting an uprising against those who sought to take away the freedom that they had so dearly loved.  They ended up banning together and banishing those who were getting too high and mighty for their own good, and the country was reminded of their dependence on God and what they should be standing for.  How amazing!

Happy Flag Day, and I hope we can all remember this great lesson!

Whelp, not much going on here. Ha...

I'm sitting in my room watching Rocky 2. I loved the first one, so I bought the whole lot!

 I've been watching a lot of movies lately...not much else to do ha.  Most of my friends are kind of gone....I used to hang out with my ward a ton, but Peter didn't like to do that all that much, he's more introverted than I am, so I lost touch with a lot of people in my ward, and now I feel weird getting back into the swing of things just yet. And I know I'm leaving in the Fall anyway, and it takes me awhile to build relationships with people (I'm also pretty introverted :)  ) so, yeah.....just kind of waiting it out, and hanging out when I feel like it.

A lot is going through my emotions still.  I think the biggest thing to adjust to is re-adjusting back to single-life.  It's like, you expect to be moving on with your life....but then you get really disappointed remembering that you are back to square one again, and its just kind of defeating.  And you realize how lonely it really is being single! It stinks! haha! And you also question your own abilities a lot and prettymuch think you are a loser. lol.

I will be ok....I mean, I'm the one that broke it off, I know it was the right decision.  I hope this isn't a totally downer post....

One last thought to end with:

"Boy, you gonna eat lightenin', and crap thunder!!"

The end.