priorities

It was the last day of school for us, as some of you in my area may already know. And can I just tell you that I am so so sooo relieved to have finished my junior year. I have no idea how I managed to survive! Or maintain my GPA, for that matter! 

Anyways, I've been puzzling a lot on what to do about my classes next year. I've been taking classes at the college and working towards an Associate's degree and an accompanying scholarship. But if I continue next year with what I've been doing, I'll also end up sacrificing a lot. I won't be able to take some of the classes at the high school that I really care about, instead I'll be taking whatever classes at the college fit into my schedule, most of which I have no desire to take anymore. I've also been incredibly busy this year and haven't had a lot of time for the things that I really want to do, including being involved much at school. So in many ways, changing my course and focusing only on high school could be a good thing. BUT I've come so far, how can I go back on earning the degree/scholarship now? 

I don't know what I'm going to choose yet! But I do know what I have to do to make my decision. You see, sometimes in life we have to figure out what is worth sacrificing and what is worth fighting for. 

What are your ultimate goals? Are the things you are doing now going to help you to achieve those goals? Or are you so caught up in things that don't matter that you've lost sight of the big picture? 

Sometimes, like in my case, we don't have the big picture. I'm not exactly sure what I desire for my future. But I know that I won't get anywhere or achieve anything in my life if I'm not focused on the right things. Sometimes we have so much going on in our lives that we ignore the important tasks and focus on unimportant ones. 

Is there anything in your life that isn't doing you good, that isn't helping you to progress toward your goals? Cut it out of your schedule!  

Learn to distinguish between the good and the bad in your life and work to prioritize only the activities that are doing you good. 

Life is forever changing! We have a lot of decisions to make! But I know that if we consider each decision and how it will affect us in the long run, we will always make the correct choice. I would invite you all to consider the activities you choose to fill your day with and ponder whether or not each of those activities is something that needs to be prioritized. 

I know that if we work to keep only the good in our lives and rid ourselves of unnecessary tasks, we will see ourselves progressing far faster than we ever would have otherwise. 

This was a hastily written post, as I've had a busy day and I'm now trying to get this so it will still post on Thursday. :) But hopefully my thoughts made a bit of sense. I will continue to consider my options and let you know what I decide! :) 

Until then, keep a good perspective and consider the things that are really worth fighting for. 

Have a lovely weekend, and yay for summer! 

Haley

P.S. You've likely noticed that I've been posting more often, but you perhaps haven't noticed my Monday-Thursday pattern. I've been trying to do a new post every Monday and Thursday, so now you know when to expect them, and I now feel a bit of an obligation so I can get myself to blog more often! I will likely be posting at night every time, but at least you now know to check in on Monday or Tuesday for a new post. Yay!
Also! don't forget about my new URL! Find me at www.whatmattersmostblog.com.

a thought on GOALS

Okay, is this man not the cutest thing ever?

So with watching the Olympics so much lately, I've been thinking of all the amazing things that people achieve.
Granted, most don't make it to the Olympics, but we all have something or another that we love to do, something that we have dedicated a lot of time to.
We all have different goals and every person will live their life in a different way.
BUT we are also all united. We are united in Christ. We are united as children of God.

"One thing that has stood the test of time is God."

I guess in some ways we are united in our goals. We all want to be happy. We want to be able to look back on our lives and know that we gave our all.
We all, believers and nonbelievers alike, crave satisfaction and praise.

I love when he says, "I've experienced much in my lifetime. And all of it wasn't good. And certainly all of it wasn't bad."

I've recently been doing a lot of family history work, and every time I read someone's story, it reminds me that our lives differ so much. We are all born, we all die, but it is what we do in between that defines us. 

Why do we do the things we do? 

Keep in mind your final goal. Who do you really want to please? 

Is it the world? Certainly not. 

Is it yourself? Well sure, but what, in the end, is going to make us the most happy?

It's God. God is who we want to please. 

"I belong to the greatest Hall of Fame that any man or woman can ever belong to. And when you belong to that, and you know you belong to it, you don't worry about these halls of fame that men create down here. It don't mean that much to you."

Remember that there is nothing you could ever do that would be worth giving up your relationship with God, with Jesus Christ.

I look at my own life sometimes and I wonder what difference I am making, what I am even accomplishing.
Sometimes I just feel like a robot that goes through the motions.
But I have to remember that sometimes my best is enough. As long I have the right goal, and am at least trying to live my life right, I'm doing okay.

Take heart in the fact that you don't have to win a gold medal or make it into the hall of fame to live an accomplished life. These are just silly things created by men.
An accomplished life is one filled with service, filled with love, and filled with faith.

So keep in mind your goals. Remember that our lives are a gift and we have to use them to make the world a better place.



You guys are awesome, and I have been so blessed with your support over the years of having this blog. I'm sorry I haven't been posting enough lately. I have had an extremely long-lasting case of writer's block that I can't seem to shake. Often I sit down to write and I just can't find the right words. So thank you so much for being patient with me.

Happy Sunday.

Haley

the strongest verb

I don't know if any of you have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, but it's fabulous. I think it's the only book I've ever had to read in school that I thoroughly loved. I learned a lot about God and life by reading that book. I highly recommend it.
I found the following story on a website today... This story was told by Paulo Coelho, so it naturally caught my eye... enjoy.

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As soon as he arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco, a missionary decided he would stroll through the desert at the city’s boundary every morning. On his first stroll he noticed a man lying on the sand, caressing the ground with his hands and leaning his ears towards the earth.

“He is mad,” the missionary said to himself. But he saw the man every morning during his walks and after a month, intrigued by that strange behaviour, he decided to approach the stranger.

He knelt beside him and asked, in broken Arabic, “What are you doing?”

“I keep the desert company and offer solace for its loneliness and its tears.”

“I didn’t know the desert was capable of crying.”

“It cries every day, because it dreams of being useful to mankind and turning into a huge garden where people could cultivate flowers and tend sheep.”

“Well then, tell the desert it accomplishes its mission very well,” said the missionary. “Every time I walk here, I am able to understand the true dimension of the human being, as its open space allows me to see how small we are before God. When I look at its sands, I imagine the millions of people in the world who were born equal and am reminded that life isn’t always fair towards everyone. Its mountains help me meditate and as I see the sun rising on the horizon, my soul fills with joy and I feel closer to God.”

The missionary left the man and went back to his daily chores. To his surprise, he found him the next morning at the same place, in the same position.

“Did you tell the desert everything I told you?” he asked.

The man nodded.

“And even so it keeps crying?”

“I can hear each of its sobs,” answered the man, his head tilted towards the ground. “Now it is crying
because it spent thousands of years thinking it was completely useless and wasted all this time blaspheming God and its own destiny.”

“Well, then tell the desert that despite having a short lifespan, we human beings spend much of our days thinking we are useless. We rarely find the reason for our destiny and think God has been unfair to us. When a moment finally arrives in which we are shown the reason why we were born, we think it is too late to change and keep on suffering. And as the desert, we blame ourselves for the time we have wasted.”

“I am not sure the desert will bother to hear it,” said the man. “It is used to suffering and it can’t see things differently.”

“So then let us do what I always do when I feel people have lost faith. Let us pray.”

----------

It's only natural that a man someday wonder "what exactly am I here for??" I learned in health this week that most start their search for identity when they're a teenager. I thought this was kinda interesting, and I really sincerely hope that some of the teenagers I've met haven't found themselves yet, if you know what I mean. haha. (No one in particular!)

My point is, man's search for identity may begin as a teenager, but it takes many people a long, long time to really figure out who they are and what their purpose is. And whether or not it takes you a long time to find yourself doesn't really make a difference. Many people, like the desert, will regret their past and will wish they had come to their senses sooner. But that's the point of life.

Move on and rejoice in the knowledge of a better life ahead of you.

In English this year, we've written a couple papers where we were required to take out as many to be verbs as possible while making revisions. Yeah. Try taking every occurrence of be, being, been, am, are, is, were, etc... out of your paper. H.a.r.d.

My teacher explained that the be verb is the weakest verb in the human language. "It shows no action," she explained.

I suppose in a paper this is often true. It's probably better to use other verbs sometimes.

But the weakest verb? I think not.

Who you are, what you choose to be, what your purpose is, these all seem like very strong statements to me.

Be a faithful disciple. Be a doer of good. Be a peacemaker.

People always make mistakes and slip up. You will say things you will regret. You already have experienced this, and you will no doubt experience it again.

But when you think about someone you knew years back, it isn't the little things they said that you remember. You remember them for the kind of person they were. What they did with their life, and how they treated others.

So be a force for good in the world. Decide who you are and never look back. Keep moving forward and continue learning new things about yourself.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”

-Robert Browning

good to come

The guy in the white shirt totally cracks me up.

I shared this video a year ago, but I think it is such a good one for the new year. It just had to be shared again.

Sorry my posts have been kinda lame lately. At least it seems like they have been.
Hopefully that's in the past :)


"She probably didn't even give it any consideration that the future could be better than her past."


Live for the future. You guys hear it all the time... you see it quoted on Pinterest and Facebook... You are not the mistakes you have made. 

Do you want to know what my goal is for the new year?

Not letting homework stress me out so much! It's not even that hard to get it all done... right!?!

What are your goals for 2013??

You know what? Life is good! It's full of good things to be excited for!!

And you have a bright future ahead of you! So... no worries! Okay? No stressing.

You know what I have the hardest time with? And I have mentioned this before... but forgiving myself.
But you can never reach your full potential if you are constantly looking back and feeling guilt for things that you Simply. Cannot. Change.
Would God want that?

No, he offers forgiveness, a bright future, and guidance to make beautiful things of it.

My Bishop told me something kinda cool the other day... "With the church, it always gets better."
He further explained - growing up, college, marriage... and you think what could possibly be better? And then you have children. Then grandchildren. And if you'll notice, the good things don't stop coming.


"Change is the Lord’s way. He wants us to be happy and growing, to be excited to move on with our lives. Life is a journey, and while still enjoying the present and preparing for inevitable challenges, we must move forward, remaining optimistic, our hearts open to the experiences and good things that are undoubtedly on their way."
- Caitlin A. Rush


I promise... if you will allow Him to, God will pour upon you blessing after blessing after blessing. 


We knew coming down to the earth that we would make mistakes. It was inevitable. So don't freak out when the inevitable comes to pass. Worrying is simply useless and unnecessary.

Let go of the past. It's done, gone, behind you. Leave it there. 
Take comfort in the fact you've done what you can. If so, you're golden. 



Happy New Year everyone. And remember, with the church, it always gets better.

Keep moving forward!

a goal we all can agree on

When I was a young kid, my bedtime was 8:30 every night. Bedtime consisted of putting on a nightgown and/or footie pajamas, brushing my teeth, and usually having my mom braid my hair so it would be wavy in the morning. 

My parents had their time together downstairs, and I was confined to my room, trying to pick out the words I could barely hear coming from the TV. 

When I got to seventh grade, I remember a friend of mine telling me how they had gone to bed at 11:30 after trying to get an assignment done. My eyes widened as I repeated her words... "eleven-thirty??" My bedtime may have been upped to 10:00, but a bedtime that late was a New Year's Eve type of thing. 

I don't really know what changed after that, but eventually my bedtime seemed to be all but forgotten as I scrambled to get last-minute assignments done every night. It was there in theory, but wasn't enforced as much, especially as the years went on. 

Fast forward to today, and you will find my whole family in bed, with me still up and about, almost every night. 

Or sometimes I shut myself in my room after getting ready for bed with all my homework that is still unfinished. I light a candle and cherish the knowledge thateven though I still have homework, I won't have to leave that wonderful little place for the rest of the night. 

Or, during the summer, I stay up watching Monk and Drop Dead Diva on Netflix until it is 3am. 

And I came to the realization one day, that I am a huge night owl. Even as a high schooler, on the nights I desperately want to sleep, I can't. I guess I'm just wired differently now.

But even though I am a walking zombie at school occasionally, I love being up alone at night. What used to be my parents' alone time, has now become mine. (sorry guys!)

There is something about being alone, surrounded by quiet and peace, that soothes the soul. It fills you up. It brings you nearer to God. 


I look forward to these hours of recluse, and I wish we could all make time for ourselves... time to just be alone. Time to feel the Spirit. Not out of selfishness. Quite the contrary, actually. A boost in spirit helps us when we need patience. Having some alone time to look forward to makes it easier to spend more quality time with others during the other hours of the day. 

I think the human mind is a very complex, beautiful thing. It never stops working, moving, or thinking...  Never stops stressing, never relaxes until we make a conscious effort to make it calm down. 


And when I do make a conscious effort, I receive happiness and peace in return.  


Let's switch gears for a second. 


I would pride myself in never breaking a new year's resolution, but that's because I try not to make them. There is something about a goal that freaks me out. It's the same reason I made goals like turn in my homework on time during parent-teacher conferences as a kid. I always turned my homework in on time. So there was no chance of failure. I didn't even need to change my ways at all.

Maybe I'm just a no-good, lazy teenager, but I hate making goals. I tend to want results without putting forth the work.

But happiness is a goal even I can work towards. Because I get so stressed with homework and piano and other day to day activities sometimes. And it's not that I'm not happy, I just too often spend more time worrying than enjoying the journey.

And maybe my mind will get into the habit of being calm, and I will have to remind it less and less.

And I won't have to be alone - or away from other cares - to be calm and happy.

Indeed, even a new year's resolution I can handle. 

What are your new year's resolutions this year?