Little Tidbits

As I was cleaning my room this morning I came across a couple of little notes I had written to remind myself of a couple of things I wanted to blog. A few weeks ago we had a cute family in our ward speak. One of them spoke on the talk "Good, Better, Best" by Dallen H. Oaks. This is the 2nd time in my life one of his talks really struck home with me. I think it did with a lot of people. Right before Christmas we attended my mother-in-law's ward and in her Relief Society, the lesson was on this very talk. I seem to always get the same teacher when we are there, but she always does such a wonderful job of teaching from these talks. She had a visual/object lesson to help drive home the point of choosing the best over the better and good. She place a large jar on the table and then held up 2 bags. One bag was filled with golf balls and represented all the things we are supposed to do like scripture study, prayer, visiting teaching, etc. The second bag was filled with small marbles/pebbles and represented all the other good things in life: hobbies, running kids around, reading, etc. She dumped the marbles in the life, filling our "day" with good things and then tried to fit all the golf balls in on top. They didn't fit. After emptying the balls and marbles back into their bags, she tried it again. This time she filled our "day" with the best things and then dumped the pebbles in. It all fit. (Well, actually it didn't, but it was supposed. I think it would've if she had shook the jar just a little, but there were sleeping babies.) The point was when we put the Lord first, we will find the time for all the other good things in life that we want to do and the fluff will all drop out.

Another little note I found was some advice from author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love). I happened to catch her on Oprah and got drawn in. She had gone through a bad marriage, horrible divorce and then an amazing road to self-discovery. She was very happy and bubbly and told Oprah and her viewers 3 things she writes down daily to help her.

1. What do I really, really, really want? Then answer it.
2. Write down the happiest moment of the day.
3. Change your mantra until it works for you. (Is "I'm a dork, failure, etc really working for you?)

I went on to read her book and loved it. There were of course parts I could do without, but her journey was amazing and inspiring. I loved the 3 little things to write down, and think the world would be a better place if we all took time to figure out what we want, what makes us happy, and change our thinking to be positive.