Joy... I Feel Joy!!!

Now you may say it is sleep deprivation because it is 4:45 in the morning, or exhaustion because the semester is over... but it isn't that...

I truly feel joy. It is wonderful and sweet and fills my heart. It is gratitude for the good people in my life, for great brothers who love their wives and family and me and my mother. For good friends near and far, in heaven and on Earth. For the blessing it is to study and get and gain an education so that I can help others. For the capacity to overcome hard things so I can better appreciate and aid others in their battles. For safety and peace and above all else--for a loving Heavenly Father who not only made all these things possible but helps me to see them with new eyes and experience the joy in them...

So many good things fill my heart right now... watching Prince Caspian with a friend all of the gospel parallels caused me to think of God and be grateful. When the little girl (once a queen) finds the Lion (the Savior) she says to him, sorry I didn't come to you, the others didn't believe--to which he responds--and why did that stop you from coming to me. She later proceeds to say longingly--but what would have been and he knowingly and assuredly reminds her that we can know nothing of what would have been, but what will be is an entirely different matter...

Each of us must come to Christ and cultivate for ourselves that relationship and we must trust Him, regretting nothing and doing our best to live today and each tomorrow a little better than today--full of love, patience, hope, and a desire to help others find Christ and the peace and joy that we have.

While there are many things in my life that have not gone as planned, and my heart has broken an hundred times over, I know that I am exactly where my Father in Heaven wants me to be and that I am more like Him because of the things I have experienced and I will use them to help others.