Just Have Hope

" The scene presented from this view is as a thousand arrows shot from the same point and aimed at the same object. United in aim, they are divided in flight. Some fly too high, others too low. Some go to the right, others to the left. Some fly too far and others, not far enough, and only a few hit the mark. Such is life. United in the quiver, they are divided in the air. Matched when dormant, they are unmatched in action."  -Unknown   I love this quote. It has such beautiful imagery.  I think this quote describes people very well. In the beginning, people have the same destination or goal. But sometimes people start going and they end up going in a different direction and they never meet their goal.  This quote kind of goes along with the phrase easier said than done. It is easy to name a goal but much harder to actually achieve it.   I have a feeling there are more goals started than there are finished.  I like how the quote goes into detail about how peo...

I'm tired of spinning in circles. Going nowhere at all. These dreams, these passions, these ambitions. I can make them true. If I just choose. It's a new year. A new chance. Take advantage of that. This is me.  No one else. I'm seventeen.  And free.  I'm marching toward the light. Ready to start anew.  Let this be my destiny. I'm seventeen. And I'm free. Don't care what they say. Don't care what they think. They're lost. But I'm not. I know where I'm going. And I'll keep on going.  Don't be distracted. Don't lose your course. Some happiness will be fleeting. Won't settle for less. When I can have so much more. I'm seventeen.  And free.  I'm marching toward the light. Ready to start anew.  Let this be my destiny. I'm seventeen. And I'm free. I limit myself. Keep myself trapped. I'll let go of my past. I'll learn from my mistakes. This is my time.  I tell myself I can't. But I can. Stop being lazy.  R...

 "In a world with so many distractions, being able to give your full attention to one thing at a time is powerful." ~Gymaholic  "You never really lose your motivation and drive, you just lose sight of what you truly want." ~Joe Duncan  I have found the last three weeks I have been awfully distracted. And so I have a hard time starting things or getting things finished. I don't know how we stay undistracted in a world like this. Advertisements, phone notifications, emails, television, media the list goes on and on.  With the world that we live in it's a wonder we can focus on one thing. In fact, I have been working on this blog post since 4:10 but I didn't work on it the entire time because I got distracted. Many times. LOL.  In regards to spiritual things, we go up and down daily. We get distracted by the world and we make mistakes. So we are constantly choosing to return to the covenant path and repent. Choosing to give our attention to the gospel again...

 "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." ~Winston Churchill Today at church someone discussed this quote. I was struck by the meaning of it.  Just because we succeed at something doesn't mean that we don't have to no longer do something with our lives. Just because we fail doesn't mean we can't succeed in the future. We will have success and we will fail but what matters most is that we keep trying.  Heavenly Father knows we will fail, and that we will make mistakes. This does not have to weigh us down. All he asks is for us to repent, and keep trying.  Life will never be easy. There will be trials and hardships. Don't give up. Keep your courage alive.  When did you have the courage to continue? 

 “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” ~Michael Jordan. There is a particular hill in my neighborhood that is a pain to climb, especially with a backpack. However, I have come to love this hill because of what it represents to me.  Life is a journey, a path we must follow. Our path will not be straight and flat but will have hills and valleys.  ~This path can be found in Clayton, North Carolina. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have always thought of trials as a hill or a mountain. Hills can seem daunting at first, even impossible, just like our trials, however, in order for us to ever conquer them we must take our first step.  ~This hill is very steep. It might be hard to see in my pictures but in real life, this hill is a real killer to climb. ----...

 " Nothing is IMPOSSIBLE; the word itself says, "I'm Possible".   -Audrey Hepburn I didn't realize until reading this quote that Im possible had the word possible in it. Every time I hear the word impossible I think of the meaning: not able to occur, exist, or be done.  Life is hard and many times there are many things that do seem impossible.  Examples of Impossible Things: (Courtesy of Google) -Flying without the help of an invention of some sort.   -Digging to the center of the earth.  -Going into the past or the future.  -Creating a force field.  Even if I can't do these things I know that with God nothing is impossible. He has ways of doing things we may not even be able to comprehend. There is always a way when it comes to God.  Things will get rough, and there will be times when things will seem impossible. Don't give up. There's a way. I hope that we will all have at least one opportunity in our lives to see s...

 "All things are difficult before they are easy." ~Thomas Fuller This quote has been true in my life many times, especially when I am learning something new. I have just started driving and I will be receiving my permit in the next few weeks. Driving has turned out to not be as easy for me as I thought.  At first, it can be really hard to steer the car, check your cameras, pay attention to signs, and watch your speed all at the same time. But as with anything, practice makes progress. So I know I am bound to get better as long as I keep practicing. We will have multiple opportunities in our lives to try something new and most of the time it won't be easy right away but with practice, a little patience, and faith the task will get easier.  Our brains understand the concept of repetition. Just like you have the same schedule each day (more or less) the more you repeat the process the more likely you are to remember it. It's the same thing with other things. The more you...

 "Don't be afraid of the answers, be afraid of not asking the questions." ~Jennifer Hudson "Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it... Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new." -Barack Obama Many people are afraid of asking questions. Afraid of admitting they don't know something, however, we shouldn't be afraid. In fact, we should be excited to ask questions and the desire to learn more.  Knowledge is received by asking questions. We don't know until we ask it. The gospel was restored because one person decided to ask a question.   For a while, I thought asking the most questions in math class was a bad thing. It's not. I won't learn the material unless I can ask questions. So now, whenever I have a question, I ask it.  Next time you have a question, ask it ...

This quote struck home as I thought what our world and each of us are facing.  "Remember that you were chosen by the Father to come at this time because you have the power to face the challenges of this era." ~Ulisses Soares  I think that is amazing. We were chosen to come at this time because God knew we would have the power to face Covid-19. Reread the previous sentence again.  Doesn't that make you feel a lot better? You can do this!!! You have the power!!! And most importantly we don't have to do it alone. All of us are facing this virus together so each of us knows a little bit of how others are feeling.  Now, with that being said, let me clarify that just because God knew we would have the power to face the challenges of the era does not mean that our challenges will be easy. That is not what I am saying. Since Earth is a test and is designed to strengthen us, it makes sense that our challenges will not be easy. Notice the quote says to face our challenges not ...

This quote hung in my 8th-grade Science teacher's classroom. I have always loved it.  "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars." ~Les Brown I think there are many ways to interpret this quote. I think this quote teaches us that even if we don't get our biggest dream we will still be viewed as someone who accomplished something great or who had a goal completed. I think this quote also teaches us that even if we didn't get as big of an outcome as we thought we still succeeded in our own way.  I have had an experience with this with one of my writing websites. I finished writing my first book after being on a writing website for a while. I really wanted to get a good number of followers. (Fifty or one hundred would have felt like a huge accomplishment to me.) However, I only had thirteen followers in the end. I was slightly disappointed but I have now realized my star or big accomplishment was me completing my first book not the number o...

We all know that popular saying when you are learning a sport or learning to play an instrument. "Practice makes Perfect."   Except I can't help but disagree.  Humans are not perfect. It's true. We all have faults and each of us will make mistakes. So, as my family now says:  "Practice makes Progress." ~Leighanna Lindsay And it's true practice will make progress. Even people who are professionals at a certain sport or talent can't do what they do perfectly. They mess up just like we do, even during a performance. In fact, they are still improving to become better with their talents and abilities every day believe it or not. So, if you make a mistake at something you are learning, remember that you are not perfect and that you can always improve.  What are you trying to practice or improve right now? How is this helping with your progress? 

During Covid, I have learned something about goals...  Most goals in order to be accomplished mean that we have to choose to do them. For example, I have a goal to exercise every single day, in order for that goal to be accomplished I would need to choose to exercise every day. This sounds like common sense. Of course, we would need to exercise every day if we wanted to accomplish this goal. 😝       However, we have to make that decision every day in order to accomplish that goal and sometimes we may not want to. There have been plenty of days where I have internally debated whether or not to go running. But, I keep pushing myself and I have come to enjoy running during the week.   So after realizing this truth about goals I came across a quote that I thought really supported this theory.  "The strongest principle of human growth lies in human choice." ~George Eliot I could never agree more with a simple quote. If our goal is to be nicer to peo...

I came across a quote one day and I was greatly impressed by it. It made me look at patience in a whole new way. I am grateful that I found it because it comes to mind often.  "Patience is far more than simply waiting for something to happen. Patience requires actively working towards worthwhile goals, and not getting discouraged when results don't appear instantly or without effort." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf   I learned a lot from this quote when I read it. It made me think of how I act when waiting for something. For example, if we are waiting for something to happen in our lives or for the right person to walk through the door we can do more than just wait. We can work on current goals in our lives and keep trying, while respectfully waiting until what we desire happens.           -Side note: This quote also goes a lot with learning something new and being patient until our practice starts to pay off. I know it's hard, especially when we really...