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Nuanced Hope Feeds My Faith

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Hope vs. faith…what’s the difference? I struggle with this a little because throughout my life I’ve thought about Faith in Christ and asking how having Hope in Christ is different.  I’ve found scriptures that say faith is bourne of hope as well as scriptures saying hope is bourne of faith.  Preach my Gospel mentions that hope is “an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill his promises” while it also says Faith in Christ means that we trust Him and are confident He loves us.” Those are basically the same thing! What is the nuanced difference? I looked at the opposite of hope to see if that would help guide me.   Dieter F. Utchdorf expressed the difference between hope and its opposite, despair, in beautiful words: "The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the s...
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Mercy, Justice, and Unmerited Grace

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Last night some of my family members and I sat down to watch the movie, "Just Mercy."  It follows the story of a young lawyer, newly graduated from Harvard.  As an African American raised in the north, he goes to the south and meets a new kind of opposition to his work of representing prisoners on death row.  This young lawyer takes on an African American client accused of murdering a 19 year old white girl some years earlier.  Throughout his investigation he find unmistakable evidence of his client's innocence and uses the justice system as it was created to give the accused man a fair trial.  Yet, he is faced with overwhelming opposition from the white community -- police, judges, and residents alike. Despite that, this young lawyer fights the fear and racism he and his client and the African American community face.  To this day he and his team have saved over 140 people from death row. This powerful film brought tears to my eyes throughout multiple scen...
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New growth

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  These plants, gifts from people dear to my heart, have witnessed everything that has happened in my apartment over the last five months.   You can see some of their leaves have turned yellow from inconsistent watering habits on my part.   About a month ago I started watering them consistently again and you can see some new, beautiful green growth because of that. Today as I stood in my kitchen with so many thoughts running running running through me I felt them encourage me a little bit as they shared some wisdom with me: Our yellow leaves are from a lack of water, yes, but you didn’t give up on us.   While we’re changed because of that period of drought, we are currently thriving and bringing forth beautiful new growth because you started watering us again.   That growth is slow and doesn’t come after a week or two of the change in watering, but it does come.   Giving us time is just as important as giving us water in those moments you feel it’s...
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You think you'll get three wishes.

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I feel strangely new at blogging, but I do enjoy writing so I thought I'd start again with a little poem I read today by Shel Silverstein.  The Genie in the Flask I opened up that magic flask, And zoof , up popped a genie. I thought he'd be my slave, but no-- This genie is a meanie. Instead of filling every wish And doing all my bidding, He says that I must be his  slave, And oh, he isn't kidding. I sweat and cough with no days off From Tuesdays until Mondays.  I cook his beans and scrub his back And wash his yucky undies And sweep and  paint--this surely ain't The magic I was hopin'.  I guess in life it all depends  Which  magic flask you open. I read that little poem and it really got to me. Are we going to choose the flask we think will give us what we want out of life only to find out our self focused thinking has led us to more servitude than if we had focused elsewhere?   Every choice has a consequence whether or not we want to face that con...
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Many steps forward, no steps back.

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Tonight I kind of went crazy.  After a day on campus doing engineering homework and then Spanish homework I was tired.  I came home and tried to do more homework, but alas, I failed utterly as illustrated by my body strewn across my bed having no movement; I was tired.  My roommate came in and told me about FHE, but I told her I wasn't going to come tonight.  No energy. I got up a few minutes later because I shouldn't be sleeping at 7 pm.  So I got up and realized how hungry I was!  That may have been part of the reason I had no energy....  So I ate a bagel with some delicious cream cheese.  Mmmmm. :) Side note* I'm trying dairy again because maybe that is the problem I'm having with my back, maybe it's not.  So I'm going back and forth for now.  2 weeks without dairy, 2 weeks with dairy, 2 weeks without....and then we'll see how much of a difference it makes.  I'm eating my bagel and two of my other roommates are going off to...
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A remedy for being tossed among the billows of life

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Today!  Ah ha! My car : I should take care of it, right?  And since I'm handing it off to Lydia soon it should probably be in tip top shape when she gets it.  I took it to the auto shop today just to have them check it out and see if there was anything they needed to fix.  Initially the mechanic said a diagnostic test would be $20, and then anything they find will be added to that, but they'd let me know before they did anything. "Okay! Sounds good!" and I left my baby with them. Then they call me back a bit later and tell me my clutch is having issues, but it's still drivable.  Replacing it would cost about $600.  I already knew that though, so I just said not to do anything with that.  And then they mentioned something else, but the mechanic said, "If I were you, I'd just drive the heck out of it until it breaks and then replace the broken parts or get a new car." Well, thanks for your honesty Mr. Mechanic.  How much will the services yo...
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Reminiscence of Apt #673

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I had dinner with these lovely people tonight.  I lived with them the summer after my freshman year, so it's been almost 2 years since we first met each other.  Times goes quite quickly, if I do say so myself.  Kelsey is now getting married in a month and a half.  Janelle is going to teach 10th graders at Orem High starting this fall.  Kirsten is in limbo, waiting for things to come together so she knows what she'll be doing.  She'll most likely be teaching in the fall too!  And I'm in limbo too!  Waiting for Laurel to come home, waiting for classes to end, waiting for my farewell, waiting for Spain to come... And these wonderful ladies filled another evening, and it was a wonderful way to spend the evening.  Kelsey and Janelle Kirsten and me
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