New Year, New Start

Today, I was reading a book by Emily Freeman, called Keepers of  What Matters Most: A Young Woman's Guide to Living the Values. It has sections for all of the Young Women values, and when I got to Integrity, I found this quote that the author shared:
"Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world."
- Richard Bach

I thought this was very meaningful, and something to consider at the end of this year. Although we have all made mistakes that we wouldn't want published anywhere, we can start again. Our thoughts are generally focused on starting to do better at this time of the year, because this year dies, giving us an opportunity to start again with the new year.






I hope everybody had a very merry Christmas, and that they were able to re-focus on what is really important in their lives.

Also, for your pleasure, here is a very funny video by Studio C about New Year's resolutions. (Don't follow Matt's example. Not a good idea. :P)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV5JFEmLbjM

Presents for Jesus

     In this Christmas season, everybody has been thinking a lot about gifts for friends, gifts for co-workers, gifts for random acquaintances, and it made me think about gifts that we can give to Jesus. Since we don't see him all the time, it would be hard to give him something physical, such as a teddy bear, or perhaps a soft blanket. Here is what I've found, which he has said in the scriptures that he wants.

1. A broken heart and a contrite spirit.
He wants us to come to him and be healed, so we can be perfected in him.

2. He wants us to take care of his siblings here on Earth, who need help.
He wants us to take care of every brother that we see who has the need of help that we can give.

  While I was writing this post, my little brother said, "What he wants us to give is ourselves." I thought this was very wise. He wants us to give all of ourselves for his holy cause of love and peace.
Marjorie Hinckley said it well:
“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder."

George Washington and Superman

My little brother once said that George Washington is like the Superman of real life. I think that's pretty accurate. Let's look at the similarities.

1. They are both incredibly virtuous.
The only fault I can find with George Washington is that he tended get angry easily, which he learned to control in his more mature years. There isn't a fault with Superman.
2. They both stand for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way".
George Washington helped to establish America to begin with, and Superman saw how amazing it was and decided to protect it.
3. They seem to be bulletproof.
George Washington is famous for not having been shot one time during the whole Revolution, and everybody knows that Superman is bulletproof.

The differences?
One's real and the other is not. (And George Washington had a cooler wife.)

"If" for Girls

One of my favorite poems is "If", by Rudyard Kipling. It is a really great poem, which I would recommend that you all read. One day, I found a poem called "'If' for Girls", by J.P. McEvoy. I love this one even more. It's what i want to be.

"If you can hear the whispering about you,
And never yield to deal in whispers, too;
If you can bravely smile when loved ones doubt you,
And never doubt, in turn, what loved ones do;
If you can keep a sweet and gentle spirit
In spite of fame or fortune, rank or place,
And though you win your goal or only near it,
Can win with poise and lose with equal grace;

If you can meet with Unbelief, believing,
And hallow in your heart a simple Creed,
If you can meet Deception, undeceiving,
And learn to look to God for all you need;
If you can be what girls should be to mothers:
Chums in joy and comrades in distress,
And be unto others as you'd have the others
Be unto you - No more, and yet no less;

If you can keep within your heart the power
To say that firm, unconquerable "No";
If you can brave a present shadowed hour,
Rather than yield to build a future woe;
If you can love, yet not let loving master,
But keep yourself within your own self's clasp,
And not let dreaming lead you to disaster,
Nor pity's fascination loose your grasp;

If you can lock your heart on confidences,
Nor ever needlessly in turn confide;
If you can put behind you all pretenses
Of mock humility or foolish pride:
If you can keep the simple, homely virtue
Of walking right with God - then have no fear
That anything in all the world can hurt you-
And - which is more - you'll be a Woman, dear."