Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Your Four Minutes

I know, I know. It's been forever and I kick myself for not posting for so long. (Maybe it would be different if I wrote in a journal consecutively). I could go into all the nitty-gritty details about how Joseph received a new job and we live in Texas now, but I won't. I never have a desire to back track. Instead, I'm excited to share something that touched my heart and I definitely needed to hear!

I was able to listen to disciples of God last weekend while listening to General Conference. I wish I could say I listened to all of it, but unfortunately a severe cold zonked me out for a lot of Sunday's sessions. I will do my best to go back and listen. All the talks given were exactly what I needed to hear. I wish I could say that moving to Texas was an easy transition but it has been far from that. The past couple of weeks have been exceptionally rough. It's easy to make up excuses of why you're unhappy ie, I never see my husband, our jobs weren't exactly what we expected, it takes 3 hours to get anywhere, I miss my friends, I miss my family, two broken cars, yadi-yadi-yadi-ya. Do you get the picture? Yes, this is definitely a "woe is me" scenario. All things that have definitely happened but nothing that I should be dwelling on. I feel like conference was speaking this lesson to me. Every talk seemed to point at my perspective on life and how I needed to change it because I have far too much to be grateful for!

One talk particularly touched me by Gary E. Stevenson and was titled "Your Four Minutes." https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/your-four-minutes?lang=eng&media=video#watch=video He applauds the Olympic athletes who work tirelessly to achieve their dreams. One in particular is skeleton rider Noelle Pikus-Pace. This rider has 4 intense 60-second runs down her slope in order to decipher if she wins a medal or not. This was Noelle's 3rd attempt at the Olympics as injury and time qualifications battled her place for a medals in the past. He states, "can you imagine the anxiety she felt as she waited to begin her first run in the 2014 Olympics? Years of preparation would culminate in only a sliver of time. Four minutes total. She spent years preparing for those four minutes and would spend a lifetime afterward reflecting on them." What a powerful statement. Years of preparation for four minutes to compete. It was only after years of work that her effort paid off and she now has a lifetime to look back and reflect on it. 

I look back at time I wasted because I was sad, or looked at the perception that life just wasn't fair. How wrong was I? For everything that hasn't gone perfectly, I have at least three things to be grateful for. The biggest being a loving husband who puts his arms around me for comfort. How many people don't have that who long for it?  I realize that life can't go perfectly. That's not Heavenly Father's plan (although often appealing). We have to feel sadness in order to feel joy. How can we appreciate four minutes of our life if we haven't looked back and seen the work behind it? I know that I'm not perfect but do know that God prepared a way because of His Son Jesus Christ. We can be perfected in Him and we can stand on the medal stand after this life! 

If anyone is needing a boost in their life or a little bit of comfort, I highly suggest listening to a talk or two! It helped change my perception and gave me that little extra boost to try to do a little better!

Here is the link to all of the talks! Happy Tuesday!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPSU040614654&lang=eng

And here's a few things I have to be grateful for:



For This cutie (and beautiful rivers too)


Apparently this is a comfort food because I can't get enough lately


And Pandas! (Doesn't he just make you happier looking at him)?




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