Dreams Coming True

When I was a teenager, I belonged to this lovely organization in my church called Young Women.

I loved Young Women. I thrived on it. It was my favorite part of the week. Whenever my leaders asked me to go home and think about something or read something, I actually did. And right away. Whenever they gave me a little bookmark or whatnot with something inspiring on it, I hung it on my wall. By the time I graduated from high school, I had an entire wall, at least eleven feet long, covered from ceiling to baseboards with these little handouts. I was a Young Women NERD.

And in that moment, I desired to lead a group of Young Women myself some day in the future.

Today is that day.

And while I feel that I am still a teenager most of the time, I am thrilled about this opportunity. I don't think I'm the best leader out there, but I know I'm going to try as hard as I can, and that I'm going to love it, a lot.

I feel very lucky to have had the amazing influences of older women in my life through this program. Each of the leaders I had made a huge impact on me, and I still make decisions based on the examples they gave me, and I still want to make them proud. It was like having six more moms in addition to my own.

Not everyone gets so lucky in their delicate teenage years, even those who have Young Women in their life. I am sincerely grateful for the blessing that experience was for me.

I think the best thing that Young Women taught me was this: I am worth something, and that worth was given to me by God and no one and nothing can ever take it away. If I could teach that to one girl, I would feel like I succeeded for the rest of my life.

Women change the world. I'm grateful that I belong to a religion which believes that so fiercely they teach it to girls of every age.

#ldsconf

Okay...I haven't posted on this blog in four months. :/

But I wanted to write a quick note before the feelings fade from General Conference.

There is nothing happier than the feeling that you have a huge family, spread out all over the world, some of whom you've never even met, who give love and support, who believe the same things you do, and who believe in you and you believe in them. Welcome to the Mormon family.

I love having leaders from all kinds of backgrounds from all over the world. I love that we come together twice every year to be taught by them. I love that no matter where I am, I can receive these messages.

I love that I can be reminded as often as I need that God loves me and has a plan just for me.

I love that I can walk with my head high and my heart with wings every single day of my life because I know that no matter what happens to me, no matter what anyone else thinks or does, no matter what crisis the world goes through, I can turn to God and figure out the best thing to do, or receive protection.

God lives. He loves each of us. He wants to be close to us.

And I love being close to him.

Roles

Today, I took on a new role in my life. That is the role of Aunt.

My little sister had a daughter today. 8 lbs, 5 oz. 21 in.

It got me thinking about the various titles and roles we each take in our lives. I didn't ask for the role of being an aunt. It was thrust upon me. Not that I'm not happy about it, because I am beyond this world happy about it. :) But there are roles that we choose: wife, mother, friend. And roles that happen to us: daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother. There is a different sweetness in each kind of role. It's wonderful to think you've made the choice to be something for someone. It's a different kind of wonderful to think that someone chose you to be something for them, in a way.

I hope my niece is happy with her choice of an aunt (well, all six of her aunts, just on my side). I want to do my best to make her happy about it. Hopefully she likes the very Scottish Christmas present I got her. :)

Here is a picture of my mom holding the baby:





I'm excited to explore this new role and all its possibilities. I'm grateful for this opportunity. And I'm grateful to be a part of a family, especially one that is changing and growing. I'm excited for the prospect of my own changing and growing family someday. :)