School of Hard Knocks Attendee

For those of you who are around us a fair bit, you know that 2008 has been pretty challenging. Ok, I am just gonna say it – it has been the year from H-E-L-L. If you want details, call me. One day I will blog more about it, when I am ready and when those involved are ready. I am happy to tell it Adios.

How funny (not the ha ha funny) it is that when I started this blog earlier this year I was going to call it something cliché, like “48 and GREAT in 2008”. I am soooo very glad I didn’t. It would seriously be embarrassing now. Besides, I am not 48 anymore. Blogging has been very therapeutic for my husband and for me this year – a needed escape, a creative outlet, and it has assisted in some healing. I love technology!

As the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us, our weaknesses and challenges can become our strengths and our blessings. I have learned more than ever before that this is in fact TRUE. My dear mother would have called it making it through “the school of hard knocks”. I haven’t graduated from it yet, but really, do we ever?

So, here is what I learned in 2008:

~You NEVER know what will hit you that will prove what you are really made of

~Heavenly Father IS in charge

~The Holy Ghost is REAL and ready to reveal answers when you are ready to listen

~Prayers ARE answered – often not in the way we would hope

~Prayers are OFTEN answered through other people – this I know

~My husband is TRULY my companion, my love, and my helpmeet

~We can use the AMAZING examples of pioneer ancestors, or any worthy ancestor, as shining lights through life’s challenges

~When people say, “OH, your family will be SO blessed as you support your missionary”, don’t try to guess in what ways that will be – AND, that is only because Heavenly Father IS in charge (see #2 here) and the blessings will more than likely absolutely be ones you were NOT expecting to ever need

~Having “sufficient for your needs” is really ALL that matters, and it can be both temporal as well as spiritual

~A sense of humor is KEY to surviving life

~Friends ARE presents from God, especially ones who 1) write stake conference talks just for you, 2) pray for you even after the crisis, 3) distract you by teaching you new skills or through lunch dates and shoe shopping 4) just love you even though they don’t know what to say (which is really okay)

~It is BETTER to hear the “straight story” from those who hold information about a situation that may be unpleasant to hear, yet, it should be heard

~Family, though far away, always LOVES, cares and comes through

On less serious notes:

~politics is both exhausting and polarizing

~googlereader is a wonderful thing

~my house will never be completely clean and I cannot blame kids for that

What’s the point of it all if we don’t learn and then share, right?