At church on Sunday we had a lesson in Relief Society on a woman's self worth and how we view ourselves. This lesson was taught by a good friend of mine, and I thought she taught it so beautifully and with so much insight. There was great discussion and feedback from the other women in the room and it ended up being an incredible lesson with a great deal of love and spiritual guidance filling the room.

There were some quotes given that I thought were so incredible and a few more that a friend shared with me. She had gathered a few over the years that had meant a lot to her and I found that all the ones that impacted her were ones that impacted me as well. I thought that some of the people that read my blog might enjoy them as well:

"We tend to compare our behind the scenes with others highlight reels."

"The grass is always greener where you water it."

"When you are going through a hard time and it feels like the Lord is not listening/helping, remember that the teacher is always quiet during the test."

"Satan can destroy us with fear and doubt."

"Nothing is a waste of time if it adds to the person you are."

"Your happiness will be in direct proportion to your charity."

"Great faith has a short shelf life."

I hope that these quotes have the same positive, thought inspiring impact on each of your lives as it has on mine.

One of the things we talked about in our class was about people's blogs. People are always looking at other peoples blogs and thinking "wow, they look so perfect and everything seems so happy 100% of the time. How do they do it. My life isn't like that....." and that's SO true and it's one of the main reasons that I started this blog. I do have a family blog where I put all the fun activities the family does together and fun pictures of the kids and it makes it look like life is perfect and blissful. Of course that is not an accurate full picture of my life. I do enjoy having that blog to show to people, but it's not the whole story and I don't want other people to feel like they can't measure up. I had to come to accept myself as not being perfect. I had to learn that sharing our trials and imperfections with each other is a way that we can come closer to thee and to each other. None of us are perfect and the people that try overly hard to prove that they are.... they are usually the ones struggling the most. So here I am, putting it all out there not only to help myself, but also to help other people. We all have our own trials and our own struggles and we are all equally important to our Heavenly Father. There is no trial more important than another. That's why the quote "We tend to compare our behind the scenes with others highlight reels" hit so close to home for me. People don't usually share their inner most suffering with other people. We are too embarrassed or feel like we are the only one or feel like we are weak to feel that way. So people don't usually see our behind the scenes. Yet we look at other people's blogs and we hear the stuff they want us to hear and we see perfection. What we don't realize is that those people are only showing us their "highlight reel". I'll be honest.... even though I have this blog that shares some of the behind the scenes... I probably still haven't been brave enough to share some of the back room behind the scenes. There are still some locked doors. haha.

Anyways.... I hope that some of these quotes and some of my personal insight can help to remind others that we are not alone in our feelings. To remind people that it's ok to have bad days, and that we are not alone in our worst moments. Having a break down does not make us horrible people... it makes us 100% human and normal. And if there is anyone out there that claims they don't have those days and those moments.... just laugh on the inside because you know they are totally lying. haha! :-) Have a great day!!! Smile! And remember..... YOU'RE AWESOME!!! :-)