Why Have a Bad Day When You Can Have a Good Day?

“Just keep swimming” “May the force be with you” “There’s no place like home”  “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”  “Hakuna Matata”  Aren’t movie mottos the best?  Anyone can on the spot think of one, remember some classic line that the characters repeat and live by.  Just like Timon and Pumba, I think it is important to find a motto for our lives.  To have that saying, that simple thing that can lift you up, encourage you to keep moving forward.   They can be so simple, and at the same time mean so much.  Literally, sometimes when you think about it, it can totally change your day.  My personal motto is “Why have a bad day when you can have a good day?”  Sometimes, thats all I need to think about to turn a down day around.  (Hey, that rhymed!) It is all focused on choice.  We are the only ones who can decide the mood we will be in.  No one else can dictate how we feel without our consent.  If you want to have a good day, make it a good day.  Don’t let the little things affect you and keep a positive perspective on whats happening.  I would much rather have a good day, than be down and focused on how life sucks. (which it does not by the way.)  I would much rather be that smile people can look to than just someone adding to the complain mill.  Honestly, I challenge you guys, if you’re having a bad day to ask yourselves “Why have a bad day when I can have a good day?” and turn your attitude around.  I know it has helped me be a lot happier in life, and helped me keep my happy attitude.  

     Even men and women in the scriptures had personal and group mottos.  One of my favorite examples is in the Book of Mormon, with Captain Moroni.  In Alma 46:11-13, Moroni creates the Title of Liberty.  He writes on it “In memory of our God, our religion, and our freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children”.  Those were the things that they were going to fight for, the things they were willing to die to protect.  Their motto was to live to protect the things that meant the most to them: their freedom, their families, and their religion.  The strength of these men is so inspirational to me.  They are the definition of bravery, of valiant men.  I love that not only are they willing to die for their families and their freedom, but their religion as well.  I love how much that meant to them, God and standing up for their beliefs.  They know whats important in life and that it was absolutely worth defending.  Captain Moroni is probably one of my biggest heros.  I would always hear in primary about how much the little boys loved Captain Moroni, that he was so cool and a leader of warriors.  But I love him for more than that.  He is a strong man, one who is strong in his faith of our Heavenly Father and is willing to stand against huge armies to protect his people and their right to believe what they know to be true.  He trusts in the Lord and knows that He will never abandon them or allow anything wrong to happen to them as long as they believe in Him.  He prays for his people, that they might be protected and have their liberty persevered.  He is a mighty man before God and such an inspiration.  He knows and lives by his motto.  He lives in a way to display it and let all those around know what he stands for and what that means.  

     If you do not have a motto, go out and search for one.  Or if you cannot come up with one, just use someone else’s that you really like!  Mottos are wonderful and fun things to have, and in the case of Moroni, powerful things that can lead a people.  Now all of my friends, have a wonderful day, and remember “Why have a bad day, when you can have a good day?”

Divine Beauty

     So this term I am in a sociology class, and I love it.  It is so very interesting, with all of the theories and the different social problems that we are studying.  Thus far we have talked about poverty and gender roles and I am learning so much!  Now I am not some super feminist, like I think women should be treated right but I am not going to pretend that women and men are the same.  We are very different and because of that, we can be better at some things than other things and I think that it ok.  Variety makes life worth while.  Yet I am also not going to pretend that society has not influenced how girls view themselves and the effect it has on both genders.  In class we watched this short by the Dove Real Beauty Campaign that compared how women view themselves.  They had a sketch artist come in and sketch how the women viewed themselves and how a total stranger viewed them.  In all cases the total stranger gave a more accurate, more beautiful description of the woman, than they themselves gave.  When describing themselves, the women were so harsh on their different features, seeing themselves as old and ugly, not a thing of worth.  When watching it, all I could think of was the Young Women theme, how that Individual Worth was one of the pieces of the theme.  In young women's we would have activities geared towards increasing our feelings of worth and our esteem.  Low self-esteem is such an epidemic in our world today.  It seems like all the girls hate how they look, or wish (and in some cases succeed) they could change how they look.  It really makes me so sad.  It makes me so sad how that girls will look in the mirror and hate how they look, truly despise their appearance.  Watching that video really made me realize how real of a problem it is in our world today.  We should love how we look, not tear ourselves apart every time we look in a mirror.  When we read about the Creation, it says that we are created in the image of God.  We are made to resemble divine creatures, and we should feel that way, divine.  In the beauty industry of today, it does not help that plastered all over is the worlds image of “beauty”.  It is an almost impossible thing to accomplish, and many a girl will put so much time and energy into trying to become that, and in some cases, hurting themselves in unhealthy ways to meet that mold of beauty.  I cannot express how truly sad this fact makes me.  When I hear about friends who criticize themselves it hurts so much because I do not see the imperfections they see, I just see how great and beautiful they are.  We all need to strive to see ourselves for what we really are, for how our Heavenly Father sees us, as His beautiful children.  We need to have our beauty shine forth from the the inside and be reflected in our works.  We need to be confident and know of our divine worth, know that we are reflections of divine creatures.  Dove Real Beauty Sketch