Inspiring Examples

I'm grateful today for inspiring examples. I just finished listening at a stake Relief Society fireside to Meg Johnson speak. Meg, now age 27, fell off a cliff at age 22 and is a paraplegic. She has such a strong testimony! She highlighted four things to do each day: Keep the commandments, remember "I Believe," Share the gospel, and Serve. I decided tonight that I have a lot to work on and I'm never complaining again. I take so much for granted! Yeah I shiver when it's almost zero degrees outside and can't feel my face walking to class---but who cares? I have 2 legs. I can move my fingers. I can run miles. There are people to serve and lives to help and to change. And as my dad says: "The things we gripe and complain about won't go with us into eternity but they are what could keep us from eternity." It's just not worth it.

Meg may not have the use of her body, but her spirit sure is strong. Here was a beautiful, spunky, young woman without the ability to move most of her body and yet, she was smiling and her testimony and spirit radiated out---almost exploded out---of her. She knows who she is and she knows why she is her. She talked a lot about how we rejoiced to come to earth. We we're excited for both the good and the bad things that would happen to us.

She spoke of a vision she had in the hospital while recovering and said that she saw herself all in white next to a man all in white sitting at a table. He was explaining to her what it would be like to be paralyzed and in a wheelchair and she responded with "I am so excited!"

We knew before coming to earth what it would be like and we rejoiced. Yes, I'll admit that there are days when I wonder what in the world I was rejoicing about in the pre-earth life. Like the time when I had strep-throat and felt sicker than sick, or like the times when I feel like there are too many decisions to make, or when I would give anything to be with my family in Texas, or when the dating game just gets to be too much and too hard. But then I remember that I rejoiced because I knew what I would be fighting for, I knew what I would endure it all for---eternal life. And that is something that is worth anything.

Here is one of my all-time favorite quotes. Brigham Young stated:

"We talk about trials and troubles here in this life; but suppose that you could see yourself thousands and millions of years after you have proved faithful to your religion during the few short years in this time, and have obtained eternal salvation and a crown of glory in the presence of God? Then look back upon your lives here, and see the losses, crosses, and disappointments, the sorrows....you would be constrained to exclaim: 'but what of all that?' Those things were but for a moment, and we are now here. We have been faithful during a few moments in our mortality and now we enjoy eternal life and glory, with power to progress in all the boundless knowledge and through the countless stages of progression, enjoying the smiles and approbation of our Father and God, and Jesus Christ our elder brother."

You can hear her tell her story on the LDS radio website, it's so inspiring and will be well worth your time: http://radio.lds.org/eng/programs/enduring-it-well-episode-9
This is her website: http://www.megjohnsonspeaks.com/index.html
Here is some of what she said tonight:

"You will find that you are your strongest
when you reach down to pick up someone else.

Sometimes the storms in our lives rain so heavily on our hearts that we are unable to pick ourselves up. We all rely on each other to be lifted out of our rain puddles.…and if we’re watching through the darkness, it can be us who comes to the rescue of our friend who sits alone in the storm.

You won't feel your own storms if you're picking others up from their own puddles.
Miracles don't happen to increase faith and belief; they happen because of it."

"Every path hath a puddle." ~George Herbert

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."-Unknown