Al Fox

{ In The Head Of Al Fox }

{picture stolen from her amazing blog  HERE}

I know it is past midnight but I have words in my head that just need to get out.

Tonight I had the chance to go to a fireside given by the lovely Al Fox. It was fantastic and just the thing I needed to give me that extra push to help me survive these last painful weeks I have to spend at the great and spacious building school.

High school is rough. I know it may seem that in Utah I should be surrounded with God's angels and Helaman's army as I walk from health to math every day, but the reality is far from that. The reality is that high school is a nasty place. I often feel as if nobody wants to talk to me and I am often ignored during class. It is in the classes with an abundance of bad words and suggestive sayings that I usually remain to myself and keep my head down. Because in a class with 18 loud, obnoxious, less virtuous boys, what is the little 4'9" girl going to do? Now, This isn't every class, and this isn't every person. There is plenty of Helaman's army roaming the halls at the high school, but there are many that want to make it known that they are on a different side.

Why do I tell you this? Because of the story of Al Fox. The way she learned the church to be true, the way she left her home, her family, and everything she knew to pursue a reacquiring thought sent from God. The way she pressed forward during the hard times and kept going. The way she knows the church is true and wants the world to know it. This is inspiring to me.

Now I may not have had to leave my family, or move across the country, but I did find the church to be true as I prayed that one Thursday night. I came to know that true happiness that Al spoke so strongly about, saying "I love that". And I love it too. But sometimes I forget about that when the kid next to me is swearing, or when my health teacher makes me write poems about sex. {No joke, this happened today. Last week she made us draw "pictures"...} I forget what I am really fighting for, and why I am doing what I am doing. I forget that I should be standing as a witness of God at ALL TIMES in ALL THINGS and in ALL PLACES... even in my health class.

The story Al told was about overcoming something hard. This is my hard. Your hard may be something completely different, but we all have our very own hard. Our hard can and will be overcome if we rely on the Lord for guidance. If we rely on him every single detail will workout in his timing. He will not let us fail if we do everything we can possibly do.

Al Fox has this enthusiasm about the gospel that shows that she truly knows it to be true and loves it with every ounce of her being. She is generally excited about telling others about the gospel. I relate to this. When I came home from EFY the first time I think my family was annoyed with how weird and spiritual I had become. When I cleaned out my iPod of the garbage taking up gigabits and became obsessed with EFY music my family knew something was different. I felt weird showing of my new self to the rest of the world because the world didn't like what I knew to be true. Even at church I felt that many of those around me didn't have the same enthusiasm and would think it was weird that I refused to listen to anything but music that was worthy to be played at an EFY dance. I felt weird at times, and am sure I will always continue to feel weird about being different, but the example of people like Al who are so enthused do live their lives in a higher manner make me realize that it's not that weird at all, it's awesome.

Now I am in no means perfect, and I have lots of areas to work on, but through God, things are a heck of a lot easier.

I am super glad I went to the fireside tonight and that I got to hear the story of such a fantastic person. If any of you ever get the chance to hear her speak, listen. You won't regret it. Thank you so much Al for being such a great inspiration. You rock!




Feel my Sunlight




p.s. Um I am going to EFY all by my self this summer. I am freaking out, but am so excited I can not even stand it.

p.s.s. Do you like the new "look"? I adore it. I just wish I could get rid of that ugly blue strip at the top without ruining my layout.

p.s.s.s. Oh, and did I mention that Al was a graphic designer, and is now a motivational speaker? My two professions that I dream of doing. I feel like we should be BFFs. Just saying.