head Tilt Heavenward

Happy December everyone!

First I need everyone to admire this meme I found.

It is even funnier when you're a family history consultant...

This morning I attended a training for seminary class presidents because I am on seminary council. These trainings always make me look at the world a little differently. There is defiantly a modern army of Helaman walking the halls of Layton High.

For today's meeting we focused on two amazing conference talks that centered around the theme of loving people. You can watch or read those two talks HERE and HERE.

I learned two things this morning. Number one: If you only look down you will only see the concrete, It takes a head tilt heavenward to notice the pictures God has painted in the sky, and Number Two: you have superpowers.

Let me explain.

Because these meetings take place before school, I was lucky enough to be pulling into the parking log just as the sun came up. As I got out of my car and began to walk towards the building I was looking down at the ground and what I almost failed to notice was the magnificent sunrise that covered a good portion of the sky. I stood there for a second thinking.

Isn't this how life works? Most of the time we stare down at the concrete. We spend most of our time looking for unappealing things and searching for the negative pieces of our lives. The problem with looking for concrete is that we will find concrete. If we are living our lives searching for negative things we will inevitably find negative things.

I also realized that the next largest percentage of people are looking sideways. Many people are searching for Celestial happiness in a Telestial things, or in other words, there are those who look for happiness in worldly things.

I see this a lot in the world today. We look around us at the things in the world to find happiness. In a world were everything can be bought, pinned, or tweeted at the tips of our finger tips it seems that the tips of our fingers are the most natural place to look for happiness. We may see an occasional tree, or a interestingly built building, but these are not what we would call "beautiful." The only problem is that the happiness that comes from a funny pinterest post, or the thrill that comes from buying the perfect thing on Amazon is never enough to satisfy our soul's constant hunger for Celestial happiness.

And the most prevalent thing I learned this morning was that God has prepared us Celestial happiness, but that we must look Heavenward to find it. He has painted the most beautiful things above us because He want's us to show the faith it takes to look up. This kind of happiness can only be felt by those who take the time to open their scriptures, who attend church and strive to learn, who strive to uphold their callings, who serve others and who serve God. God always paints us beautiful pictures in the sky, and in the words of Thomas S. Monson,

"It's better to look up."

The second thing I learned was that I have superpowers.

One of our awesome seminary teachers shared a story about his son who has to receive weekly treatments at the hospital. He had been trying to teach his son to be more friendly and to get out of his shell a little bit. So he made him a deal that if he would say hi to one person that they saw at the hospital he would give him ice cream. The only catch was that it couldn't be a shy timid "hi", and that it had to be loud enough to hear.

So as they were walking into the hospital they saw an elderly couple leaving. Our seminary teacher pointed out to his son that those were perfect people to say hi to. So the little boy gave an over-enthusiastic, scream-like "HI" to the couple walking out. Startled by the powerful greeting from the little boy they both broke out in smiles.

My seminary teacher leaned down to him and said "DID YOU SEE THAT! They didn't have smiles before and now they do because you said hi to them! You have superpowers buddy!" and the little boy said "Like Superman?!" and the teacher said "yes! Like superman!" And the little boy proceeded to try it out on a few other people all giving him the same glorious response.

This simple story about a father and his little boy taught me that everyone has the super power to make someones day better. It doesn't take anything special. It doesn't take a lot of time or energy. All it takes is an enthusiastic "HI." A little love and interest can go a long way. People want to feel noticed and they want to feel important and your simple acknowledgement of their existence can go a long way in the lives of others.

So say hi to someone you wouldn't normally, send someone a text just to tell them you were thinking about them, send an email to a teacher thanking them for what they have done for you, volunteer to help serve someone in need. It doesn't take a lot from you, but it will mean a lot to them.


I just want to end with saying thanks to the people around me who lift me up everyday. I truly appreciate it.




feel my sunlight




p.s. can we please talk about this weeks episode of Heartland? I watched it last night and let's just say my reaction to the ending left me looking like this...

Where are my Heartland fans? I need to talk to you!