Rachael's 36 years of life lessons

I usually post my Tomoson review's but today I am actually going to post a real blog post about me. I am 36 years old and to one that might seem old but to another it may seem young. Age is relative. 1. Life is relative. - If you don't like the position you are in change your perspective. I learned this lesson over and over again. I usually realize it when I am running in the mornings and I see the beautiful sunrise. It reminds me to appreciate God's creations. Sometimes I get into a complaining mode of I can't stand the place I am living at. Then I have to realize it's a wonderful place. I lived in Brazil for 18 months and I saw some homes made out of dirt and mud and mice crawling through the walls. So when I am not appreciating my home I think of this experience to remind me to never complain. When you are not liking the situation you are in look and remind yourself there are situations much worse you could be going through and you actually have it pretty good. 2. Perfect does not exist. - In the scriptures it says something like, "be ye therefore perfect as I am." Often times we feel like we have to live up to perfection. In the Hebrew bible the translated word for perfection is Telos which means progression. When you see the word perfect, take it out and replace it with progression. Perfection means to be complete. But God's work is never complete it is always progressing. Analogy- When we moved into our new home in North Logan is was the first time we built a brand new home. I though it was perfect when it was completed. There was no scratches and it was new, new paint, new stove, new everything. With-in the first week of moving in we put huge scratch marks on the door entry way and gauged some walls with moving in beds and refrigerator. I was like, NOOOOOOO! But then I realized those can all be fixed. That is how our lives are. We feel like we come into this world perfect and then life mistakes happens and we sin and we feel like we fall short of perfection. In all reality by these life's mistakes we are becoming perfect. It is through our bumps and roller coaster rides we learn lesson of disappointments, hate, envy, jealousy, and then we learn kindness, repentance. forgiveness, humility and charity. We wise up. Through are mistakes we become whole. God knew this and that is why he gives us Grace. 3. Never feel at fault. Often times we love to hear people say their faults and then we feel like we can relate with them and they are human. But in reality God does not look at our faults, he looks at our strengths. And we should do the same. Instead of conversations of, oh I did this and this and it was horrible and I can't do this. We should focus on peoples strengths and encourage their talents. Our conversations should be, wow you have an awesome talent of teaching or art or gardening. You are a good parent and are great with kids or you are really good at business. We should always be encouraging others and their talents. 4. Don't judge. We all judge and I know that is hard to just say, don't judge, but we really don't know everyone's circumstance. Everyone goes through issues in their lives. No one escapes them. I would love to meet the person who has never been through some trial. We all have bad days and good days. Don't get easily offended. There's been so many times I could have gotten offended by things but I learn not to. It was a hard lesson. Once again I was on my mission and my companion received all these nice clothes from a member in the church and since I was american she did not give me one. I remember getting so upset because they were cute clothes and mine had all gotten worn out. But I remember my feelings of envy and anger and I was shook-in up about it. I was a missionary I could not feel this way. I remember praying and asking for these feelings to go away and they did. I remembered to love my missionary companion and not to have these angry feelings towards her. I remember that I did not ever want to feel that way again. It really frighten me. Since then I really don't let things bother me like that. I have invited plenty of people on activities and never show up. Before this experience I would take total offense to it but after that I never did. I realized we are all busy and just enjoy life whether you have people to enjoy with you or not. 5. That leads me into Live in the moment. I read this great book called, A Pocket full of money. The whole message of the book is to live in the present. If we all learned to live in the present or the moment of now we could solve so many life's problems. We would not be anxious about the future or frighten by our past. Live and be with the ones you love now. Show them you are present in their lives. Give them the attention they need. We are so distracted by technology. Remember to leave room for nature. Breath and exist. Teach these to the one you love. 6. Communication. This is so important. A lot of problems come from not communicating. I had so many crying episodes in my life because I did not communicate directly. Never communicate with someone indirectly always go straight to the source. Don't be intimidate. Pray for strength and direct your feelings to the source. 7. Love. Learn to accept difference. We are all on this journey and none o

f us are the same. Learn to love and pray to learn that. The source only comes from God.