Distance

Tonight I said goodbye to one of the greatest people I've every known, He and his family are moving so far away.I touched on the subject not long ago but felt inspired to write something again. My friend said to me as we broke from a hug " Keep building up the Elders Quorum and don't stop blogging" , Matt you're the best!!

A million times in my life it seems as though things are lost , friends, loved ones , tools , and toys, they aren't all the same but it feels the same when things you love come up missing, I can't express the feelings of joy that Ive had since being a member of this church . I lost a lot entering those waters of baptism ! Not the same kind of loss as my friend and his family moving away because this loss was terrific. I lost a part of my life becoming a member of the Christ's Church and for the better. Many times throughout my new found life in Christ I have wanted or have been able to relate to problems that members have been struggling with, because I've been there .There is not to much before baptism that I had not done , Ive been on both sides of the tracks and have seen and experienced things I pray someday I will forget. That kind of loss I embrace . You see I always knew deep down that God loved me , and that He had something special for me , As we have , but I wasn't willing to accept that . As I grew older in my age I began to forget that God loved me ( I lost my desire to do good ) I began to feel as though He couldn't love me and surly I wasn't worthy of anything He had to offer. I found myself listing to the Adversary and He spoke smoother than that of those trying to help me. I found that the less I thought of God the less guilty I felt about the decisions I was making , you want to talk about losing...... I just about lost everything, including my life!

Our Father in Heaven has this great plan laid out for each of us , things he would like us to aspire to complete , choices He would like us to make (correctly) ,But most importantly He wants us to lose something.........US ! It is important that we lose the mortal capacity of what we should do or be like. He wants us to " Put off the things of this world and take upon us the righteousness of Christ" , to lose can be looked at many different ways. I lost everything that I thought was good and found everything that was really important in life. We as a couple , faced some of the hardest times in our married life just in the past year and a half , But it was by His grace that we managed to survive it . We didn't do it on our own , there is no way we could have , logically and financially there is no way without His mercy could we have survived the challenges we faced .

Some loss is good , Some loss is bad, some is just plain Hard. He has given me and all of us the strength we need to endure to the end. The loss isn't anything if you look at the glass as half full. I found that in every opposition I have had to bear , God has presented a reason or solution , it just needs to be recognized. Old habits , Bad habits ........good loss ! Losing faith.........very bad loss.

Do you have the Faith to look at the glass Half full?

I love you Matt & Ann , Thanks for all you've done , all your help, all your love,and most of all your friendship!