My Wendy Darling

So these few week have been pretty crazy but pretty awesome. I've been keeping up with work, school, and of course, my darling Wendy. Some of you may notice a post before this. I needed to use my blog to sell a spare ring that I have. So you can ignore the last post.

So over the last several weeks, Wendy and I have gotten to know each other much better and become great friends. We've developed a deep level of friendship that neither one of knew existed. Wendy's been able to meet my crazy family and get to know them better. So now on to the story that most of my readers are waiting for.

A week before my last post, Wendy and I went for a walk as we often do. On the walk, Wendy got nervous and told me that she wanted to talk to me about something but she was nervous to bring it up. I told her not to be nervous and promised that I would not be judgmental of what she said. She told me that really liked our relationship and she'd like for it to become more permanent. I told her that I think that I would like that too but I wasn't sure about it. I explained that I had recently gotten out of a really rough relationship and that I was really hesitant about considering that option. She pleaded with me and told me that she had thought and prayed about it a lot and she felt like it was right. In the end, she convinced me to pray about it. The Lord told me that my relationship with her should continue forward. I was really surprised by that answer; I was totally not expecting it.


Then after a few days and a bit of struggle within myself, I decided to start making things happen. The day before my last post, Wendy and I took her great great grandmother's fused wedding set to the jewler's to get downsized, separated, cleaned, and replated. We got them back within the week. The days prior to getting the ring back, I talked to my parents about our decision. Then I had to ask her parents.... My feelings while asking them for permission are best summarized by the last line of the announcer from the Legend of Korra. Wetting my pants

So.... yeah, it was intense. I now completely understand why my brother-in-law forgot his number. But I obviously got their approval. After getting her approval, my parents requested that we come down so that they could get to know my darling Wendy better. So last weekend, we went down to Utah and they got to know her better and they like her too.


On Tuesday, I finally got everything together to propose to my darling Wendy. I wrote her a poem called “The Greatest Miracle of My Life” and I tore off the last three lines that talked about me proposing to her. I put a little picture of a kiss over it (so that it'd be "sealed with a kiss") and taped it closed. I also printed off a picture of purple tulips because that her favorite type of flowers. I clipped both the poem and the picture to her front door and then knocked. I ran around the corner where they couldn’t see me (I found out later that Wendy answered the door) and made sure that they found it. Then I acted pretty normally all through out the morning and afternoon. On Tuesday's my university has religious fireside at two o'clock which Wendy and I usually attend. We did so on that Tuesday too. After devotional we went to Porter park (Wendy's favorite place and one of our most frequented places). We walked around half of the end of the park until Wendy suggested that we sit down under a pavilion nearby. We did and I pretended to find the piece of paper that had the last three lines on it; I glanced at it and told Wendy that it was for her. As she read it, I got down on one knee. When she had finished, I proposed to my darling. Her reaction was her expression below. And she said YES!!!!

I'm so excited to marry my best friend. As I told her once, I will never call her the girl of my dreams. The girl of my dreams was not nearly as awesome as she is. I hope y'all have a good week!

This is Mom

So these few weeks have been pretty hectic keeping up with school, working and trying to maintain a social life. I will say that my friendship with my girlfriend, Wendy, has deepened since I last wrote. I'm really glad to have her as my best friend. In these last few weeks my good friend Crystal has gotten engaged and I'm very excited for her. I finished the book "Ender's Game". It was a really well written book and it reminded me of how much I like Orson Scott Card as a writer.

Since today is Mother's day, I am going to write a special post about my mom. In the second grade, there was a time when we had to introduce one of our family members in our class. I introduced my mom by saying, "This is my Mom. She is really gross but cool." Whil we've long ago stopped our competition to try and gross the other person out (which was pretty fun by the way), I still think that she is really cool. Growing up, I was taught by my Dad that I was to always respect my mom. Originally I did mostly out of fear of punishment.

One day when I was about four I was riding with my Mom to go somewhere; she decided to ask me a question about what she could do as a mom. I remember that experience because it was the start (in my mind) of our friendship. Every since then we've gone a lots of cars rides together as our Mom/Son dates. Now I can say that my respect for my mom comes from the fact that she is my friend. My mom has always been supportive of me growing up. While I was working towards becoming an Eagle Scout, my mom really helped encourage and remind me of my goal. Growing up and moving out, I've come to appreciate my mom even more. She works hard and does an amazing job at managing everything that she has to juggle on a regular basis. She also very caring and generous. While she is often shy, she is loyal and supportive friend. I love my mom and I feel very blessed to be her son.

Happiness is Contagious and Is Spread With A Smile

So my last few weeks have been kinda crazy. But in a good way. I went home for a week and brought my girlfriend down to Utah. It was nice to be home around my crazy family and get to play with my little nephew, Nikolai, who is adorable.

I will say that I finished Mockinjay which was good. I'm presently following two TV series, Avatar: Legend of Korra, and Once Upon A Time. Both of them are a bit cheesy but still very well written.

Classes have started back up (for me) and I'm getting the hang of them. I think I'm going to like all of them. I just need to get a lot more sleep before my psychology class.

So I just wanted to take a minute and say that my girlfriend makes me happy. She's happy, positive, and just cute. I like how she too shares my joie de vivre. I watched the latest episode of Legend of Korra before I showed it to Wendy and I thought that it was aoky. Then I showed it to her and I liked it better because of her reactions to everything.

These last few weeks, I have felt immensely blessed because of my family, friends, girlfriend and ward. There are so many reasons that I have to be happy that it's really hard to count them. I wish I could express my feelings better but I'll just have to say that I'm very happy where I am right now. I hope that you my readers, find time to count blessings. I know that they're a lot more than you think that are. When you realize how blessed you are thank the Lord and then remember; be happy!

Enjoying the Simple Things

These last few weeks have been interesting. For part of them I was sure that I was getting sick. I will say that I managed to finish the book Catching Fire and then passed in on to my sister Megan. She's started on the last book "Mockingjay" which I'm hoping to read during the break.

I've been slowly regulating my sleep patterns which is good. I've also had a lot of fun with my girlfriend Wendy. I went to a play called Enchanted April twice because it was really cool. I went once with my good friend Chellie and once with my girlfriend. It's about a couple of British ladies from the 1920's who decided to escape on vacation to rent a castle in northern Italy. It's hilarious and deep.

Lately, I've learned just to enjoy the simple things. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For me it always represents home mainly because I been eating them since I can remember. I love the simple contrast of flavors.

I think sometimes we get so caught up in trying to guess the future or make plans and we don't just enjoy the simple things. Lately, I've been doing that and it's been nice. I invite you to enjoy the simple things. They bring a lot more happiness than you know. I hope y'all have a good week!

Stand Ye in Holy Places

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. I finished listening the first book of the Hunger Games. It is a very interesting series and I'm hoping to get the second book soon, so that I can finish it. For the past several weeks, I would listen to part of the story on my I-pod while I was doing my laundry. I liked this so much that when I finally finished the Hunger Games, I went looking for another audio book to listen too. I found a nice website LibriVox that has free audio books that are in the public domain. Almost all of their books are classics, but very good. Lately I have been listening to Peter Pan. One day recently I realized that Pan is the Greek god of the wild; I learned this from the Percy Jackson series. So I thought that Peter Pan's name was rather clever hint at his slightly "wild" nature. it's a well written book with beautiful prose that are almost musical in nature. The next book that I am looking at listening to is Jane Eyre. If anyone knows other places that I can find free audio books please let me know. I will also say that I am over half way through "To The Rescue" which has been good but heavily detailed.

These last couple of weeks have been rough on Barbara and I. She's a ton of homework, sickness and long days of work. I've done my best to help cheer her up and keep her motivated to do her homework. I've been struggling with somethings of my own. I have two callings now that I love but both are a lot harder than I had thought they'd be. Both have been fun but hard. I'm hoping and praying that I can get a hang of them here soon. Luckily for the last two weekends, Barbara and I have been able to go to the Idaho Falls temple because the Rexburg temple is closed for cleaning. Before going with Barbara, I hadn't been to the temple for two weeks and I was sorely missing it. As many of my readers may know, I love going to the temple. It is a special place where we can feel the Spirit of the Lord more strongly than in other locations. During the last few weeks, it struck me that I don't know when or if I'll ever be able to see my home in North Carolina every again; having grown up in that house, it was a very sad thought. Something that I have come to realize is that for me, going to the temple is like going home. It is a place where I can feel comfortable and secure from the storms and tempests of life. At the temple, I can also receive guidance, comfort, and counsel from my Father in Heaven. I love going to the temple on a regular basis. It wasn't until I was on my mission that I realized the blessing of being able to go the temple regularly. I met many people in France who had to plan for months to be able to the temple just once during the year! After seeing such devotion by the latter-day saints of France, I decided that if I lived close to a temple, that I would go to it as often as I could just like those French saints would. Having been home for a while, I have learned that I need to go the temple to help keep me on the path that the Lord would have me on. I hope for my readers that you do your best to go to the nearest temple. I promise you that you will be guided by the Lord there to understand the things that you need to.

So I included this picture because I see this ring on my hand everyday. It is a CLB ring which means "Choisir le bien" or "Choose the right". I really like this silly ring because I have had it for over two years now. It reminds me of my love for the French and France, and to do my best to choose the right.

I hope that y'all have a good week. Que Dieu vous benissiez!

Trust in the Lord and Be Not Afraid

Since the last post I have been united with my wonderful girlfriend and spent time with my family. After my girlfriend finally made it to my parents house we exchanged our Christmas gifts. Sadly, I got Barbara ANOTHER journal while she got me an awesome CD and the second season of Avatar: the Last Airbender which is my favorite TV series. I feel bad that my gift for her was not as good. The day after Barbara got in we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We talked to two different sets of sister missionaries. The first set of sisters talked to us about the gospel and the need to share it. The second set we talked to because I really wanted to speak French with someone and Barbara was kind enough to let me do so.

The next day Barbara and I went on a triple date with my sister Catherine and my brother-in-law Jesse, and Megan and Garret (Megan's boyfriend). It was a lot of fun even if I did a lot of ice cream, Garret was close to falling asleep (due to a super long delay), and we ended up talking more than playing games. On the first of January, my family, Barbara and Garret, and myself all went to church together. The next day, my parents left with my sister Megan, Garret, and a friend from North Carolina. Barbara was really kind and we traveled up to Rexburg later that same day.

I have now returned to apartment in Rexburg. Barabara celebrated her 23rd birthday on the first day of school which seems to me to be just a bit cruel. Luckily, I was able to take her out to dinner for birthday. We went to a local Thai restaurant which was really good. We also got to watch the second part of the seventh Harry Potter because Barbara hadn't seen it and she liked it. Well I've gone back to work and got myself settled and caught a cold. So I've been trying to fight it and get everything else done.

My spiritual thought this time comes from second Nephi chapter 22; here Nephi is quoting the 12th chapter of Isaiah, it reads "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid..." I like this part because, I know that sometimes fears can seem to overwhelm us. Fear of failing, fear of not knowing the future, fear of losing someone, can seem to block out all the hope that we have for our lives. But we have to remember to trust in the Lord and His promises, and we must do as Ether directs those who believe in God that they "might with surety hope for a better world." Once we have learned to trust the Lord and hope for a better world then we must move forward and do what we can. I know that the Lord's promises to us are true and that He will fulfill them in His own time. I hope that y'all have started your new year right. I hope y'all have a good week!

And Upon These I Write the Things of My Soul

So these last two week have been pretty crazy with clean checks, finals, going down to Utah, and the holidays. I love spending time with my family and even being able to help my friend Crystal stay sane. On the other hand, I have really missed my girlfriend and I missed being able to always be there for her. Luckily, I was able to go to the Salt Lake City temple with my friend Crystal.

These holidays have been interesting because my sister Catherine is nearing the end of her pregnancy and her little boy tends to move around quiet a bit. Being the oldest of four kids I remember being little and feeling my mom's stomach when she was pregnant with my two youngest siblings. It now strikes me as odd to realize that my sister that I grew up with, that I was little with, will be having a little person of her own soon.

For me, this is one of those things that is mile marker. It is also reminder that we all are in different phases of life and that we will always move from one phase to another, often silently and slowly. I think some of the greatest changes in this world are often silent and slow, and if we are not careful we may over look them.

These last few weeks have been enjoyable but hectic. I will admit that in the last few weeks I have not been as diligent in my journal writing as I ought to have been; hence why this post has been less events and more thoughts. For about the last month or so, I have been going through the Book of Mormon again because I haven't done so since I was on my mission in 2009. Since then my life has taken many turns and I have had many scriptural classes both of which have greatly improved my understanding.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a scripture that stuck out to me. It's found in 2 Nephi chapter 4, in this chapter Nephi talks about the plates and what they mean to him; he writes about them in these terms "And upon these (the plates) I write the things of my soul... Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord..." (verse 15, 16) I like these verses because I to me, that is what I should writing about in my journal "the things of my soul". In a small extent, I feel that I understand it's importance. My grandpa Sebright wrote a journal while he was in school. Years later after he had passed away, my dad read it and it helped him to come closer to his father. Think about it this way, if someone only knew you from what you wrote in your journal, would they recognize your personality? Would they understand your motives? My challenge to you and myself my dear readers is to try and do better at your journal writing and try to write more of "the things of [your] soul" upon them. May the Lord bless and keep you is my prayer. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Grateful Currant Bush

This week has been good but a little long because I worked hard on a big project and getting other things done. This week I had a ton of papers, finals, and other things that I needed to get done. Between this post and the last one, I have been able to give one of my good friends, Crystal Champion, two priesthood blessings of comfort because she was going through a really rough time since she's graduating this week and starting a whole new adventure. I won't lie, I'm going to miss her because she's like a sister to me. We've been friends since we both started school back in 2006. We're both dorks who love the South, the gospel and who both speak French (I speak it more than she does but she does a good job understanding me).

A few weeks ago, Barbara and I attended the annual Jane Austen Yule Ball. It was lots of fun to get dressed like the guys on Pride and Prejudice. For those of you who don't know, I have read the book and my favorite movie version is the A&E 5 hour version. I should note that it seemed to take quiet a while to get changed into the garb which made me thankful that I didn't live in that time period. It was a lot of fun doing the dances and seeing lots of different people that I know. Here's a good picture of Barbara and I.

Going back to the blessings that I gave Crystal, it was interesting because in one of them, I told her as the Spirit directed that "Heavenly Father was proud of what [she'd] done with the friendships that [she'd] made and the lives of the people [she had] blessed." I had to pause for a moment after that because it was a tender moment because my friend Crystal truly has blessed my life.

So this last week, I reflected a bit on my past and where I thought I'd be. I was reminded of the talk "The Currant Bush" by Hugh B. Brown. This is one of my favorite talks and some of my longer readers will recognize that this is not the first reference that I've made to it. I remember feeling like the currant bush earlier this year because I through a third and rather painful breakup. Coming to the close of a year, I am definitely not were I planned to be and this next year will be to be interesting and full of new challenges. While Elder Hugh B. Brown saw some 50 years later that the Lord had hurt him to put him on a new path, for me it has not been 50 years but I will say that I am thankful for the path that the Lord has put me on. Because here, I have been able to help my friends and family, and I was able to meet Barbara. Barbara has been a great blessing in my life (for the short time that she's been a part of it) and she has helped me to learn things that I could not have learned anywhere else.

I hope that you my dear readers will be able to look at your past and see the places where God put you on another path even if it meant hurting you a bit. I hope that you will see His hand directing you and thatone day, like I am today, you will be thankful for Him redirecting your life so that you grow more and better become who He wants you to be. This is my prayer for you. I hope y'all have a good week!

The Power of Hymns

Sorry, my dear readers, I have been extremely busy with school, work, and my wonderful girlfriend.

The reason I did not post on Sunday, (I don't know why I didn't post the Sunday before that) was because I was Utah and then traveling back up to here. I went on a spur of the moment road trip with my girlfriend Barbara to visit her biological mom who had stopped in Salt Lake City. We had a lot of fun and got to know each other better.

What has stuck out to me this week, is the power of hymns. In the opening of an LDS hymnal, there is a message from the First Presidency about the importance of hymns. A line from it reads "Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns." I will admit that the first time that I read that line that I was stuck out to me because I thought it was really odd. This past week has highlighted the power of hymns. Some of my most powerful experiences with Spirit were while I was listening to or singing a hymn. The lyrics often speak truth and sometimes when you are relate to a certain line it can bring the whole hymn home and bring the Spirit into your heart in a powerful way.

So my challenge to you is to find a hymn and sing it or to read the lyrics while listening to a recorded version. I promise that if you want it that the Holy Ghost will bear witness to you that the lyrics of that song contain eternal truths. Have a good week!

Confess Not His Hand in All Things

So this last week been hectic. I seemed to have forgotten how fun you have with girlfriend and how time seems to rush by. I've done lots of homework, work and even more hanging out with my wonderful girlfriend. Well I'm now home here in Utah with my family and my good friends, Chellie and Erick.

This weekened (because this is what I remember) Barbara and I had dinner with my sister Megan and her boyfriend Garrett. The next day (I think) my Mom and brother Aaron came up to take us down here to Utah. They both were able to met my girlfriend who was a tad bit nervous at meeting my family. Barbara watched as my sister, my mom, and I played a card game that is notorious in our family called Spite and Malice. After hearing all of the friendly banter among my family members, Barbara remarked "Your family is a lot of fun." I agree with my Mom's assessment of Barbara, she's a keeper.

This week I read in section fifty nine of Doctrine and Covenants for my class. In there I read one of my favorite verses, verse twenty one, which reads "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments."

This week, I have realized that I am not always very good at acknowledging the hand of the Lord in all things. I mean I know He does a lot to help me in my life but I don't always remark it as often as I should. Something that I've found to be helpful is writing in my journal often helps me to better recognize His hand in my life. To paraphrase President Eyring, it helps to remind me of ways that the Lord may have helped me but that I may have over looked at the time. The Lord has given me so many blessings, my family for starters. I love each of them and I wouldn't be who I am today without them. My friends are another one, who bring happiness, joy and a good deal of advice to my life. My wonderful girlfriend who makes me happy and who lets me make her happy. My college is a blessing; I'm gaining, what is is my mind, an invaluable education on both secular and spiritual matters. Most of all I am glad to have the gospel of the Lord in my life that allows me to know of my Father in heaven and to be able to see His hand in my life. I hope that you all during this season of Thanksgiving can find more ways to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in your life. If you're bad at journal writing like I was, make a renewed effort to better at it. Just start one day at a time. I know you can do it! Because I have! Have a good week!

The Little Things

So this apparently has been a good week for all of my family. Two of my other family members had good things happen to them on Friday. And I got a girlfriend. :) So I think I will start with that story so as my sister Megan put it best "I don't have to tell a story a million different times". Not to mention people have been clamoring for the details. Don't worry, I'll get to my spiritual message following that.

The best place to start is at the beginning. During the break between semesters, my roommate Noé started a group on Facebook called BYU-I Harmony. I decided to join it mostly out of curiosity and a bit of boredom. As Noé got busy dating a girl, he assigned other people as to be administrators over the page. Many of them got busy too and so one day, Noé made me one because he knew that I checked up on the page regularly. Well the semester started and the group kinda died out. I aske around and found out that there was no girl administrator. So I asked for volunteers. A brave girl, named Barbara Spaulding, stepped up and volunteered. I made her an administrator and added her as a friend so that we could more easily communicate and coordinate things on the page.

Two weeks ago I contacted her and talked to her about trying to get the group going again. Last Sunday I decided that I should get to know my co-administrator a bit better. So I went explored her facebook page. I commented on couple of things on her wall and then I noticed that she was on. I decided to chat with her because we almost were having a conversation on her wall. Well we had really good open conversation about dating. We talked about we both hated dating which was ironic since we are both administrators of BYU-I Harmony. Well then, she said, maybe this was a sign that we should go on a date. So I asked her if we could meet up and then we could decide if we'd like to go on a date. She agreed. So then I got her number so that we could arrange our meeting.

We texted constantly for the next few days until we met. I was excited to meet her. Talking to her was better in person than it was digitally. The next day we hung out with my sister Megan and her boyfriend. We had a lot of fun and a good time. We decided then that we wanted to date each other. On Friday I asked her on a double date with my friend and former roommate Erick (pictured above) and my friend Sarah. It went well and we all ate well. Since then we have talked a lot and become very good friends. As my former roommate Victor told me. There are two types of girls, ones that you chase constantly; the second you chase each other. I feel like Barbara is the second type and I like it better.

So my message this week, is about the little things. Something that the Lord has placed an emphasis on following the small promptings. The devotional this week mentioned it, I read about it and many of the talks today in church today talked about following the promptings in the small things. I have learned that if follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost in small things that the Lord will be more willing to lead and help us. But we must make the effort to do so. I have seen how that works or doesn't depending our obedience. I am reminded of the scripture in Alma "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Alma 37:6) I know that the Lord uses small means to bring about His great works. I feel like since I started what I thought was just a small side conversation, has turned out to be a great blessing in my life.

I hope that you will strive to follow the little promptings or like I like to think of them as spiritual nudges. May the Lord bless you with happiness is my prayer. Have a good week!

Faith, Agency, and Knowledge

I believe that most of my readers will be already be familiar with the fact that I am now dating a very pretty and active young lady by the name, Kara Wheat; I am very happy about this. I'm happy to have her as a good influence in my life.

I recently finished reading "The Lectures on Faith" written by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. It's about eighty pages of deep reading. Oftentimes you need to stop and think about what you've just read.

In the lectures, it says that three things are needed for faith to be productive and fruitful. They are 1) a belief that God exists 2) a correct knowledge of His attributes and perfections and 3) a knowledge that one's life is in harmony with the Lord's will. In part of the book it is explained why we need to have an understanding of each attribute and perfection of God and how a lack of even one of them weakens our faith. It reminded me that I need to perfect my own personal testimony of each one. So while I was reading this, I thought about the relationships between faith, agency and knowledge. Last week, I was teaching my family history class and I needed to make fill the rest of the time that my lesson hadn't. So I got a discussion going with my class about this and other things from the lectures on faith. I showed them a simple diagram I came up with to help visualize the relationship.

I should mention that for one of my classes we have to diagram cause and effect for each theory we read so I feel it's getting to me, in a good way.

We discussed the diagram and found that I was missing Incentive. In the end the diagram looked like this.

We found that agency well used increases faith and agency poorly used has the opposite effect. We talked about faith or lack of faith can effect our agency and what we do or don't do. We then talked about how if we have more knowledge of good things then it will increase our faith. The more we develop faith then it will finish by becoming a perfect knowledge. We decided that as our knowledge increases that it then gives us more incentive which in turn increases our agency. It then becomes obvious that we can then use our agency to gain more knowledge. Honestly I think that this fascinating to reflect upon but then again I may just be a gospel nerd.

I hope and pray that we can do a little better at exercising our faith and enlarging our knowledge. I know that as we do so accompanied by humble prayer that the Lord will bless our efforts. I hope that this has helped someone better understand faith and its effects. May the Lord bless your faith is my prayer.

Retrospect Clarification

So yesterday I went on a date with a good friend of my mine who's been my friend since my first semester up here in 2006. We talked about the past and the things we'd learned from those experiences. I also had dinner with my cool sister Megan and my cousin Stephanie and her husband and we again talked a little about our pasts.

I've thought about that quiet a bit these last few days. I remember many experiences on my mission and after my mission that have been what I deemed at the time incredibly hard. Often times I felt like the currant bush from the BYU Devotional by Hugh B. Brown. I was bitter, hurt and confused as to what I'd done wrong. I've written a poem about my view as the currant bush. I wrote in my journal originally as a way to vent; later when I looked back at it, I found that it was a poem.

So back to my original thought... Sometimes we go through hard experiences and we don't understand WHY we have to go through some pain, suffering, or frustration. I remember one such experience on my mission when I went through a hard time with one of my companions. He was going through a very hard time and often vented to me. This was compounded by the fact that he was also ill some days and we unable to go out. So I became depressed, and discouraged. At the time I saw no reason for having to live this tortuous experience. Then about a year and a half later I was dating a girl and she had very difficult experience. I was inspired to remember how I had dealt with my companion and the things that I had learned from that experience; I told my then girlfriend what I had learned and she learned a lesson that was critical for her to learn at that time. I realized that day the WHY I had needed to go through that rough time on my mission; I needed it to help some else.

Sometimes we go through experiences to learn something from which we need to draw on later. I have found that from many of the experiences I have had.

One of my teachers once proposed an idea that I feel is true to some extent. He said that he believes that God has certain major points or events that He wants us to live through. I believe that this is true but I would add that I think the Lord wants us to live through these events in order for us learn something unique from them because we need it to develop our eternal character.

I hope that if you get time that you'll reflect on something from your past that may have or still does puzzle you. Ponder over it and pray over it. I believe that as you do so the Lord will open your understanding and help you see what unique lesson you can learn from that experience.