Ode to Ado

My little sister just got the part of ADO ANNIE in Oklahoma! I am so SO excited for her. As you can see I had a little thing for that musical myself. Shh...it's a secret okay? Sometimes I think I would be a better Ado than Laurie...I can't say no! 

Welcome to Exsistence

Livia and Tyler

It Only Takes One Person

Isn't it amazing how it only takes one person to make you feel loved-- or unloved.  Love isn't a single emotion. In fact, I think that's why we are drawn to it. Love is an webbed entanglement of our limbic system and cortex.  Whether romantic or platonic love, the deeper it grows, the more we rely upon it as a living thing. We crave to feed off of it. Hence, the few we love deeply hold our lives in our hands. Without their love we starve. We must then be sure to show our love daily. How are we to know if we are that one to someone? Often when stresses in life come, we let it get in the way of those who are most important to us. We assume that they know we love them.  Shame! If you have ever felt the longing for love in your own life, you know that it can't be assumed.  "They do not love that do not show their love." President Monson promises that we will never regret kind words spoken, or affection shown, but warns that regrets will come by omitting them in the relationships we treasure most. So be a lover, not a hater, fighter, or stresser! Shower the people you love with love, show and tell them the way that you feel. Yet even as we share our love, what guarantee is there that we will be loved? Life would be all to fragile if we had to rely on others for life. Thankfully there is one whose love quickens us all. He is our Savior. This is the love that our eyes should be single to. As he becomes our focus, our body will be filled with his light, and we can share that with all of our loved ones. Sharing his love for them enlivens and deepens our own love.

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

First of all listen to this clip...its worth your time. Come Thou Fount I love this song, so much that I spent a good half hour listening and watching it over and over again. About the third time through though I decided I definitely needed to look into the ebenezer part because all I could think of was Ebenezer Scrou ' ge. The line actually comes from the bible, after Samuel the prophet has miraculously defeated his enemies. "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer saying hitherto hath the Lord Helped us (1st Sam 7:12)." This ebenezer is a rock, in essence an alter to praise God. All of a sudden the song made sense. As we go through out trials and through joyful times we must continually raise our own ebenezers, acknowledging the hand of God in our lives in all times.

Here I raise my ebenezer-- online. I am so grateful for all that the Lord has done for me!