Priceless.

Honesty, righteousness, faith, and trust.
Because our character knows we must.
Purity, virtue, without guile.
Heart and mind, undefiled.


True greatness, comes from within.
Sincere love, without sin.
Strong foundation, no regrets.
Breaking all of Satan's nets.


Power, strength, comfort, care.
Assurance that the Spirit's there.
Treasures in heaven, not on earth.
Aware of our divine worth.


Change of thought, and heart, and deed.
Looking for what others need.
Keeping our word whatever cost.
Nurturing those that are lost.


Loving God more than man.
Doing everything we can.
Try these things and you will see,
Priceless is Integrity.


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God knows!

 I really don't have much to say, besides that I am so grateful for the prophets that lead and guide us today. There love and trust in God and keeping themselves worthy to get revelation and being ready for that!
 When you think of the Family Proclamation to the World and how it wasn't a big deal when it came out but it's something we really need now.
Heavenly Father always knows what and when we are going to need something. He has always seen us as people of integrity because "Integrity is the very core of our being. It is who we really are. When all the scaffolding is removed, it is our integrity that both defines us and identifies us.."  We are our true selves when we have integrity!

Optimism!

Wow, I'm so imperfect! It's so hard to become perfect!

I did actually learn a couple of things about myself through doing this, though! Have you ever noticed how with other people we normally think all about the good in them, and then we judge ourselves terribly? I try to be optimistic, but with myself, for some reason I just have a really hard time looking at the good!

As I was listing the things I'm doing well and the things I need to improve on, I noticed that I didn't really look much at the things I'm good at! I just focused on all of the things I was doing wrong! I have a little more than 2 pages of the things I need to work on, and not even a page of the things I'm doing well with! I tend to be extra judgmental with myself and look mainly on the wrong that I'm doing!

Obviously we should still be looking at the things we do wrong so that we can improve--but I think we often focus so much on the bad things that it makes it tons harder to look at the good! I have another story about this. Just this last Monday, after Symphonics Showcase, I was totally freaking out about the crazy crack I made in the a Capella song, and how bad I did. My family can testify to this--I just wouldn't stop talking about all of my mistakes. I felt like I did fairly well on the other songs, but I was just so focused on what I did wrong that it didn't really matter.

As most of you know--I've been trying to become perfect, and the first attribute I'm working on right now is optimism. When I started marking all of the mistakes I made, I realized that every time I had a negative thought (when I made a mark), I had to make a 2nd mark because I was even being sort of negative by looking on the negative and making a mark.

My former young women's leader soon after saw my blog post and emailed something to me...

I finally realized that even since I'm trying to become perfect (optimism especially)--counting my mistakes wasn't an incredibly great idea.

Here's a quote from the talk: "I believe the Lord can live with our weaknesses and mistakes, provided there is a desire and effort to repent. That is what the Atonement is all about." I think this is the key. It's important to not just accept our mistakes and not change, but I do think we shouldn't become despairing because we're not perfect! Sometimes I'm really upest because I feel like I'm not worthy. But honestly, perhaps the Lord's definition of worthiness is as far as you can do!

So it's important to look at our mistakes and to change them--but I think it's really incredibly important to count the good things you do, instead of always looking at the bad!

I had a voice recital a couple of weeks ago. I was sick that past week, so my voice was sort of gone, and I felt like I did terribly. The next week when I went back to lessons, my voice coach asked me how I thought it went. I told her that I really didn't think I did well. She had me say 3 things I did wrong--and 5 things I did right. As I was looking on all of the bad things that I did, I could've easily come up with 5 things that I did wrong--but 5 good things? It took me a minute...

It's really important to be optimistic, I think! I believe that being optimistic helps you to do even more good in the world! If you aren't so upset about this and this you did wrong--focused more on what you did well--while still being able to take critique from yourself and others, I think it's the perfect balance to improve even more! If you're happy, and able to take critique, but still hopeful for what you can do, I think that's the key! ;)

Love you all!

~Gracious

P.S. Sorry I got this in so late! :/ I had a Jane Eyre rehearsal a lot of the day, and then we had a reception to go to in Provo--I didn't get back until now! ;)

Be Good!

Here's my inspirement. It's a pretty short song, but I've been working on it for awhile. It's supposed to be about how simple but hard it is to just be good, that's why it's a fairly simple song. I think one of the biggest ways we deceive ourselves is by telling ourselves we can't do something, but we really can. The Gospel really is simple, the standards really are straight, and even though sometimes it is hard, in the end, it's easy if we live through Christ. So here's the song.

L.O.V.E

L.O.V.E - Nat King Cole

If you haven't heard this song yet,go look it up...it's good! 

But if you pay attention in this song you can tell that he is probably talking about a girl he likes right? Isn't that usually what we think of when we first hear these kind of songs?... Now go listen to it again and think as if he were singing about the Savior or Heavenly Father. (Okay maybe it doesn't exactly work, but still).
I think you can find the right kind of love in anything if you really try and look for it! (Even High School Musical!)
Love! Isn't that really all we can give to him? And how do we show that love? By serving others!
When I "Count my many blessings" and see all God has given me, how can I not give back so little when he has given me beyond comprehension amount of blessings?
As we are showing God we love him we express more then love toward him...love spreads like crazy! (It's like when your mom is super happy and excited, you can't help but being super excited and happy with her) It also spreads to everyone around you, which is what Heavenly Father wants...love!

A World Full of Love

Love is a burning thing. And it makes a fiery ring.

Money can't buy me love.

I can't help falling in love with you.

And the truth, you know love is all we need.

I just can't stop loving you.

Two strangers learn to fall in love again.

One love, one life.

You give love a bad name.

You know I love you so.

She will be loved.

Love alone is worth the fight.

To give me all your love is all I ever asked.

Darling, I will be loving you 'til we're seventy.

All of me loves all of you.

I love you like a love song baby.

Ain't nobody love you like I love you.

We found love in a hopeless place.

Boys only want love if it's torture.

I have loved you for a thousand years.

Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, k, k, k, I've heard it a million times. Like seriously. Are there any other subjects to sing about? Is there anything else you can write songs about?

(I shouldn't be talking, I write love songs too) :D

Honestly though, there are so many songs about love because that's what people care about. Music is often referred to as the language of love. People want to hear love songs because it helps them to love. Like Jordan asked, because we hear so much about love, can we assume we live in a loving world?

Think about 9-11. What about the Baltimore riots? School shootings? War after war. Politicians fighting for power and buisnessmen fighting for money. Murder. Theft. Deceit. etc., etc., etc.

The truth is, all of these happen because of love. Every one. The difference is the love. Things like this happen because people love money. Because people love power; people love hate. To sum it up, these things happen because people love themselves.

Love is on the radio because nobody wants to hear the truth. People like to think that we live in a loving world. If songs talked about hate, then only a few people would listen to them. If only a few people listened to music, the music industry would go broke. Love is on the radio because music distributors love money, not because they are trying to paint an accurate portrayal of our world. 

The hard truth is that we live in a world full of hate. Not to say that love doesn't exist among men, because it definitely does, but selfishness greatly outweighs true love right now in our world. 

So what is true love? It's pretty simple. We all know the answer. True love is charity. It's the pure love of Christ. Not the love of money or the love of self, but the love of God and the love of others. The greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor, and there is a stark contrast between that and loving yourself.

One day the love of God will overcome everything else. One day all hate and selfishness will cease to exist, and everyone will love everyone perfectly. That's what a lot of love songs are about: an ideal world with no hate. One day it will exist, and that love will be the greatest feeling of all. It will outweigh any other feelings of selfishness or thrill or lust, and we will live in the ideal world. Life is about love. Love is the answer. But we have to remember that it's about true love. It's about charity. God is love.

Can we reach it?

Love is an interesting concept...

I think in this world it really gets twisted into something wrong, when really, love should be a beautiful thing! They mention love many times in the scriptures--just the love that they mention is different from, I think, the way the world now perceives it.

I believe that God's love is different--in a very good way! I believe that worldy love is only a temporary state, when the Lord's is eternal. Isn't that always the way that it seems to be? The world is only a temporary state--when heaven, and all things good & godly are eternal.

And that's the truth of it! God loves all of His children with an everlasting love!

But how do we gain this everlasting & perfect love?

Thinking about it... I really do think that perhaps in order to gain that love, His never-ending, perfect love--the only way to really gain that love is to feel what that person has felt. Perhaps that's why we have the 13th Article of Faith! "...we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things." Obviously, as humans, we shy away from pain, and we don't want to have to do through painful things--so often this article of faith is a hard one to follow. It says that people of our faith should "hope to be able to endure all things."

Christ is the only one who has literally felt everything.

So, at the moment, He is the only one who can actually feel that perfect, unfailing love for anyone.

I think that's why we have such a hard time being compassionate and loving towards others--because we don't completely understand--or even know what they're going through!

So... no... I don't think that complete, perfect, everlasting love is completely attainable for us in this life--but that doesn't necessarily mean we should just give up!

I remember in my first year of Vanguard a couple of years ago, watching this video. It is just interesting the way they portray it--how this guy is thinking pretty badly about people--being a little selfish--but once he puts those glasses on and sees what everyone is going through, he starts treating them differently!

I think this is one of the kinds of love we can attain in this life! Is to be able to love not perfectly--but to still love with Christ's love--to still care about others! I think we just need to look around and care, and love, just as Christ does! I think one thing that really can help us with this is to ask Heavenly Father to give you that love--to be able to not completely understand, but be able to still sympathize & love as much as possible! :)

~Gracious