Labor Day!

So I know I'm a bit behind, but here are some pictures from one of my favorite activities in the whole world :)

Our wonderful horses, John and Tex.

Haha, this is the most typical view of a cattle drive :)

We were going for silhouette pictures

Takin a break on the ride to eat. Yes, you do still get hungry even though the horse is doing all the work.

Oh, we just ridin on a trail

My brother on his horse, pocky...well actually it's Tack, but that horse just won't go! He's got two speeds: slow and slower.

Ridin ridin! It's awesome!

Unshakable

The question arose to me today, "what does it mean to be unshakable in faith?"

For a while I was not entirely certain, then the ladies in the office next to me made a comment that totally cleared it up in my mind. :)

You know that point in life when you believe something to firmly that nothing can shake it? Like when you were little and you were totally convinced that Superman and the Care Bears were really alive and just hiding from you? Nothing anybody said to you would change that.

Or when you found a hobby which you thoroughly enjoyed and tried to convince everyone around you that it was the best thing to do in the whole world? Nothing anybody else said could sway you.

Or when you adapted a new "health" program and you were entirely convinced that blueberries were the best thing you could possibly eat, or whole wheat is the only flour/wheat to eat, or that running or weightlifting is the best way to be healthy? No matter what anyone else says, or tries to convince you, you still believe that your way is the best.

Seems to me we tend to be that firm and unshakable in many aspects of life, yet why is it so difficult for us to be that firm with our religion? With the one thing that is not based at all on opinion, but is entirely truth?

Probably because that is the one thing Satan is trying his hardest to pull us away from.
That is the one thing he fears most, so he tries to put fear into us.

The question then, is do you let him?

Something I Finally Pieced Together

Even with all the advice, quotes, and sayings I have heard for many years of my life, it still took me a long time (years and years) until I reached a point a few days ago where I felt like I actually understood the meaning.

Whether I was just not ready to receive this new knowledge, or I was being distracted by the world's sayings, I am not sure, but I am just very grateful that God has finally given me this new understanding.

What is this epiphany you ask? I think it's a deeper understanding of what love really is...

All those romantic movies we see that portray love as something that happens when you walk down the street and run into "the one,"or as something that happens quickly and easily. Not quite an accurate depiction as I see it. Real love is something more difficult to achieve, and more wonderful to experience.

What is true love then? It is good. Everything in this world is either good or bad, and would you not agree with me that love is good? It has to be, for it is the most sought after thing in all of humanity. Don't believe me? Look at music; it's either about falling in love, breaking up, hurting from a broken heart (drugs and alcohol), or is just illogical. Look at movies; find one that doesn't have to do with falling into or out of love. Love in some form (parent-child, siblings, romantic, neighborly, friendly) always seems to be in demand, then.

If love is good, then it comes from God, who is the source of all good. Moroni 7:12 says, "Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy to God and fighteth against him continually."All good comes from God. All evil comes from the devil. Therefore love, which is good, comes from God.

If it is good and comes from God, then should we not also strive to have it? Yet, we have agency, we have a choice, which we also have in matters of love. You can choose daily whether to love or not. You can choose daily whether or not you will overlook the shortcomings of another and focus on your own. You can choose daily whether or not you will care more about those around you than yourself. You can choose daily whether or not you will forgive those you "love." You can choose whether or not you will bring God into your relationship, and therefore have Him as a source of love as opposed to your own, limited self. We can choose each day whether or not we are going to keep God's commandments with strictness, or stray a little from His way, or completely delve off His straight and narrow path. The choice is ours in matters of life, as in matters of love. You can choose to love someone and then consequently "fall in love", or you can choose not to, and then end up in the place the world calls "falling out of love." The choice is yours.

This is a new kind of love than the one the world describes which is selfish, involuntary lust rather than love. The world says that you can fall in love with someone quickly at first, and then as you get to know them, you can fall out of love.

That's not the way it should be. You know that real, lasting, true love talked about in the sweetest of stories from grandparents and country songs? That grows from a continued effort to love, truly care for, and take the time to get to know and love an individual. Yes, it does take time, and it also grows stronger with time as we choose to let it.

And that is the sweet, elderly wisdom that the most lovely couples share.

This is the love I want to create, because it's my choice. No, I'm not in love, nor am I even dating anyone yet, but when the time comes, this will be my goal.

Just one final thought: Take a look at your love for others; I know it shocked me when I looked at mine. Is your "love" uplifting or degrading. Does the way you treat those you "love" invite and entice to sin, and to do that which is evil continually invite and entice to do good continually? (Moroni 7:12-13).

"Wherefore, every thing which inviteth and ^benticeth to do ^cgood, and to love God, and to serve him, is ^dinspired of God" (Moroni 7:13). This is love.