Spiritual Thought: Find Joy

This little tile has been tucked in a corner of my kitchen since we moved in. It was a wedding gift from my beehive advisor. I don't know if she knew before she made it or if she's just *that* good (she probably is), but this is one of my all-time favorite talks.

It comes from Pres. Thomas S. Monson in the October 2008 Conference and it's titled "Finding Joy in the Journey." Each time I read it, it speaks to me in a different way than it did before. When he first gave it in conference, it struck a chord with me as he talked about the Music Man:

"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays."

That's definitely something I've been guilty of. "If I can just make it to the weekend" or "In a couple months work will be better" and I find that I'm just waiting for the time to pass. That's a scary thing to realize, that you're basically waiting for life to pass you by instead of enjoying it more fully.

But I digress. Let's come back to today. What stuck out most to me reading this talk today:

"Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. "

How appropriate for the little stresses that have been getting the better of me lately. Food poisoning. Broken water pipes. Failed car inspections. And too many little things I'm LETTING get to me. That's the operative word "letting." There will always be stresses. But as I mentioned in my post yesterday, there are always good things, too. They may be small, but they are precious and we can see them if we choose to look for them.

Pres. Monson also says:

"When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth."

When I think of it this way, I realize those little stresses are just that. Very little. And instead of being a little down, my cup runneth over. I hope that each of you can take some time today to find joy in your journey and experience heaven on earth.