Realization

So I know that you all enjoy laughing at my weird dreams but sometimes I have a serious side and I am going to share that side with you today. While I was in church today I came to a few realizations of my own and I want to share them with you along with some experiences that I have had over the last month. This might be long so don't read unless you have some time on your hands.
So as most of you know in December my mom received her endowments and was married for time and all eternity and I was sealed to her. I am very proud of my mom and this event has brought lots of blessing into my life as well as hers. My mom had to overcome a lot to get to this point in her life and she did because she wanted to do and felt like she should do it. When she made the decision she was telling me of all the things that she was going to have to sacrifice to do it and I told her that she wouldn't have to and in the end she didn't have to sacrifice anything that she thought she would. I think the biggest blessing that came from this is that I get to be with my mom for all eternity and I got to be there for as she took this big step. I also like that I got help my mom by being a strength and an example to her.
The Lord works in mysterious ways and we never know what they are but he does things that we may not like but are for our good. Not sure what I am talking about let me explain. This might seem weird but hopefully it will all make sense.
As most of you may know I am a huge Disney fan. I remember when I was a kid I would watch the Mickey Mouse club and always wanted my mom to move to Florida so I could be on the Mickey Mouse club. Then as I grew up and started making friends I forgot that I wanted that and kind went along with things. I still liked Disney and you could find me watching a Disney movie or the Disney channel when I wasn't doing anything else. Then when I was 13 I was told that we were moving to Florida and at first I was kind of excited but then soon wore off and I hated the fact that I was having to leave all my friends and move to Florida and I wasn't even going to get to be on the Mickey Mouse club because they didn't have it anymore. I thought it was going to be horrible. Turns out that it was the best thing that could happen to me and my mom.
Here is why. When I was in 3rd grade my friend Joey and I decided that we were going to go to BYU and no one was going to stop us. There was only a few problems with that goal. I became in active and if I had stayed in Utah may have stayed that way and never reached my goal of going to BYU. The other problem I didn't realize until I came out to Utah and that is it is really hard for people who live in Utah to get into BYU true I had a 4.0 GPA when I left for Florida and may have kept that but there was still the possibility that I would not get in. So Florida opened the door for me to go to BYU. It helped me to gain my testimony, become active in the church, and get into BYU.
Here is how it helped my mom. It challenged her in ways that helped her to grow. She became active in the church and continued to grow and flourish. Finally making the decision to go to the temple and make covenants with our Heavenly Father and allow us to become an eternal family.
I also came to the realization and my testimony grew about Heavenly Father answering prayers. He always answers our prayers and gives us our righteous desires but we don't always know when or how they will be answered. I have never met my biological father and have been jealous of my friends that have fathers around and their relationship with them. I always wanted to have an earthly father as I called it in my prayers and to have that kind of relationship. I may not have gotten my prayer answered the exact way that I wanted or as soon as I would have liked. Heavenly Father did give me an earthly father and I will develop that relationship that I have always wanted. I just had to wait for the Lord's time and trust that the Lord would give it to me in his own way. I had to have the faith that the Lord wanted to bless me and that he would.
This brings me to the next blessing that I was given. I didn't think that I was going to be able to go to Florida for my mom going through the temple and getting married because I didn't have the money because of the whole not getting paid when I worked at Red Deli. I always felt like everything would work out and that if it was suppose to happen it would. It got to the point where it was a week before my mom went through and chances of me going looked really slim and then the phone call came. A friend of my moms called me because she felt like she should help to buy me a plan ticket home so that I could see my mom and spend time with her for Christmas. I told her that I would rather go the following weekend because my mom was going through the temple and so she told me how much she could help me with and I didn't think that I would be able to get a last minute ticket for $500, and then I remember that my friends Jon and Becca also wanted to help and that they could do $100. This gave me $600 and I thought I have to be able to find a ticket. Turns out I found a ticket for $470 and so I bought it and went to Florida and I have been blessed more than I deserve.
I heard once that with sealings if there is a child that goes wayward but his/her children were righteous that the sealing power allowed them to be sealed to their granparents. This thought always brought me comfort that even if I couldn't be with my mom I could be with her family, but now I get to be with my mom for all of eternity and I am very grateful for that. I love her and want only the best for her as she does for me and now I get to be with her forever. So even though I don't always have the time or the money to go home to visit for Christmas I still have the eternities. That is a how lot longer than what I have had so far, so what are a few Christmas without my mom I still have family that I can spend it with which is another blessing that I have been given. My mom's parents and siblings are here so I always have a place to go for the holidays or just to escape when I need an escape. It is an amazing thing to have. Although sometimes it can be hard to be around my family because all my cousins my age are married and are having kids and so I don't always enjoy my time because I feel left out and that I don't belong, but I love them and I know that they love me and so I don't have to worry about stupid feelings that I shouldn't be feeling. Satan just puts those feelings there to keep me away from the things that I should be doing. Life is hard enough without putting yourself down too. It is always my opinion that we are our worst critics and that the only person that can stop us from doing things that we should be doing is ourselves. No one can force us to do the things that we don't want to do. We made the choices that put us in the bad situation and we are the only ones that can get ourselves out. It is our choices that dictate the events in our lives. You may hang out with the wrong crowd or people that do the wrong things but you can be an example to them and you don't have to do the things that they are doing. The whole hate the sin but love the person philosophy. It also reminds me of the dream that I had back in May where I only hung out with excommunicated members of the church but I didn't do any of the things that they did. I could still be there friend and although I didn't have the spirit as much in my life becuase of a decision I made to hang out with them I can still be there friend and not do the things that they do. I hope that people that make the decision to be in a situation like that can have the strength to make the decision to get out and stay out of that situation. I know people that do things that they don't like but they don't ahve the strength to stop and that is when it becomes an addiction, addictions are not always bad. For example I have an addiction to spending time with friends even if all we do is watch movies all the time. In fact every Saturday my friend Amber and I hang out and watch movies. Sometimes we watch movies at her apartment and sometimes we go to a theater but it is a lot of fun spending time with her. Another addiction I have is playing Guitar Hero on Monday nights after FHE at CHuck's house. It is fun and I enjoy the company of the people that come and it is not always the same people there well except Chuck is always there but it is his game and so that would be weird to be at his place playing his game on his TV and not have him there. This last addiction that I have is playing volleyball on Thursday nights. It is fun and we are not competitive when playing we rarely keep score. It is a good activity and it is something I have to do every week. I haven't done it the last couple of weeks becuase I was out of town and the week I was in Florida it through off my week because I couldn't play. See not all addications are bad. They can be bad if I let the addictions stop me from doing other things in my life that draw me closer to the Lord, but only when I stop listening to the Spirit and doing the things that the Lord would have me do.
Sorry if I was rambling and my thought process doesn't make sense but this are things that I wanted to say and to share with everyone who reads my blog. I hope that everyone has a good day and that you had a fabulous holiday.