The Importance of a Nutritious Diet

This semester, I’m taking a nutrition class. I’m learning so much and I am so grateful. I’ve always enjoyed good health and I don’t eat horribly. But this class has been a real eye opener and I’m developing a stronger passion for good eating habits and physical activity. I want to live a long and healthy life.

This class has made me aware of some dietary changes I need to make. I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. This class has inspired me to eat better and exercise more than I ever have before. I feel so good after eating a nutritious meal and going on a run. I’m really seeing the benefits of my efforts.

I feel like I’m living the Word of Wisdom better, and I’m grateful for the impact this class has had on me. I appreciate my health and a healthy person is who I want to be.

This is Not Adieu

Although this blog started as an assignment for class, I do not want it to end there. Although I am no longer required to post on my blog, I do not want to stop. At the beginning of this blog, I was posting in large part because of my class assignment. I do not know when that stopped being the case, but it's not my main purpose anymore. Recently I've posted without thinking about the assignment. I'm posting because I have something to say, something to share.

If this whole blog was to just to fulfill an assignment, it wouldn't be very meaningful. Who I am as a person, and my ability to recognize and share my reactions to the world around me should not stop with the end of a class. I have developed lasting changes and lasting desires to be a better person, and this blog should last too.

I am grateful for what life teaches me and helps me become. I hope you, my readers, will continue to enjoy my reflections on integrity.

Easter Sunday

How grateful I am that today is Easter. It is such a beautiful holiday. I am grateful for this special day to remember my Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to bear testimony that He lives. For although He was crucified, He was resurrected. Christ lives and I may live again too. I am so grateful for all that Easter celebrates.

Because Christ performed the Atonement, I can become who I am meant to be. I can grow and change and repent and become a better person each and every day. Without the Atonement, I am nothing. The Atonement is a central part of who I am and who I am continually becoming.

Happy Easter everyone!

A Productive Start Leads to a Productive Finish

Today me and my husband woke up, him at 7 and me at 8. I made pancakes for breakfast and then we cleaned our apartment. After that, we sorted our clothes and proceeded to do 5 loads of laundry. While we've had a good amount of down time during the day, we've been able to get a lot done and we have plans to do homework and go grocery shopping tonight.

From experience over the years, I truly believe that when I wake up in the morning and get a good start on my day, I will be more productive all day. If I wake up and laze around for a few hours it is so much harder to motivate myself to start doing anything.

I feel so much better and happier when I am productive. I hate that feeling of having wasted a day away. I want to fill my days with good things and I want to be in bed early so that I can be up early and have a good and effective day. That is part of who I want to be.

Journal Time

It's always been important for me to keep a journal. But I've never been very good at it. I've kept a journal on and off over the years. My best stretch was on my mission. Looking at the journals I do have make me grateful for the record that I have kept and they inspire me to do better.

I think journal keeping is important for me and for my posterity.

It's important for me because it helps me see how I've progressed over the years. I sometimes read through old journals and think "I was so silly" or "I can't believe I did/thought that!" But I could just as easily be saying, "Wow. I'm such a different person now. I've really become someone amazing and special. I've grown so much over the years."

I think journal keeping is important for my posterity because I want them to know who I am. I want them to know what my life meant and what I did with it. I want them to be proud of the life I lived. I want them to have footsteps to follow in.

Prioritizing Time

There's so much to do each day, it's often hard to get it all done. I've been feeling that way a lot lately. I'm in my last semester of my university education. I graduate in a month. And boy am I busy! I'm exhausted, but I've got to keep going.  I feel like I'm nearing the end of a marathon and it's hard to see how I'm going to have the strength to finish.

But, the better I plan my time and prioritize my tasks, the more successful I am. I've thought a lot this week about the object lesson with the jar and the water, sand, and rocks. How do you make it all fit? How do you get everything done? If you put the sand or water in before the rocks, the jar will overflow. You've got to put the rocks first, the sand second, and the water last. Life is the same.

My rocks are scripture study, homework, and my responsibilities as a wife. My sand is reading a good book, keeping connections with friends and family. My water is checking Facebook and playing games on my phone. As I focus on my rocks, everything always gets done. I love starting my day by reading my scriptures. It's the only way to start my day. It sets the tone for the rest of my day and things always seem to go better. I'm happier, I have more energy, and things get done. And the things that go wrong don't seem so important and don't upset me as much.

I know it is important to prioritize my time because it helps me feel better and do more. And that's who I want to be.

Moral Relativism

Moral Relativism is an issue that occurs when someone thinks it is okay to base their standards on the current situation.  For example, if someone has the standard of going to church every Sunday, but rationalizes that it's okay to miss--just once--for great-great-grandma's 103 birthday, then this person is experiencing Moral Relativism.  Their morals are relative to the situation.

Prophets have taught that this is not a way to live. We cannot rationalize keeping the commandments in certain situations and breaking them in others. It just doesn't work like that. Learning about Moral Relativism has been important to me. I want to make sure it is something I avoid. I want to be a Moral Absolutist.