2013: MORE KINDNESS

I returned home from a really nice extended visit to my "home" in St. George. It was filled with lots of laughs, fun visits from friends, too much good food and a night of recalling childhood memories of Christmas with all of my siblings. It was loud and busy and joyful! I am always brokenhearted to leave my family, but grateful for the many tender mercies life tosses me through all of this journey. I had been pondering things that I would like to improve during 2013 (trust me, there is a very long list, likely many that others would like to recommend for me). But my overall goal is to add more kindness to life. Something that seems to be missing for many people lately. We are too busy, we forget simple courtesies and manners and are rather self absorbed much of the time. So for this year, forget the ever failing goal of losing weight. I vow to be more kind. 

As I returned home from the airport very late, my sweet friend Jill (my "tough" Harley riding friend, remember her from Easter post dressed as rabbit bearing chocolate filled basket very early at my door)set an amazing example of kindness to me. She knew I would get home late, sad and without any food in my fridge for lunch the next day. This kind gal sent me a text directing me to look on the chair by my door the next morning. On the chair I found this really yummy lunch packed with  pure love! It had homemade stew, luscious bread, caramel chocolate almonds, apples and a diet coke. The sweetest thing: a really funny card(it referred to shoe shopping) with the nicest note from her in it! You that know me can imagine that this sent me to work crying like a baby because my extreme gratitude from kindness such as this was overwhelming. Jill did more than feed me lunch this day. She warmed my soul, touched my heart and gave me something to emulate as an example of kindness.

My lunch packed with love! How cool is it to carry your lunch in a Harley Davidson bag?

So as I enter 2013, I will try to infuse more kindness into life. A few thoughts that help me are here: An inspired talk by an incredibly kind and noble man, click here to read entire message: "Happiness, your heritage"

As we lift others, we rise a little higher ourselves. President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls.” ⁹

President Gordon B. Hinckley believed in the healing power of service. After the death of his wife, he provided a great example to the Church in the way he immersed himself in work and in serving others. It is told that President Hinckley remarked to one woman who had recently lost her husband, “Work will cure your grief. Serve others.”

These are profound words. As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.

President Lorenzo Snow expressed a similar thought: “When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated.” ¹⁰

In today’s world of pop psychology, junk TV, and feel-good self-help manuals, this advice may seem counterintuitive. We are sometimes told that the answer to our ills is to look inward, to indulge ourselves, to spend first and pay later, and to satisfy our own desires even at the expense of those around us. While there are times when it is prudent to look first to our own needs, in the long run it doesn’t lead to lasting happiness.

Dieter Uchtdorf:

"We each have a covenant responsibility to be sensitive to the needs of others and serve as the Savior did-to reach out, bless, and uplift those around us. Often, the answer to our prayers does not come while we're on our knees but while we are on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the sindows of heaaven. By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answer to our own."

A few simple things that I will start with:

• send a card
• open a door
• pick up a dropped object
• give a sincere compliment
• return some else's shopping cart
• smile
• be interested
• say something nice to lift someone
• thank a teacher, friend or co worker 
• pay for the person behind you in the drive through once in a while
• let someone else in front of you in line
• act when prompted to do something kind