Take Joy...It's there for the taking!

I had an "Aha," moment this week. You know the kind. Light bulb goes on, you figure something out...something profound, to you anyway. It helps to push you a little further, get you a little closer to that ever so evasive place you know you want to be, but somehow never seem to arrive. That seems to be my life, I'm always on the road, literally and figuratively. I can see who I want to be, I'm part way there...got the body, although that too seems to be a road less traveled these days. However, I have ambitions, not yet accomplished in this life. Things I love, that make me, me! I had the thought driving home one day, of all the trials my friends and family are facing and dealing with. And of those trials, the one that stuck out in my mind was, that of overcoming self. To master the all-evasive individual that at times we make ourselves become. If we can master ourselves, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually in this life. What a great advantage we will have in the life to come. God has so much more in store for us. This is certainly a test, rather an experiment in our abilities to see which grade we'll get and which class to place us in next. I often think of my cousin, Nicole. She's fabulous and forty like me. But, she's battled more than 13 years with cancer. I often think of what has been her incentive to keep going. She's had tumor after tumor, surgery after surgery, endless chemo, blistering radiation therapy and even a liver transplant from a portion of her brother's liver. Yet, she still remains hopeful. Why? Because she believes. Moreover, she knows. She knows "what," she's in the fight for. The "What," is the key. What is it that keeps us going. Why, at times do we want to throw in the towel, and what keeps us from doing it.
I must say, that it was fabulous to actually be in sacrament today. There I was... watching Brandon bless the sacrament and suddenly I was overcome with joy. There I was, on the pew (the small one), with my family of six, squished together, practically on eachother's lap, elbows poking and yet, I felt great joy. There I was, listening to a song of my Savior and his birth and sacrifice and oh...the joy I felt. Here I am, so grateful for the small things, and oh the joy I feel. Family! They bring me so much joy. That is my, "What." My family, they are why I am in this plight and together not separate we will win the fight! Take JOY in those moments of simple family life, however so crazy or mundane. Take JOY...it's the one thing in this life we are promised.