I Hate Sarah Smith: Not a Writing Contest Winner

Recently, I entered a flash fiction writing contest. It needed to be 200 words or less and include a twist. Mine was cutting it close at 193 words. When I entered my story, “I Hate Sarah Smith,” the contest through Fusilli Writing was free. It was the last free contest for the company, and they…… Continue reading I Hate Sarah Smith: Not a Writing Contest Winner

They Must Be Rich: Seeing the Dandelions for the Flowers

Earlier this year, I was walking in our neighborhood with my niece. who is 5 years old. We walked by several houses, some of which had beautiful flowers in flower beds. Others had dandelions and morning glory growing in their lawns. My niece admired the lawns. Her Flower Attitude Before long, my niece said, “Can…… Continue reading They Must Be Rich: Seeing the Dandelions for the Flowers

I Must Be Perfect Now… Or Not

In life, we often feel like we have to present ourselves as perfect. Social media often adds to this desire to appear as though we do everything perfectly and have the perfect life. Unfortunately, as we do this, we present an inaccurate representation of ourselves, and in turn, we may make others feel like they’ll…… Continue reading I Must Be Perfect Now… Or Not

We Don’t Have a Monopoly on “Love Thy Neighbor”

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, service and “love thy neighbor” are emphasized repeatedly. While serving others is a great thing, sometimes as members of the church we can get prideful about it or other aspect of our religion. We can begin to think that we’re the only church that…… Continue reading We Don’t Have a Monopoly on “Love Thy Neighbor”

Maybe Their Blinker’s Broken: Don’t Be So Quick to Judge

This wasn’t the post I’d planned to write today. It wasn’t even on my list of potential future blog topics. Yet, as I was working at the temple yesterday, the outline for a blog about how we sometimes judge others without the full story came to me. Because of that, I felt that this was…… Continue reading Maybe Their Blinker’s Broken: Don’t Be So Quick to Judge

Cross the Line: A Nonwinning Protest to Impress Story

A while back, I entered a writing contest for “Not Quite Write.” When I entered the contest, I knew almost nothing about the company, so I entered based 100% on the contest rules. There were four rules. First, it had to be no more than 600 words. Second, it had to have someone cross a…… Continue reading Cross the Line: A Nonwinning Protest to Impress Story

General Conference is Over- What I Learned- Now What?

Last week, I wrote a bit of a pre-General Conference post. I talked about some of the reasons that I looked forward to General Conference. Now I’d like to focus on what I learned from the most recent sessions as well as how my excitement matched up with each thing that I was excited about.…… Continue reading General Conference is Over- What I Learned- Now What?

Forgiveness: Do I Really Understand What It Means?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness. Like many people, I sometimes find this principle difficult to fully understand. It’s easy to confuse forgiveness with allowing that person to continue to hurt you. Because I don’t fully understand it, I don’t always apply forgiveness properly in my life. Sometimes, I’m not 100% sure if…… Continue reading Forgiveness: Do I Really Understand What It Means?

Getting the Church Pew Out of My Eye

Recently, my family got the chance to help clean the church on two occasions. In both cases, I ended up vacuuming the chapel. I’ll admit it. I’ve come into the chapel before on Sunday as the first ward in the building and been a bit judgmental about the quality of the chapel vacuuming. Never again,…… Continue reading Getting the Church Pew Out of My Eye