Staying happy TODAY!

I want to be a more positive person. It's easy for me to get down on myself or to feel like i have so many problems in my life. I just want to feel free, i want to be me and i am sick of my negative attitude weighing me down because of life circumstances. Often times i dream about the tomorrows, when actually I should be enjoying today because quickly tomorrow becomes yesterday and today becomes last year. My biggest problem is dwelling on hard things. There are a lot of days i think, "Oh well when i'm married then i won't have to worry about every feeling lonely because i'll always have my husband", or "Oh once i get back in school i'll FINALLY be surrounded by lots of people"... etc. Those are partly true, however, if we just look for the next big thing in life and expect it to just cure all our problems we've passed over the smaller, more important aspects of life that help us grow. And in reality, no matter what stage we are at in life, no matter if we have the most ideal life or the funnest group of friends, we will regardless always have trials in our lives. That's just the nature of life. So how can we find the happiness in everyday?

In order to be fully  happy we must gain a firm self-esteem and positive attitude about ourselves. That only comes through full immersion in the Church.

Self-esteem and our love for God grow hand in hand, and one is not without the other. We need to first have full confidence in Heavenly Father and then we can  have full confidence in ourselves.  John Taylor once said, "If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves."Secondly, we must value our self-worth to increase our humility so we can continue to love God. Elder Maxwell said, "Humilty is not the disavowal of our worth; rather it is the sober realization of how much we are valued by God...since self-esteem controls ultimately our ability to love God, to love others, and to love life, nothing is more central than our need to build justifiable self-esteem".

 He can see the bigger picture, and if we can see the bigger picture then we can see our value and what blessings the Lord has in store for us.

I love Country music and there's a song by Brad Paisley called "Letter to me" talks about looking back at your life as a young teenager and how it's extremely hard to see the big picture. My favorite lyrics say: 

You've got so much ahead
You'll make new friends
You should see your kids and wife
And i'd end up saying have no fear
These are nowhere near the best years of your life
....
And oh you got so much going for you, going right
But i know at seventeen it's hard to see past Friday night
I wish you wouldn't worry, let it be
I'd say have a ittle faith and you'll see
if i could write a letter to me

Once we can understand that we are loved and that everything in life will work out the way it's supposed to, we can enjoy each moment of every day. We can embrace our families, we can love our friends, and we can just be happy with what we have around us.