Don't ASSUME...

It's Sunday. I have been thinking so much about my life and things that are important to me. Brian and I were married four months ago. Time goes so fast and it seems life just get's so busy. I have been focusing on my family and our new adjustments.

                              Capri and Beckett are 7 weeks old.

Brian is truly a blessing from God to my life. This man is kind, honest, loving and has blessed me to heal my heart is countless ways. I know that we each see every day as a blessing to have found each other.

Zach just turned 18 years old. 

He is preparing to serve a mission for our church. Zach is very special and is so excited and thankful to do this. He wanted to go to BYU for college.

Cooper is now 5 months old (yesterday).

He is smiling and such a happy baby.

I sure love those grand babies. 

I have to say that I am so proud of my children. I am proud of Brian's children. I miss Maxson, Zellie and Tenneson. They are truly the cutest little kids. I am grateful for my FAMILY. There has been so many adjustments in our life and today in church something HIT my HEART. Well, I was overcome with emotion.

I realized that for me as much as I love my "job" what I love most is the opportunity to support other people as they "go for their dreams." I know that NO one has it easy. NOT one of us. We are all insecure, fearful and feel lost at times. We have to battle to keep going and see the good. We all do. We are meant for greatness. We are here to help one another. 

I knew I needed to blog and share it. I know that with my book out now, that many of you have read it. I have felt completely vulnerable with sharing what I did. I knew that many of you are like me. I know it's hard sometimes to share the things that have hurt us or things that make us feel weak or fearful. I want to share WHY I wrote the book and  WHY I blog.  I KNOW how important it is to share our journey with others. We each have a story to share. We each can help someone else.  This is my WHY.

Recently, I had a friend tell me about someone that disliked someone I personally know very well because "someone" had said something "negative" to them about this person. I was astounded and saddened. It really made me think.  I was really amazed that this person decided NOT to like someone because of something someone said about them. I could not wrap my head around how wrong this is. I thought about my own life. I thought about the times people have "assumed" that they know me, know my story, know my heart and intentions. I talked about it in my book. We instantly judge other people. We see someone and we "ASSUME" they are a certain way. Maybe we judge a person or a situation.

Then today in church we had a great message...

DON'T ASSUME.

I admit, I instantly thought about my friend. I thought to myself, WHY do some people choose to tear or assume negative things about someone else? It has made me realize that there are so many MISSED opportunities for friendship and growth because of this.

I know on a personal level, I have people "assume" things about me and my family. It has made me realize how important it is to "encourage" and support others in our life journey. I simply do not see the need to hurt someone else. I am a firm believer in sharing the good in others. In a world that wants to tear other people down, we must make a conscious choice to BUILD others up.

 If you hear someone talking bad about someone that you know or may not know, do you judge the situation or the person based on what someone else is saying? I think I have surprised people by saying I don't want to be involved because I was not there and too often stories are misrepresented. I loved this thought...

CULTIVATE KINDNESS

I am on a personal mission to be kinder and wiser in all that I do. LIFE is so hard, I want to help make the world a better place by spreading peace and support. I strive to FOCUS on "what matters most." I am just simply GRATEFUL. I know that for me, it's not WHAT I have in my life but WHO I have. I am forever grateful. THANK YOU for all of you who are reaching out to me and have read my book. I was deeply humbled to know it's already on it's 2nd reprint. I can't thank you each enough for your support and for the feedback that helped me to know I made the "hard" but right decision to share such a personal story.