Abundance and Resolve

The First Presidency Message for this month is entitled "Living the Abundant Life" and I couldn't help stopping to think about the title when I saw it on my home page this morning. 

What is a life of abundance? After Christmas I feel like we can probably all look around at our shiny new material possessions and feel very aware of our fortune and abundance. I certainly have been well stocked-up by Santa Clause. The Christmas Spirit, however, isn't in the possessions. As the Grinch discovers, in Dr. Seuss' children's book, Christmas is a little bit more. If abundance, too, is more than just the material- then what is it?

Clearly the answers are in the message from the First Presidency and I can't pretend to be able to explain anything so well or make observations that are as relevant and meaningful in our world. But I can talk about how it effects my life and that might be relevant to some of the people who read this.

Though the picture above is just a bit of fun (Dublin, March 2010) it has a lot of meaning for me. Largely the abundance in our lives is measured by the people surrounding us. There is a longing within all of us to spend time with people that love us and whom we love in return. There is an amazing joy that comes in taking people into our hearts and allowing them to influence and inspire us. I feel that in order for me to have a more abundant life one of the things I need to do is to cut down on some of my sarcastic humour in order to better love the people who are in my life. Often I am guilty of going for the cheap joke rather than using kind words to everyone. We all love a bit of 'banter', right? But I have this theory that life would be more abundant if I said more of what I mean and less of what seems humorous at the time. This will be a big challenge for me but I'm going to rejoice in small victories.

Another thing came up recently while talking to a friend. We were on the phone and she mentioned that she felt she wanted to increase in knowledge of the scriptures so that she could feel more confident to speak up and share the things she'd learned with others. I loved hearing her voice this because I knew that she was right and that I could also benefit from this. We came to a decision together that it would be good to have weekly goals for things to study and then we will talk to each other about them one day during that week and learn from each other. I am so excited about this plan and am eager to implement it. I feel that this will bring an abundance of knowledge and happiness into my life as well as strengthening a great friendship.

Lastly, I think abundance is a lot to do with how we feel about ourselves and I find that I feel better about myself when I am working on something and working towards something. So, along with the things above, I intend on working hard on my personal progress in Young Women's this year. One of the things I particularly want to do is to develop my ability to play the piano as part of one of my value projects.  


Directly from the message from the First Presidency comes the quote that will keep me going when I'm trying to accomplish these 3 aims this year:

You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith.

Thomas S. Monson