The Beautiful Life That Is Ours

I had my first baby on December 27th, 2007, but our story started a few years before that...

I love my God and my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love my husband. I love my life. I am so blessed in so many ways. I want my family, my husband, my kids, their kids to know that I have a testimony of the love that our Savior has for us. I know that the Plan of Salvation is truly the Plan of Happiness. I know that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior and that he took my sins upon him so that I could have this beautiful life not only here on earth, but in the eternities to come.

I think Sister Marjorie Hinckley described my desire perfectly when she said, "I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someones garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

I thank the Lord that I have been given the opportunity to not only have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life, but to have had the experiences I have had, and the amazing examples of gospel leaders, family members, and my sweet husband that have all helped to and continue to shape me into the person I want to be.

I pray that my life will serve as a testament to the reality of the love and mercy or our Savior, that I can truly be a light unto others and that will glorify my Father, who is in Heaven.