Rejoice, We Have Every Reason To

Eric conquered his first day of school with much success! He found all of his classes, enjoyed all of his professors (except for the one with the heavy French accent said "durechos" but he really meant "the lectures") and even found a good parking spot for free (which is saying a lot for ASU)!

In our little family we try to celebrate even the little things and so of course we had to go out for a "first day of school celebration dinner". When Eric arrived home I whisked him into the car and we drove to north Scottsdale for a delicious dinner at Maggiano's.

After arriving back home we had a nice quaint little family night. We talked about goals that we have been working on and things that we can make even better in our marriage. We sang several hymns (the traditional opening and closing hymn does not suffice for us...we usually sing 3 or 4 because this is one of our favorite parts of FHE :) ) and ended with smoothies for dessert. My darling Eric is awesome about making sure we have always have family night. I love him.

At the close of our FHE Eric and I listed our many many blessings (which is a tradition we try to do every night before our family prayer). Our minds have been full lately of many hard things that have been happening, not only within our own lives, but in the lives of those who we know closely and others who we've never met but know of. We know Heavenly Father gives us trials to grow and become more like him. We are ever thankful for the strength we receive from our loving Heavenly Father while doing our best to endure through trials. We know Heavenly Father is aware of all that we are going through, both trials and tribulations, and never leaves us alone. He has a plan for each of us. As we reflected on these powerful and comforting truths, Eric and I realized that we need to rejoice for all that we have. We truly are so blessed. WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO REJOICE. We've decided to coin this as our new family theme. Whenever things are hard, whenever we get angry, whenever we feel that things aren't fair, this phrase reminds us that we can find happiness and joy in our many blessings and in the gospel.

Life will never get so bad that we cannot find something good in it. There is always a reason to smile. Remember that.