with out getting too emotional... who am i kidding?... here it comes!...

this year, i feel like i have grow closer to my heavenly father, more then at any other time in my life. i feel for the first time a true understanding of the atonement.

i feel blessed to have the knowledge that i am a daughter of god.(even when i mess up) and that he can take away my pain and trials and turn them into something beautiful, that can then used for good.

i know that he hears my prayers, and he will answer them. and that even when they are not the answers i was looking for, i can still feel peace in knowing he has a plan for me.

i love the peace and joy i have found in trusting him. in knowing he is there. and that he stands with his arms out stretched, waiting to embrace us at any moment in our lives. we just need to ask. he has soo many blessing just waiting to be poured upon us, if we would have the faith to believe in him, and trust in him, and to love him.

i know that he can guide us to the answers we need, i know that he places people in our path to help us, and to lift us, and that he sends his angles to watch over us.

i am grateful for my children, how they bring me so much joy. and they teach me lessons i don't think i would have ever learned if it hadn't been through their sweet spirits pushing me to grow. for their examples of faith, and love and forgiveness.

i am thankful for my husband who loves me, even though he has seen me at my absolute worst. i can share my soul and most appalling secrets with him, and some how he still finds/sees the best in me. that he can ground me, when my emotions go flying off the charts. that he has saved me more times then he will ever know.

i am so grateful to be sealed in the temple. to know that our families are forever. and that death is not a goodbye. that we have so much joy waiting for us in the next life, if we can endure this one.

i am especially grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. for the example he set, for the love that he has, and the pains that he suffered, for me, and in behalf of this whole world. i will forever be indebted to him. i will try to be a more faithful servant to him and to find ways to be more like him. so that when i stand before him in that great day he will know me,and call me friend.

i want you to know that no matter how lost you are, he knows where you're at. i want you to know that his love can find and has felt the deepest, darkest, loneliest, angriest most bitterly wounded parts of your heart, and he can repair all the broken pieces and fill it with his peace. that he can make you whole and happy. and that you can find rest in his embrace. i invite you to seek him and trust him and know for yourself the love he has for you. this i pray ...