how rachel does it...

ah, rachel. what can i say about rachel? well, she has been my saving grace on more than one occasion. she has been a listening ear. she has encouraged me. lifted me up. strengthened me. laughed with me. cried with me. rejoiced with me. mourned with me. she calls me up for no good reason during a particularly crummy day. she offers to take leah off my hands when she already has her hands full. i just love her. i think everyone should have a rachel.

here's how rachel does it...

Trust me. I am not a great writer. I don’t have anything “neat or inspiring to write about” (yes, those were my exact words when I wrote Maren to tell her I wouldn’t be contributing). But somehow this topic of overcoming trials has stuck with me for the past few weeks. It just kept creeping back into my mind as I would lie down for a nap or sit down to read a book. I kept asking myself, “How can one stay positive amidst trials in life?”

I am not sure where I heard it, but I once heard this sentence and it has stuck with me for the past many years. It has been somewhat of a life motto for me. It has changed the way I view life.

Choose Your Hard.

What?

Choose Your Hard.

I love this. I just love it. I have even said it, out loud, to myself when I am having a hard day. I think it is easy for me to throw up my hands in despair and say, “This is too hard! I give up! I can’t do it!” So many things in life are hard. Or not fair. Or frustrating. Or devastating. Or heart breaking.

And that’s when I respond to myself “Choose your hard!”

I have two wildly crazy little boys. Some days are just plain hard. A simple trip to the park usually includes my 2 yr old jumping from a platform that is too high resulting in scraped knees, followed by crying. All this while my 3 yr old gets sand in another child’s eyes. As I am helping him to apologize (and by helping, I mean mandating by threat of time out), the 2 yr old tackles the neighbor’s dog and I run to make sure they are both okay. Someone is usually hungry, someone usually steals a sippy cup from another child, someone usually has an accident in their pants, someone usually picks up gum off the cement and swallows it before I can fish it out of his mouth. I have definitely been known to come home from days like this and cry. I usually tell myself it is too hard. And it IS hard. But it is also hard for some women who can’t have children or others who have lost children. That is hard too. I choose a hard day at the park.

I have wanted to lose weight ever since…well, for the last five years! I go on and off diets and try this exercise video and that. Sometimes I do so great for a month or so, and then waste it all on one indulgent weekend. Sometimes I take slow and steady steps towards my goal, but it can be so hard to move so slowly. It is really hard not to eat the pizza at a girl’s night out. It is hard not to eat the cookies your neighbor brought over that smell so heavenly. It is hard not to slather food in butter or cheese when you know it would taste so good! But it is also hard to feel self-conscious all the time. It is hard to not fit into the clothes you used to fit into. It is hard to not feel like you look your best. I choose to give up pizza and cookies.

I struggle almost every single day to find time to read my scriptures or say my prayers. It seems that I always have little bodies running everywhere, or wrestling, or loudly playing “car crash”, or just needing something from me. Almost as soon as I find where I have left off, my attention is being called away again. In an effort to make it easier to get my reading in, I would often leave my scriptures out on the couch so that I would have more access to them during the day. It has resulted in extra pictures being added to some pages with markers and other pages being ripped out completely. It is so hard, almost impossible, to find a peaceful moment to really read and ponder my scriptures. But it is also hard, almost impossible, to go the entire day without the strength and the power that comes when I do read. I choose the torn and tattered scriptures.

Even when hard things happen that I most definitely did NOT choose, I have realized that I still have a choice. It is hard to respond to those trials with a happy, positive attitude. But it is also hard to be plagued with bitterness, anger, and despair. I choose hope. I choose happiness.

Eventually I find that I feel grateful for those hard things I choose. I get a small glimpse of how those hard things are helping me become a better person. I realize that these hard things have brought me closer to my Heavenly Father. And, as only He can do, He starts making my hard things a little less hard. I am grateful for hard days as the park. And I am grateful for those cookies of which I didn’t have a single nibble. And I am grateful that my scriptures are falling apart. Why? Because it reminds me that life IS hard, but I can do hard things!

Choose YOUR hard!