Perfect

My sister has recently become engaged, and as such my Mom is on a search for the perfect cupcake for the wedding.  In the pictures is a box of the most recent 9 cupcakes I have been asked to taste test (we all have to make sacrifices!).  If I had the recipes I would share- but the Oreo cupcakes were divine!  Mint Chocolate also deserves an honorable mention!  Have you wondered why wheat grass didn’t taste like chocolate, and chocolate like wheat grass?  It would be easier to maintain a healthy life style!

But even for those who do their best to be healthy, and as sweet as those things were, some other things, such as this creature found at the bottom of a box of oranges were not quite in “top condition!”  I figured with the nice wrapper which oranges have, the inside would still be good and fine to eat! . . . I am just teasing; I did not taste the orange.  I was thrown off by the oneness shared between the box and the orange- meaning the bottom of the box and some innards of the orange stayed attached as I lifted the orange out.  To give you an idea on my train of thought- I am thinking today about getting old and hope.

I was recently told I fit in very well at a senior home I was visiting- and I do relate to a few things very well which they are going through.  A favorite question I recently had which I asked them was in reference to pickling.  Have you heard the phrase that all people pickle- just some are sour and some are sweet?  Last time I was visiting the center I asked a few wonderful daughters of our Heavenly Father if they had any advice about pickling. 

For some reason I love sharing the responses- one mentioned how “well no one here is sour!!”  Another woman answered “well, I just don’t like pickles.”  (It sounds a little cynical or down here- but she was a very positive lady!)  A common theme being- don’t stick around bad things!  If you want to pickle sweet, surround yourself with good things! 

We have our pickling moments in this life.  I don’t want to be a pickle, sweet or sour.  I would prefer to stay a cucumber- they are much healthier and delightful anyway.  But, as taxing as life can get, I do know it is for a purpose.  I know God lives, and I know Jesus Christ did rise from the tomb.  I know just as He rose we all can rise over our challenges and sorrows, and we can be resurrected as He has been. 

Bringing the Lord into our hearts is a daily process of opening ourselves to Him and being willing to follow His will.  I am grateful for the passion which Elder Holland puts into this video and the love which he shows for the Savior: