A Response to another man's Blog:

I read an interesting article on another man's blog the other day. It was interesting to see. I just wanted to write out my response here. What I believe, so that I will not leave you in any doubt as to how I feel:

I believe in Love. Not romantic, love, but pure love. Like, charity, the pure love of Christ. I believe in loving the person, even if I hate their actions. I believe that every person on Earth is a child of God, and has the same rights to be here as I do. I believe that they have the same rights to make right and wrong choices as I do, and to discover for themselves through prayer, and action what those choices are. I believe that I can and will be happier if I look to God to help me make those decisions. I believe that life is easier if I don't sweat the small things, and I am happier if I don't take myself so seriously. I believe in eating meat, but I also believe that if someone wants to choose not to eat meat then they should still be loved.

One of the blessings of living in this land of the free is that I am free to believe what I believe, and you are free to believe what you believe. I make choices for me. I don't let other people take that agency away from me, but I give it freely to God. Because it is all that I can give to Him.

I know that God loves his children. He gives us challenges to help us grow, and he won't give us any that we can't handle. We may not be able to handle many of our challenges on our own, but with His help, we can.

I believe in the Atonement through Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered so that I may be made pure again. I believe I would be a fool to ignore this sacrifice. I have much room for improvement, but I believe that through true and complete repentance I may progress towards perfection.

I believe in modern day revelation. Earlier today I had the chance to listen to the prophet of our day speak. He spoke about Christmas, and holding Christ at the center of our celebrations. I believe he is an inspired man, and that he receives revelations from God to help us, today, in our time.

I believe that his predecessors are all true prophets too. I believe that Joseph Smith truly did see God and His Son, Jesus Christ in that sacred grove of trees, and that the Book of Mormon is a true, and inspired text.

I believe that if I make good choices, and submit to my Father in Heaven's will for me I will be happier than I would be if I tried to force my own will in the way of His.

Finally, I just want to reiterate that I believe in love. I am not perfect (and though I believe this principle with all my heart, I am still working on executing it as expertly as my Savior did), but I believe in love. I believe that God loves me, and that He loves every person I come into contact with. If He loves them, then that must mean that it is okay for me to love them too. If He loves them, then I need to love them too. So as we reach the end of the year, I make a resolution to love better. I resolve to judge less, and to give of myself more freely to others. It doesn't matter what a person is, or does, they are still a child of God, and I resolve to love them as such.

With hopes for success in my new resolution,

PenningJade

January 2010

Hey, it's the last week of January and a lot of stuff has happened. Here's a quick bulleted list:

• I turned eighteen! Which means that my library card has expired :( so now i have to get a new one.
• I survived my school's Totalitarian Simulation. We simulated a totalitarian society, and I was in the party. It was a neat experience, and I now hold much greater value on my freedoms as an American!
• My car died, but then was revived thanks to the smartness of my uncle, and the generosity of my parents.
• I went to the UTA Conference at UVU. it was really cool. The keynote speaker was Ann Bogart. She gave an awesome speech. I took pages of notes, it not only gave me good tips for acting, but great information for life in general.
• I have been given the opportunity to be the lead in my favorite play. I'm so thrilled! I am Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing! I'm so excited! the performance is in May, those who would like to come see it (it's being put on by the high school) contact me, and I'll get you more info.
• My best friend left on his mission last month, and I'm excited for him. Every letter from him makes me feel like a zillion dollars, and every time I write a letter to him, I feel so much better. It's a great thing. To all young men reading this blog: go on a mission, it's the best thing for you!
• Christmas & New Year's were great. I got to spend the whole time with my family, whom I love!

well, that's about all I have time for, I'll try to get more on soon.

I wish you all happy lives happy days, happy hearts!

-Crystal Jade

Nothing to blog about for my last blog of the year....

i really don't have anything to say but i figure that writing a blog is better than sitting on the couch watching the Disney channel all day....

merry Christmas to everyone! (a week late, but all the same).

i love to think over all that i have progressed this year. there are a few things i would have liked to say i accomplished this year, but some of them i didn't.

• i didn't get my drivers license.
• i didn't lose the 20 pounds i set out to lose.
• i didn't write three novels.
• i fought with my sisters way too much
• and i didn't get a job.

it's really my fault with all of these. i didn't get my license because i forgot to get the paperwork all put together before yesterday. and the rest of my goals were a little unrealistic (it's really really hard not to fight with your siblings when you share a bathroom)

but there were a lot of things i did manage to do.

• i got my hours for my drivers license
• i finally accepted that i am not a twig, nor do i want to be a twig.
• i wrote one really great novel
• i have gotten used to the fact that my sisters will pick on me a lot, so i just need to ignore it (much easier said than done)
• and i applied for a job, and plan on applying for more.
• i got a 4.0 for two trimesters.
• i made a friend out of an enemy.
• i went on my first date, and my second one too. (both were setups, still not been asked)
• i learned how to share a cell phone.
• i made a lot of amazing friends.
• i even lettered in academics.

i am pretty proud of my accomplishments. i did a lot of things that i never thought i could have. 2008 has been a pretty great year!

i am, however, excited to get past this milestone. my sixteenth year. wow. i'm almost seventeen!

i hope to do a world of good next year. here's a basic overview of what i want to accomplish in 2009.

• get my license
• get a job
• go to prom (most likely by myself, but i'd love to be asked!)
• get all my classes ready for graduation.
• get into the advanced drama classes for next school year.
• do the school musical for next school year.
• apply for colleges
• get into college.
• and date some boys (that's a carryover from last year's list)

i also have a few major goals that are a bit bigger. they fall into four catagories: spiritual, physical, social, and intelectual. i have mad a goal for those catagories as well as an overall goal for 2009.

• spiritual- write in my journol. i am good about blogging big events, even journoling them, but i need to get better about writing down the little mercies in my life.
• physical- workout 60 min. a week. most years my goal is to lose a certian ammount of weight, or to excercise alot. but in reality, i'm not that into sports and excersize, so i've decided that 60 min. a week is perfect for me.
• socially- tolerate stupid people doing stupid stuff that i catch myself doing from time to time. Hypocracy isn't my favorite thing, but i catch myself doing it alot, so i've decited that it will be eiser to like others if i excuse them of my faults.
• intilectual- study for 30 min. a day increase to 45 min. for test week. i've decided that in 2009 i'm going to try somehting new: studying. i have usually gotten A's with no effort, but lately that isn't so. so i'm going to actually study every day! weird huh?!
• OVER ALL- i've decided that in 2009 i need to learn to like myself better. i need to learn that i have faults, and learn to be okay with that. if i learn to lie me, i can more easily learn to like others. and to accept the fact that people may actually like me!

this year has been great! but lets say hello to 2009 in style!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (a little early...)