Enduring Love

“Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good, and the foundation of a successful marriage.”

–Richard G. Scott

—“I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion." 
- Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, Nov. 2009, p. 71

Sometimes videos are so powerful that they don’t even require any words. Every single time I watch this I am brought to tears. Marriage is an ideal setting for unselfish love. It helps us to come closer to Christ. Love is not about you, it is about the person you love. The more we serve others then the more we will be capable of loving them. I hope that someday I can have a marriage that is selfless like the one in this video! 

Below is a link to a blog post that circulated around Facebook a couple months ago. It goes right along with this video. I really liked the post and I wanted to share it! It is entitled, “Marriage Isn’t For You”.

http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/

St. Geezy

I was fortunate enough to go to St. George this weekend with a group of my friends. We had such a blast! It was so refreshing to get out of Provo and to enjoy some sunshine. The weather was perfect and I seriously have the BEST friends! 

This is one of the few group photos we got all weekend. We were in church and some of us forgot our church clothes haha. Of course I would be the one to ruin the photo haha. 

We are missing Barton and Chris in this photo but this was taken right after we beat a family in volleyball at the park. They were watching us play for a long time, almost evaluating us. They kept sending up one of the teenage boys to put money in the net. We were all so confused and then we realized that they were betting us money! They put $210 in the net! It was tempting to bet them the money but we decided to play them just for fun instead. Maybe we should have bet them because we ended up winning ;) haha 

25 on Main for lunch salads with ma main gurls Erin and Kennedy!

We went rock climbing on Valentines day. I felt so adventurous and it was so much fun! We ended up running into another group of kids from BYU and making friends. Kennedy and I were surrounded by about 12 awesome men! I would say my Valentines day turned out to be successful! 

I am so grateful to have such a fun group of friends! We had no drama and the trip was a great combination of sunshine, fun, adventure, relaxing, crazy, and everything in between. One night we were all sitting around playing card games, talking about how much fun we were having, and the topic of cell phones and media came up. We all agreed that one of the reasons why we had so much fun was because all of us kind of put our phones, computers, and social media away for the weekend. We were really able to savor the moment and enjoy each other. I think we all need to be careful not to let media take over our lives. It is so easy to be too concerned about posting on your Snapchat story instead of living in the moment, worrying too much about taking pictures, keeping up on your Instagram, and so forth. We all need to evaluate ourselves and our use of media. Remember to enjoy the moment and to appreciate the people that are around you! 

5 Great Songs To Cry Alone To

With Valentines day right around the corner, I thought that this was just great. This is so funny which makes it great. This is somewhat true which makes it even greater. This article was written by my good friend, Hali. (link below) She is just great. Valentines day is just GREAT! Great, great, great…. More like happy Singles Awareness Day to me haha J xoxoxo

http://thoughtcatalog.com/hali-carter/2015/02/5-great-songs-to-cry-alone-to/ 

50 Shades of Grey

Just kidding! This is not another post arguing about the release of the 50 Shades of Grey movie this weekend, but this IS a post about books and the hidden mysteries that are inside. In class earlier this week we talked about books and their content. It is funny how we hold books to a higher standard than other media. It is not ok to ever say anything bad about books because books are almost “untouchable”. Well I disagree with that. After looking at some of the popular teenage books, I was blown away by their content. There were lots of graphic sexual scenes and 100’s of F words in some of these books aimed towards TEENAGERS. If these books were movies they would definitely be rated R. The scary thing is that these books are all very readily available to children at a young age. Why are we allowing children and teens to read this kind of content but it is not acceptable for them to watch it in a movie? Why have ratings on video games, movies, and other types of media but not books?

This is an argument that makes lots of people really mad. I thought this topic was ironic because of the release of the 50 Shades Of Grey movie this weekend. I have seen countless numbers of posts on social media about this book that has turned into a movie. What if this book had a rating in the first place? What if people knew what they were getting into before they read the book? Would parents allow their teenagers to read this book if they really knew the content beforehand? I really do think that ratings on books could make a big difference. Hopefully people can realize that ratings on books would not be to discourage people from reading books, but it would be to monitor the content that they are exposed to. I think this is an important thing to consider. What do you think about ratings on books? Do you think this would discourage people from reading or encourage people to read even more?

The 16 most interesting college lists featuring BYU | Deseret News

I have had multiple friends send me links to different articles with my picture on it from the BYU vs. Virginia football game on September 20th. Deseret News came out with an article this week (link below) and my picture is in this article too! There was a group of us that slept out in line in front of the stadium to try and get good seats for this game. We definitely got great seats! Front row of the student section! We made this "Give 'Em Hill" sign and we thought we were so clever. I guess it got everyones attention because had a worker from ESPN come up to us during the game and tell us to smile at the camera during the break before 4th quarter. We made it onto ESPN! That was months ago, but it hasn't stopped there. We have been in KSL articles, ESPN, and now our picture made this Deseret News article. Who knew that this one silly sign would keep popping back up in the media?

The 16 most interesting college lists featuring BYU | Deseret News (Go to picture #7)

The Power of Music

In my Media, Family, and Human Development class we had a lecture about the power of music. I was so surprised at how much music can influence people. Music can affect spirituality, identity, and personality. Music is transgressive, which means that it makes people think and do things they normally wouldn’t. Sounds pretty powerful doesn’t it? Well studies show that music happens to be more important than any other media type in managing your mood and expressing your identity.

This was kind of a reality check for me. Am I listening to music that is positively affecting my life or negatively affecting my life? In rap and hip-hop music there tends to be lots of sexual references and women are very objectified. It is said that boys cant listen to rap music in front of women because the music teaches the boys how to be men. If rap and hip-hop music teaches the boys how to behave then that terrifies me. Why would you want to listen to music where women are constantly objectified and put down? I know that I don’t want to listen to women being objectified. I don’t want those thoughts running around in my head and eventually turning into beliefs and actions. I know I am worth much more than that. I know I am a woman that wants to be respected. Music is scary powerful and I think it is really important that we all start listening to good, uplifting music from now on.

In class we also learned about how music can be positive as well. Prosocial music inspires people to go out and do good in the world. This song by Gavin DeGraw was shared and I really enjoyed it. Go out and do something good today! Xo

Will You Accept This Rose??

Tonight is the night. I know, I know, I am a day late. BUT, I had to go to FHE last night and have a pre-super bowl party! So now I get to have a Bachelor party tonight! I decided to invite a bunch of friends over to my apartment. I honestly don’t understand why I love this show so much but I just do. The dating and the drama and the scandal. It is all just so entertaining! It is so hilarious to watch just how crazy some of the girls get. I mean I can kind of see why, who actually dates 30 girls at one time? Of course that would get emotional, cutthroat, and dramatic! This got me to thinking about dating in our day. Particularly dating in Provo.

Dating in Provo is an art. It is something that takes awhile to master. I sat back and chuckled as I found comparisons between dating in Provo and The Bachelor.

Never Ending Dating Pool. Dating in Provo is similar to the Bachelor because in Provo there seems to be a never ending dating pool. There is always someone else around the corner. This is especially exaggerated lately because of social media and apps like Tinder. It is just too easy to get connected to so many people at once. The Bachelor has 30 women and one man. I would say that is a pretty large dating pool, especially to date them all at one time. Maybe not 30 women at once, but I think if you tried, you could almost get away with that in Provo.

First Impression. The first night of the show is always interesting. Girls come in on motorcycles, singing, telling jokes, and whatever else you can think of! What about the first week in church in a singles ward in Provo? Oh those lovely singles wards.... When everyone gets all dressed up to make sure they get noticed. Double points if you bear your testimony in church that week. Sound familiar Provo?

Cookie Cutter. Sad but true, we all know there have been suspicions of racial discrimination on the show. There also isn’t very much diversity here in Provo.

One on One. In Provo you better know how to master the first date. If it doesn’t go well then you probably wont “get a rose” or in other words, “get another date” because you can easily have another 5 first dates that same week if you wanted.  

Willing To Do Whatever It Takes To Find Love. You have to be dating for the right reasons. The Bachelor contestants are constantly telling everyone that they are on the show for the “right reasons”. This can be applied to Provo dating too. There are Provo-All-Stars and Players everywhere. You have to watch your back in dating and make sure that you, and the others, are dating for the right reasons. (A.k.a. eventually getting married in the temple, duh!)

Will You Marry Me? Another similarity I thought of is the pressure to get married. There is clearly a stigma at BYU that if you don’t get married by the time you graduate, then you are a failure. Just like the Bachelor. There is an engagement at the end. This forces decisions to be rushed to be made. This causes stress and pressure. People get really aggressive in dating. This also makes the girls, and boys, go crazy and do things they normally wouldn’t. Just. Like. The. Bachelor.

Maybe this is why I like the show so much. Maybe it is more related to real life than you think! I cant help it, I just LOVE The Bachelor!!! Xoxo