Power of a Smile

(Copyright Intellectual Reserve and lds.org)

Today was kinda a blah day. Rain. I wish I could dance in the rain. 

I heard this story once about a guy who went everyday to this bridge. He would smile and wave at every car that would pass by. In the beginning, people would sometimes wave back. But for a while nobody smiled back at him. This really hurt him, and one day he wrote a note and left it in his apartment saying that if nobody smiled at him that day he would jump the bridge into the river. He had no family or friends, and so those smiles people gave him was his world. When that stopped, his world stopped. That day no one smiled at him. :(

I hope your smile never needs to be a factor into a life or death situation, but the point is, you never know what struggle or pain is going on in a person's life. So you should try to brighten everyone's day. Smile at people you pass in the hall. Give a compliment to someone you barely know. 

There was a girl I knew once. She was a little overweight, and bullied a lot. She was quiet and barely looked into peoples faces because she was afraid that she would get hurt. 

I kept feeling like I should do something nice for her. I would smile and talk to her sometimes, but I knew I could do better. So for valentines day, I decided to give her a valentine. Now you must understand, back then, Fundip was gold and if you got it for a valentine you were forever in their debt. 

When I gave her that Fundip, her face lit up so much. She looked at me and tentatively asked, " for me?"  She probably hadn't gotten any valentines day cards or candy yet, and watched on the side as others received gifts galore. 

She moved away a week later. I was so grateful to have shown her that small kindness, to let her know that someone cared about her. I hope she is doing better where she lives now. I hope she knows how much her Father in heaven loves her. 

I would feel so guilty if I hadn't been kind to her before she moved away. So don't procrastinate your kindness. You don't know what effect you can make on people. :)

Go make someone smile for me ;)

Crayola is Smart

(copyright Intellectual reserve and lds.org)

Okay, so it might just be the artist in me, but I just love Crayola.

So, on Sunday our lesson was on unity. They asked us how we could describe unity in an object lesson. I came up with this:

So, say everyone is assigned a color. We are all crayons, and your color is brown. That kind of stinks, you think. You can't draw beautiful rainbows, or paint a night sky. You can't make awe-inspiring sunshine like yellow, and you didn't even get a color that stands for beauty at all. But it was the luck of the draw, and you are stuck with it. 

As you continue on your career as a crayon, you notice you are the last color picked. Little children have loved and worn down all the purples to a stump, yet you've only been used once to draw a girls hair. No love for you. Soon the box is discarded and you are left alone with the other colors, only half used and unloved, while they taunt you because the only thing you are good for drawing is dung. 

Alone, you feel ugly and unwanted. Looking at the other colors, you notice red is too rash and glaring, orange too prideful, yellow is somewhat unkind. Green gets jealous often, blue is depressed, and purple seems to be hiding something. Alone, all the colors have lost their beauty. You start to wonder why the world even invented crayons, if every color alone is disgusting. 

But there is one who sees your true worth. That is Heavenly Father. The world is like a child, telling us we need to be perfect this and perfect that. It uses us for a short scribble, but quickly the trends change and you are discarded. Remember, Satan is never there to lift you up. 

Heavenly Father sees the worth in your humble color. Though you may not have apparent beauty, God sees your full potential. He is the Master Artist and Creator, he sees us as we can one day be. 

The Artist finds the discarded colors and is sad. The world has degraded and belittled us. But he knows how to guide us to become a beautiful masterpiece. We just need to put our crayon in his hand and let him do his magic. 

This picture of deer is what a true Master can do. And look! Your humble brown is the main event! No longer can blue and red belittle you, for you were made to do amazing things!

 I guess I strayed a little from the unity aspect. The truth is, our self worth is so important when we work together. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, but when we come together and work together, led by a loving Heavenly Father, we can do incredible things. 

Remember there is always someone who loved you!

<3 eliza