Things I love about me

Of course I wish that I was thinner, prettier, richer, etc.- but those things don’t matter as much to me as the fact that right now, just the way I currently am, I am happy and I like myself. One of my dear friends, Joni Lynn, who is constantly getting her scrapbook pages published, did this great scrapbook page years ago on the things that she liked about herself. It was her first published page. This list isn’t quite the same as her scrapbook page, but I think that the idea is the same. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to acknowledge your own goodness and appreciate what makes us unique and special and a child of God.

1. I love that I love my kids (I never really thought much about being a mother and it is still a wonder to me how easy it is to love my kids).
2. I love that I am more charitable than I was 5 years ago.
3. I love that I have a strong marriage and that I recognize that it takes work to make it strong and then some more work to keep it that way.
4. I love that I can adapt quickly to a new location.
5. I love that I can make new friends.
6. I love that I feel like I am finally beginning to see, in a very small way, what Heavenly Father sees when He looks at me and when He looks at my family (pretty much it’s with a lot more love and support than I’d realized).
7. I love that I can look back and see that I have chosen my family and my testimony at crucial moments.
8. I love that I see the glass as half-full.
9. I love that I can succinctly articulate how I feel (helpful for maintaining #3).
10. I love that I know how to cook.
11. I love that I’m starting to develop patience.
12. I love that I served a mission honorably and that while I served, I worked hard and gave my whole heart.
13. I love that I graduated from college and that I graduated magna cum laude. I worked hard for that.
14. I love that despite all the ups and downs with all the adult family relationships (on the Smith side and also the Williams’ side), I still feel deeply committed to the fact that we are all sealed and these are eternal relationships- and that it is ok if some relationships progress more slowly than others. What matters is that there’s progress and love.
15. I love that I hold a current temple recommend. 
16. I love that I can sew pretty much anything.
17. I love that I can grow a pretty awesome vegetable garden and that I can do some great landscaping with perennials.
18. I love that I don’t feel complacent. I feel driven to improve and increase the things that matter most.
19. I love that I have blogged daily for 41 days.
20. I love that I am an informed voter.
21. I love that my husband is my best friend.
22. I love that my first instinct is to protect my Ernie (not that he needs my protection, but I feel very defensive if anyone criticizes him) and that my loyalty to him is first and foremost.
23. I love that I’ve read the scriptures enough that my prayers are often answered through specific verses or lessons in the Book of Mormon.
24. I love that I’ve started to make peace with my perfectionist self (letting go has been hard, because it’s meant being honest with myself and acknowledging that sometimes I fail. Badly.) It’s liberating to accept that tomorrow I can try again and Heavenly Father still loves me.
25. I love that more often than not I haven chosen to be happy.