Blessings and struggles.

  So, marriage is good...it is fun to wake up to your best friend every morning...when you get that luxury :-)

Almost three weeks into our marriage Clayton left for annual military training for three weeks - that was no fun! Luckily I did get to see him by chance twice in that time, but it was hard being newly married. I thought about the struggles and sacrifices that others have had to make in the past. When the LDS church was being established, men who had wives and children would leave their families for years at a time to do missionary work and spread the gospel, often overseas. Now, husbands and wives work government jobs, in hospitals, or doing other various careers that take them away from their families for extended periods of time. No matter what, we survive. Although it was hard for me to be without my husband, there are always harder things out there that I have not had to deal with, and I'm grateful for the blessings that I have.

I am grateful for a husband who loves me.
I am grateful for a roof over my head - even if it's currently my parent's house :-).
I am grateful for the church and all I have learned from it.
I am grateful for a healthy body.
I am grateful for the gifts and talents that I have been given.
I am grateful for friends and family who love me.

It's so easy to complain when things don't go our way, or see the negative when we wish they could just be different, and I have been doing a lot of complaining lately. But I have realized that although I want my husband to come home to me every night and I wish I didn't have a job where I have to work sometimes on Sundays, I will be grateful for what I have and stay strong and hold on for those things that will bless my life later on, whether they happen on this earth or when I pass from it - we have been told to endure to the end, not just endure until we are done trying. I have complained enough lately, and it's time for gratitude. I have so much, and I am so happy that I do.