keystone

A keystone is that nifty little piece of rock that holds an arch together. It takes the weight, and without it the arch would fall apart.


Jospeh Smith said, "the Book of Mormon is... the keystone of our religion." And I believe that to be true. But do I treat it that way? Am I willing to test it out, see if it can take the weight? I was talking to my dad today and he said, "Bring your questions! Bring your hardest questions - the truth can handle it." It's so true! 


One thing that has always helped me in my faith is to never abandon what I do know for what I don't. C.S. Lewis said, "Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." I have definitely found this to be true. And one of the things that I know to be true is the Book of Mormon.


When my friend first starting looking into my church again, he asked some really hard questions and had some pretty deep concerns. I encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon, and I asked him to keep reading and praying about it. I promised him that if he would, he would receive an answer.


How scary is that! To make a promise that big. To place everything that matters to me on a tiny little book only 531 pages long. It was a test of my faith - did I really know the Book of Mormon was true? Was I really certain that he would receive a witness of his truthfulness? Could it handle the kinds of issues he was dealing with, the questions he had? Yes. I chose faith and made a promise. Because it's a promise that the Lord has already made - and He always keeps His promises. I had to trust in Him and really make my faith active. Because the book is either true, or it isn't, and if it is true then my friend would receive a witness. And it is true. There is a power in the book that goes far beyond just the words on the page. 

the sun is shining! the grass is green! and we are getting out of --

Well today was unexpectedly wonderful.


Monday night I was unhappy because I had soOoOOO much to do and not enough time and everything was going to be so harddddd and take soooo longgggg and I didn't waannnttttt toooooo because I am a loooooooserrrrrrrrrrrrrr.


Um. It was not hard. It did not take long. And I am a champion at life.


I'm not sure why I always fuh-REAK out because it ALWAYS turns out fine. and if it doesn't, it ends and that's the end of it. So it's no. big. deal.


Today, it took me 4 hours to neatly collect 3 A's on my final exams. Thank you, thank you, thank you :) 
Way super easier than I expected. I love that. I feel like a bona fide genius. Go me! :) 


And alsoooooo when I left the house it was kinda rainy and kinda windy and kinda cold....  but now the sun is out and warm (but not hot!) and that beautiful spring smell is in the air again. So THAT is ALSO wonderful!!


And I saw my friend that I haven't seen in a superlongtimeeventhoughwegotothesameschool and I remembered that I love her. Again, wonderful :) :)


And basically, I am just a champion at life and all things life-related.


I am become Cecelia, the destroyer of finals. 

Notice my Samuri bun and excited face. 

my beautiful friend :)

Meet Julia Green, author of Work Stories by Julia! And my one of my very best friends :) 

She is wonderful, and she is beautiful. And she is hilarious. And she is awkward. And she understands me and gets me and we are love :)
She's marvelously awkward, and we appreciate each other's creepiness. And we love each other. And she is just a marvelous person in every way. Even though we're a basically bazillion miles apart, we've only gotten to be closer. She's an absolute champion at keeping in touch :)
Oh and I adore her laugh. And her voice. And her snl quotability. And our abbreves and made-up words/grammar rules that we use so often we forget they're made-up :)
We also share a great love for slow loris's. And SNL. {Kristen Wiig♥} And Narnia. And Jesus :) 
Nothing ever really happened to make us friends. We just. are friends. best friends. of love and happiness and joy. Because she is just wonderful :) :) :) And my family loves her too :)
For my birthday, she reminded me of the story of how we met: 

"once upon a time, at the beginning of our friendship, you were leaving seminary with a group of people and i was passing you all. i gave taylor and mackenzie a hug but i didn't think that you wanted a hug for some reason so i pulled back... but you did. you kinda went in for it then pulled back. it was awk. so i was like "oh, you want a hug!" and hugged you. and thus began the beautiful awkwardness that is our friendship." :)

Easter

Easter is coming up. 8 more days! I'm so thankful for holidays like Christmas and Easter to remind me of what is most important, what I should be thinking about. My Savior, His Atonement, His Resurrection, and His unimaginable love for me... this is what I get to think about for the next few days :)
{I don't need an excuse to think about it, but sometimes I need a good reminder. So I'm thankful.}
Happy Easter Season. What a beautiful time of year :) :)

... coinciding with beautiful weather and a beautiful spring smell in the air today, and my best friend's baptism. God just loves us so very much. :)

tyler & nathan :)

work stories by julia, VII

today at work, i was doing a tux fitting & as i was helping the poor boy try on the jacket, i managed to punch him in the chin & scratch him with my ring. whoopsie. it was all awkward. i don't know what happened. my social incapability has reached new heights.

today

today is a rather big day for one tyler john hughes, also known as my best friend. it's something that's been a long time coming, and i'm sort of exploding with excitement about it. i miss him a lot and love.

unfortunately i have two finals scheduled today.... and he lives ~1000 miles away from me. so i won't be there, not technically. i'm guaranteed to be distracted all day, but i won't actually be there.

which makes me sad.

but it's also okay :) i'm just glad that it's happening :)

i'll be home in 5 days.

which seems ridiculously long.

i'm hoping the time just flies right by.

in between, i have five finals, a cleaning check, and a 2-hour plane ride. 

wish me luck!

much love,

xox

The Great Blondin

Charles Blondin was basically the Evel Knievel of his day. But instead of riding motorcycles, he walked tightropes. And in 1859, he decided he was going to tightrope walk across the gorge below Niagara Falls. 

Great idea, right? But he did it! He walked all the way from the American side to the Canadian side, and when he got there, over the thunderous applause he cried, "That's not all!" and turned around and walked back. The crowds watching went wild! When he got back to the American side he bowed and said, "Thank you! Now, who believes I could do it again?" The people cheered loudly. The Great Blondin smiled and asked, "Who believes I could do it again - while pushing this wheelbarrow across with me?" The people cheered even louder! They believed! And then the Great Blondin asked - "Then who wants to get in the wheelbarrow!" and the crowd was suddenly silent. 

It seems clear, then, that there is a very important difference between belief and the sort of faith that would lead us to action. James E. Talmage wrote: 

"Belief ... may consist in a merely intellectual assent, while faith implies such confidence and conviction as will impel to action ... Belief is in a sense passive, an agreement or acceptance only; faith is active and positive, embracing such reliance and confidence as will lead to works. Faith in Christ comprises belief in Him, combined with trust in Him. One cannot have faith without belief; yet he may believe and still lack faith. Faith is vivified, vitalized, living belief." {Articles of Faith, p. 98-99, emphasis added}

In order to have "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," {Articles of Faith 1:4}, we must not only believe in Him, but also place our trust in Him {Proverbs 3:5}.

work stories by julia, VI

yet another work story by the one, the only, Julia Green :)


work story time.
i was going about my business when three middle school aged boys came in. {after pretending that they couldn't open the door...} i asked how i could help them & one asked for change for a twenty. i asked what he would like & he asked if he could have all dimes. completely serious... i said no so his friend asked for pennies. i said that wasn't quite doable either. then he asked for three fives & five ones. um.... yes. that is reasonable. then they left. it was strange. i laughed. a lot.

who am I writing this for? [i am required to consider this, for school.]

I am supposed to mention, for a school assignment, what my audience has been. Um well. It has been. My family, mostly. Friends, perhaps. People that know me, people from home who are interested. I am also aware though that this blog is viewable by the entire world so I've tried to keep that in mind. And also my audience is kind of, just me. I write what I want to write, and that's what I like about it. When I write somewhere else, I feel like I'm writing for someone else. Here, I can write whatever I like. And like I said, it's an easy way to keep track of my life. So. My audience is me. And you. Whomever "you" are. You're welcome to read... or not :)

To that end, I write whatever I am thinking about. I try to keep a mix of life stories, thoughts about my life and my religion {obviously a huge part of my life} and just pictures and random bits of what I'm learning at school. It's pretty varied fare I suppose. To address a potentially varied audience. And in keeping with my varied and eclectic lifestyle :) I just try to be true to myself in every post. Which sometimes gets weird when people that I didn't expect to read my blog talk to me about it in person, but I guess that's just what comes with having an online presence. So that doesn't bother me or anything.

I also try to include links to other websites so that things are clarified and I give credit where it is due. And I include pictures because huge blocks of text are intimidating. And I write like I think. Because it's my blog. And I can do that. Stream-of-consciousness for the win! Hah. :)

So hopefully, as per the title of this blog, reading what I have to say gives you some small glimpse into my real life. This is me, as I really am :)

ta-da. :) 

God is {not was}, and He speaks {not spake}

In 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson pled with the students of Harvard Divinity School to teach "that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake." Weekend before last my testimony of this truth was re-emphasized as I had the opportunity to listen for myself to modern-day prophets and apostles share some of God's words for us during the annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which happens to be the church I belong to :) Going into the conference, I had prepared ahead for an excellent weekend of inspiration and learning from God. I was excited to hear God's word for today, and since I have a friend preparing to join the church, I was primed to look for messages that would be helpful to him and his situation.

Jeffrey R. Holland was the last second-to-last speaker during the two-day conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. He entitled his remarks "An Ensign to the Nations," and was a very effective concluding* speaker for several reasons. First, before he even said anything, I was psyched to hear from him. I will even admit that when he got up to speak I made the "rock on" sign with my hands  (\m/ >.< \m/), much to my father's dismay. Elder Holland always gives really exceptional talks, so I was excited to hear what this one would be. He also has a great deal of credibility as an Apostle of the Church, serving in that capacity for nearly seventeen years. I'm nineteen years old so for as long as I can remember Elder Holland has been in a position to inspire and uplift me by teaching me the words of God, and I've had a long time to learn for myself that his calling as a special witness of Christ is indeed authentic. His remarks also came at the end of a fabulous conference, and the Spirit was already strongly testifying to me that what I had previously heard was true and of God.

wouldn't you know it...

this is me at my high school graduation, circa ten months ago.

this is me when I first started here at the university

and this is me, just a couple of days ago.

Wow. Weird to think that it's already been that long, and that in a couple of days I will be done with my first year of college. A year out of high school. A year of college complete. And where has it brought me? 

Umm...... gimme a minute. :)

weekend that was wonderful :)

My wonderful family came down to visit me and to come to conference and see some other various family members. It was lovely :) 

We had a few extra tickets so my roommates joined us for a session.

This was our view

Clearly sitting next to my brother in the Conference Center was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. And yes we are aware of the myspace-style-ness of the second picture. That was on purpose :)

Lyndy and Cece's Photographic Dictionary of Emoticons

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:)

:O

:/

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