Look Up and Look Forward

I learned a valuable lesson the other day. 

I was coming home from a rather difficult day of work; my emotions were all over the place, I was tired, and I was just ready to be home with my husband (and have someone to listen to my "woes"). 

I finally arrived at home, gathered my things from my car, and walked up to our apartment door with my head hanging down and my arms heavy with things. I barely looked up enough to see the door handle. I went in, set my things down, walked back out to the car, grabbed a box and went back inside, all with my head down. I closed the door, set down my box and walked over to my husband. 

He gave me a kiss and walked over to the door and said, "did you see it?" in a quiet voice. 

"See what?" I asked.

He opened the door to show me what he had placed on the exterior, only inches above the handle that I had barely lifted my eyes to see:

I had missed it. COMPLETELY missed what he so lovingly placed for me to see when I got home. 

I tell you what... my heart broke into a million pieces. 

He started to take it down but I asked him to put it back up so I could take a picture. One, because I wanted to remember the sweet thing that he had done for me, and two, because I wanted to remember the lesson I learned in that very moment - look up and look forward. 

I learned that we need to try our best to be positive, focus on the blessings and the good things that happened in our day. We need to look forward and realize that our trials are "but a small moment" in the grand scheme of things. We need to look up and acknowledge that we are not the one in charge. 

The truth is, work and daily life will take a toll on all of us at some point, but if we can't learn to let go of some of those things before coming home at night, we may just miss the most important things and the most important moments.

I understand that not everyone has a good home life to come home to, nor do we all have jobs we are lucky enough to go to and come home stressed from. BUT, we all have reasons to look up. We all have good to focus on. We ALL have a loving Heavenly Father who KNOWS us, who LOVES us, who NEEDS us to focus on him and to look up, even when it feels impossible. 

He needs our hearts, He needs our willingness, He needs to know we trust in Him. He wants to bless us, provide for us, protect us, and help us become more tomorrow than we were today. 

Choose to look up, to look beyond your selfish desires, to get outside yourself and serve others. Choose to look past the trials you are now facing and realize how much you are blessed and how much the Lord blesses you each and every day. Because HE DOES. 

In 2007, President Henry B. Eyring shared, in a General Conference address, "find ways to recognize and remember God's kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done. You remember that song we sometimes sing: "Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.""

I need to be better at that and I need to be better at making sure I don't miss the kind services my sweet husband does for me. He is a blessing from the Lord. He is an answer to my prayers. I'm so grateful I married someone so kind and generous who teaches me how important that is, every day.