Leaves of Change

  Growing up in a small town in Maryland, surrounded by groves of large trees, I learned to love the fall. When the fall came, it brought with it light breezes of clean, refreshing, wind on you're face. The weather would be perfect, not to hot or to cold. Best of all, with the fall came the leaves of change. Original, brown leaves, were transformed into brilliantly beautiful shades of yellow, red, and orange leaves. To me, few things can compare in beauty. They symbolize light, change, the hope within each of us that we can all be transformed into something far better than what we currently are. Sometimes it can seem very hard to change, like our dreams are just out of reach. After fall would come the winter, where the leaves would fall to the ground, to a dead crumpled state. Many times in life we go through the winter of trials and tribulation, of heartache, loneliness, anger, this is part of life. In order to grow into something beautiful, we have to learn to overcome our trials, trust that fall will come again, that we can always change. The hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we can eventually become like him, experience his blessings.(3Ne. 27:27) The only thing that can get in our way from progressing, growing, is ourselves. Some of us may think that we are just not strong enough to go on, or that we just don't know enough. Others may tend to believe that they cant change, they don't have it in them to become great. Many of us are shy, are afraid, lonely, but we all are sons and daughters of God. He loves all of us completely, know us by name. He will give us the power to live the commandments because he loves his children and wants us to be happy. Jesus taught,"Remember Lots wife."(Luke17:32) He wants us to go on, not look back at our past, to grow and when we fall get right back up. He wants us to trust what he has in store for us is far greater than any earthly treasure. When we loose our life in service to him, we will find much greater peace and happiness, eternal treasure. When we seek to live our own lives, forget him, we will find no such peace.(Luke 17:33) One of my favorite songs is "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas. It begins, "let it go, let it roll right of you're shoulders." We need to let our past and troubles go, and remember "our lives are made in these small hours." God works in small and simple ways to bring many marvelous things to pass. Everyday we can change, and everyday we can see his hand in our lives if we look for it in others, in nature, in prayer, in books, we can hear his voice. We can all be led by his spirit, which invites us to do good, until the day we will meet him again.