You Are Made to Rejoice in the Art of God's Will ♡

we can have JOY in our new normal...because of Jesus!!!

I go in, the room was too small,

it almost felt like the size of a public restroom cubicle

they start to ask me questions

i squirm, and i answer their questions very awkwardly

i stutter, i start to overthink, i look at them in the eye sometimes

i was beginning to sound a little scripted

sigh, well,

they’re definitely not going to hire me.

I decided that I might hate job interviews,

why can’t they just have a magical heart and soul scanner and determine your genuine work ethic and desires to do your very best at your job from there? I tell my husband and he smiles at me, saying real-life stuff I didn’t want to hear (hi babe, thank you for your support, I still love you)

I don’t know how to do this, Lord

of course you do, you’ve done it before

yes, well, maybe I don’t know how to do this confidently

I thought my faith to show up in the interview would be enough

I was still awkward, and had 10% confidence

🐑 🐑 🐑

Inspired teachers at church said,

doubting yourself is also directly doubting God…to doubt is to hesitate

HESITATE? Is that what I’ve been doing?

Then they start to talk about HOPE

Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. — Moroni 7: 42

Well, of course I know what hope is

maybe I don’t know what it would specifically look like on me

hmm . . . what would HOPE look like for me?

🐢 🐢 🐢

I have ten minutes to try something

Lord, I don’t want to be here but please give me hope

sing praises

I sang and hummed songs of gratitude, praises, and love to Him

I was starting to feel a slight shift inside my soul

like rain on dry land

I met the two people who were about to interview me

this would be my second job interview this month

and I was finally filled with hopeful joy and confidence in my God

the interview felt like talking to two good friends

when I started to shrink in my mind again, I sang to Him in my head quietly

I left with a smile on my face

For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. —D&C 25: 12

thank you Lord, thank you, thank you

🍃🍃🍃

*rewind*

it was after the awkward-cubicle-feeling interview that I went to Hobby Lobby

I tried comforting myself by searching for a canvas almost as big as me

I was so happy when I found the canvas; big, wide, and just as excited as me

mr. canvas and I were thrilled to meet each other, we took a photo together!!

until the lady at check out said that I couldn’t use apple pay lol

I’m a writer, not a painter anyway, I told myself

I sang to Him again

I am a daughter of a Creator, I am a writer AND I can paint if I wanted to!

Granted I’ve never painted anything well

My paintings may always feel parallel to that squirmy interview

Oh Lord, I hope I can be a painter too

Going home, I sang many songs to Him in my mind

I realized that I didn’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to trying new things I would like to do,

and it takes the fun out of it

The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you. — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

endless songs of prayer feed our hope in Christ

Hope in Christ enlarges our faith

and an active hope-filled faith in Christ can give us the confidence we need to try new things

college drop out, job seeking, and pursuing art wholeheartedly feels new

but my songs of prayer makes me feel more excited about my new normal

if you and I look at God’s will simply, it means trying new things with Him

you can sing, you can paint, you can write, you can mother, you can meet someone new, you can laugh, you can find a new job, you can move somewhere foreign, you can sorrow, you can try and welcome new emotions,

because of Jesus Christ, you can rejoice at trying new things

you can rejoice in following His will, His way

especially with the uncertainty of it all

because we are children of the Father of Joy,

whose ultimate will is for us to seek Jesus and rejoice!

so here’s to building a new heart for Him

a heart willing to rejoice in pressing forward

in trying new things,

in trying to be more like our JOY-FILLED JESUS ♡