language...

another thought inspired by facebook...

after browsing facebook a few days ago i couldn't help but notice the language many people use. the slang, the swearing, the vulgar comments that blow. my. mind.

it made me think one thing.

i am really lucky.

i am lucky that the people in my life who surround me don't use that language. i am lucky that my husband treats me with respect and doesn't call me names...names that other men wouldn't find offensive at all {but are}.

i cannot believe that a little over 3 years ago that type of talking wouldn't have even made me think twice. {not that i had a trucker's mouth at all, but i just wasn't as sensitive as i am now to swearing etc.}

it's continues to amaze me...{the gospel of Jesus Christ that is}. my life has changed so much...and yet i have not really changed at all.

yes, i don't swear anymore...ok confession...only when i am REALLY mad. {i'm working on that one}.

yes, i don't drink alcohol anymore.

yes, i go to church every single sunday {for 3 hours straight!}

yes, i pray all the time.

yes...well... i guess i have changed.

but i am still kristen. just improved.

thank you facebook...

so...finally i have finished the "story" of my baptism...questions? they are always welcome... and actually they are encouraged! i would hope that if you are following my blog, and i am reaching out to you, that you would reach on back if you did have a question... about anything. if you'd rather ask anonymously be my guest!

so now what?... it was my goal in starting this blog to write about everyday occurrences that are different now that i am a member of the LDS church. i thought it important, however, to tell you about me, and to give you all (if there is anyone even reading) a background as to where i am coming from before jumping into anything....but now you have the background...and here i go...

facebook... how i love it, and how i hate it...however, recently it has been a really good tool for me to serve as a reminder as to why i do not drink alcohol anymore. i am constantly getting updates about friends (many of whom are more so acquaintances now) and reading the "status updates" on the infamous newsfeed. (for those of you who are not on facebook, this is the opening page of facebook that highlights some of the status' your facebook friends have written about themselves)...anyway, as of recently it seems that there has been an outpouring of status' about drinking...and more so about the morning/day after a "night out"... after reading a few of these status updates i found it impossible to not think back on my past... and i realized and remembered how unhappy drinking made me...

what i really want to say is.... thank you facebook...and anonymous facebook friends who remind me that drinking makes you sick. fall down. lose things. and forget what happened the night before. not to mention it makes you act like a completely different person who makes really bad decisions while not even realizing it.

no amount of "fun" is worth any of the above mentioned things.

the book of mormon...

i had realized pretty quickly that going to church would fill a large void in my life... i have always had a strong belief and faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, even though i stopped going to church when i was young due to a very busy schedule...

having the feeling i should go to church started a whole new dilemma...what church should i go to?! i refused to go to the church i grew up at because they made the "new age" switch to wireless microphones and drum/guitar solos...in my opinion, the glitz and glam is not what church is all about...

one night at the sorority i was thinking about different churches. my boyfriend is LDS (mormon) so i decided to start looking up stuff about the LDS church online. i had heard some REALLY weird stuff about the church so i wanted to see if it was true... what happened was not, not, NOT good. i found what i was looking for: gross, disturbing websites about the LDS church that made me literally sick.

i started to bawl thinking about how much i loved my boyfriend but i knew i could never ever in a million years submit myself to what these websites said...right at about the peak of my crying my phone started to ring and it was him. of course he asked what was wrong and i felt even more sick to my stomach having to tell him the truth...that i looked up his church and i was disturbed by it.

what he told me then is very important... and i really want everyone reading this to know what i am about to say...the internet sucks. no, but seriously... he had me tell him everything that i was upset about and he explained the TRUTH. the internet is full of awful rumors and lies...100% of the awful things that i had read on the internet were untrue.

i hate to say it...but i had a really hard time believing everything he said...why would someone make something so awful up out of thin air?!

still crying uncontrollably when i got off the phone with him i tried to lay in bed and go to sleep...my phone rang again. my boyfriend was outside my sorority and told me to come to the door. i ran down the stairs and opened the door where he stood with the book of mormon in his hands. he told me to try reading some of it if i wanted...handed me the book and with a hug he left.

i wasnt going to read any of it...but i went back up to my room and opened the book there was a message inside that he had written for me...he assured me that is was ok if i didnt believe what i read in the book and if i didnt, i could just check the church off my list of potential churches to go to and move on.

that night i read until 3:30a.m... i couldn't put it down.