2017, The Year of The New

2016 was a dream year for Michael and I. It was the year of many firsts, the year of ups and downs but overall a great one. We gained the biggest blessing life has to offer, our sweet Richard. He has brought us so much happiness and love that I could never dream of having. The love that I have for my sweet Richard is just a glimpse of how much the Savior loves us. 2016 was a year full of learning. Learning how to care for this fragile, tender new baby while juggling school and work. Learning how to better cook on a stove that only two burners worked on and an oven that only the top burner worked. Learning how to find myself and especially learning and choosing to be happy.
After I had Richard, I had experienced a lot of sadness and fear. Everyone talks about the actual birth of a baby and how grueling it can be, but I didn't hear a lot about the recovery and months following birth. I cannot complain because I had about the easiest physical recovery ever, but the emotional side of recovery was not the easiest. Satan uses his power to make us feel low, to make us feel like we aren't good enough, to make us just plain scared and sad. The days after I had Richard were some of the lowest days that I never want to go back to and that is because I allowed Satan to enter my thoughts about the situation. I think it is perfectly normal for women to have hormonal emotions and all of that, but for me personally it was because I let my thoughts wander.
I had a healthy baby there, and yet, Satan used my experience of giving birth and tried to make it a negative and scary thing. I do believe that because I wasn't prepared emotionally and physically for the type of birth experience that I had, that I do have a little "trauma" related with it. Of course I would do it all over again to get the amazing blessing that Richard is, but that doesn't mean that hard things didn't come with it. For the last couple of months, I had to figure out how to be happy again, to figure out what I wanted out life and what my goals were for my future, my family etc. This didn't just come over night, this was months of thinking, pondering, reading the scriptures and praying about. So as I was thinking about the goals that I want to set for 2017, the main topics that I am working on is bettering myself. Plain and simple. No intense long goals, just finding things that make me happy. Finding things that challenge me, things that help me grow or discover new talents. I am focusing on bringing things into my home that only allow me to be the greatest person I can be. So with this, I can be a better mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend. Heavenly Father wants you to be happy. He doesn't want you to completely forget about yourself and submerge yourself in pleasing and working for others. He wants you to figure out yourself, so that way you can then be the best servant for him. So with your new goal setting, I challenge everyone to at least set one goal aside to just yourself, not your family, your work, your house, just you. This may seem a little self centered, but with all that I have thought and gone through, it is okay to be a little self centered and to care for yourself. So cheers to a new year, a new chance to find things so that we can be truly happy.