#Hallelujah

I don't often share things on social media.

I look at it though.

I LOVE looking at pictures of people's lives.

I laugh and show Preston funny cat memes.

I eat up articles about #fixerupper.

I think I have seen every single #studioc sketch.

Heck, I even made a March Madness bracket this year with Pres.

I also keep in touch with the "world's status".

I sometimes hit up #hony to read people's stories and get in touch with the feels.

I read and watch news articles, or hear it from Preston - an avid current event-er.

I sometimes read the open letters from so-and-so to whomever.

I shed tears over articles that break my heart, especially ones involved with sexual abuse or angel babies.

I watch presidential debates and read (with some eye-rolling) political articles.

(The only thing I don't do is scroll down to comments on articles, videos, etc. Too much, too much.)

I do enough to stay in touch.

But sometimes my heart hurts too much.

It's like I have a magical power that lets my imagination take me and put me right in the shoes of the persons involved - 

the husband of the wife with cancer, the rape victim, the woman struggling with depression, the child of the police officer who was killed, the mom of a beautiful angel baby, the torn family fleeing their home

- feeling what they feel and crying with their cries.

Oh wait...I do.

It's called empathy.*

When I get too sad or too sick over the world, I used to just close the article and swallow myself up in an aforementioned cat meme or pictures of a pretty house.

And then I would feel guilty for running away from the real world and trying to find happiness in frivolity.

So one day, I sat down and tried to figure out what I could do to stop that sad feeling.

I want to be informed. I want to feel.

I don't want to run from the world or hide or cover up my feelings.

I want to embrace the fact that I can feel those feelings and experience that beautiful, sorrowful, and sometimes painful part of life.

But I don't like to be overwhelmed with sadness from an outside source.

And so I sat and thought.

And I sat and prayed.

And this is the overwhelming answer I got.

That is why there is an Atonement.

The Atonement isn't just to be talked about on Easter Sunday (which is soon, btw).

The Atonement isn't just for when you did something wrong.

The Atonement

embraces,

encompasses,

soothes

all those with a broken heart.

It is for the husband of the wife with cancer, 

the rape victim, 

the woman struggling with depression, 

the child of the police officer who was killed, 

the mom of a beautiful angel baby, 

the torn family fleeing their home.

It is even for the silly 25 year old girl who weeps when she reads Facebook articles while her baby sleeps.

This life is full of sadness, pain, heartache, trial, anger, frustration, and seeming injustice,

And, I hate to break it to you, but the next president isn't going to fix that.

But I know One who can.

Not because He will make all that go away.

But because He helps you through it.

Isn't that beautiful?

It is okay to feel. It is okay to feel all those sad things.

Embrace them even!

But don't wrap them up in your heart. Don't hold on to them. 

Embraces are hugs - 

you hold them for a second, a minute, sometimes even a few minutes.

But you always let go.

They will still be there. Maybe even right next to you.

But you don't have to hold onto them forever.

And let me tell you a not-so-secret.

The best way, and sometimes only way, to let them go is to let the Savior take them.

He will take them for you.

That's how much He loves you.

It doesn't matter what your sad thing is,

He will take it for you.

If you are willing to let go.

And let me tell you the best part.

After you let Him take it,

the Savior of all mankind 

will then wrap you in His loving arms.

Soothing, comforting, and bringing peace.

Sometimes we have to give Jackson medicine when he is sick.

To say he dislikes it would be a vast understatement.

Every time, after we give it to him, I wrap him in my arms and just hold him.

And he stops crying.

I like to think that is what the Savior's embrace is like.

Anyway.

Those things will still be there.

But so will the Savior.

You didn't run away.

You stayed and you faced them, but with the Savior by your side.

Holding you up.

And helping you feel.

Because it is okay to feel.

I love feeling.

He is real. I know He is.

#Hallelujah for that.

*Yes, I said empathy. No, I have never had those experiences. Yes, for that moment, I have felt the feelings of what they are feeling. No, that doesn't diminish their feelings at all. Compared to their sorrow, it is fleeting. It does not match the magnitude of their experiences. But, in that moment, it is very real. 

(Thank you to Tom Barker for opening up my eyes to the compassion hierarchy.)

Pity

Sympathy

Empathy

Compassion

Look it up.