My "dark friday"

Tonight I attended a musical fireside focused around Christ and the Atonement. 

They shared this clip with us: 

Sunday Will Come

I have had some dark Friday's lately and this is exactly what I needed to hear. 

Happy Sunday. 

...Change...

Ever since I graduated from high school, I've realized that I am a big planner. 

I like to know exactly what I'm doing, why I'm doing, and when I'm doing. 

If I could plan out my entire life, I totally would.

I get to a point where I know exactly what I am doing and where I'll be for at least a year in advance.

I feel confident, and ready for what the world will bring.

Because, I, Whitney Jensen, will know exactly what I'll be doing.

Unfortunately, I've also learned that life doesn't work that way.

And I'm not going to lie, I still get upset when life throws a curve ball at me.

I have to believe that the Lord just had/has a better plan for me, and thats why change happens so often.

I'm forced to make a new plan, to take a new path.

And sometimes I'm forced to have no plan at all when I honestly don't know which way to go.

This is when my faith kicks into gear.

Faith that its okay to not always have a plan, faith that in the end things will be better than I could have hoped for.

Meanwhile, I smile, I grimace, and sometimes I cry until things get worked out.

Luckily for me I have the gospel in my life.

A gospel all about love.

A gospel about service.

A gospel about happiness.

And in the end, if we just endure through the curve balls, we'll find greater happiness than we could have ever imagined. 

Here's to a new plan in my life and the faith that it is going to be so much better than the last one.

Little Miss Megan Rae

Anybody that knows me well, knows that I adore my sister.

She is eight years younger than me and one of my absolute favorite people in the whole world.

Tonight I sat and watched her as she tried over and over again to throw a back-handspring on her own.

Tomorrow she tries out for cheerleader.

She was in tears.

Tears of frustration and anger.

Tears of fear.

My adorable, favorite little sister was in so much pain.

She wants to make cheer so badly and all she needs is to throw that back-handspring.

But she is absolutely terrified.

I sat and watched there as she just cried.

And instantly I was taken back to my junior high years of going for things I wanted and not getting them.

I felt my little sisters pain so vividly that I couldn't help but choke up a little.

I wanted to take her in my arms and make it all go away.

As I sat and watched her, trying so hard not to just burst into tears, it made me think of our Savior.

For the last little while I've been pretty absorbed in my own troubles and trials in my life.

Sometimes, I get so involved in myself I forget to continue living, I forget that there are other people that I could be helping.

As I watched Meg, my heart breaking for the hard things she has to go through, I was hit with the realization that that is how our Savior must feel.

As He sits and watches us go through our pain and our heartaches, some days just struggling to get by, I'm sure that he just aches to wrap his arms around us and make it all go away.

The beauty of that, is that he can make it all go away.

My Savior went through all my pain, and my heartache years ago.

He did it so that I wouldn't have to go through this life alone.

So that my sister can one day understand the power of the atonement.

My heart is so full.

I can't imagine what our lives would be like without that knowledge, without knowing there is one person out there who understands my pain and my sorrow.

And knowing that he can lift me up when the world is pushing me down.

I love my little sister.

But I love my Savior even more for going through the atonement so that my little sister doesn't have to struggle through her pain alone. 

The Story of my life

Every once and a while I get this urge to just write.

Most of the time its just nonsense, and other times its pretty profound. :)

I love the weekends.

Those couple of days are what get me through another hectic week of my life.

I've been very blessed.

Even in days of heartache or pain I've always had good people in my life.

I've always had this belief that the Lord sends me angels to get through the hard times.

Ask me a year in my life and I could probably tell you who I think the angel was at that time.

This weekend I got to spend some time with a couple of those people.

Friday night Megs performed before the Jazz game at the Energy Solutions Arena.

Jarom and I drove up to Salt Lake to watch her and then stay and watch the Jazz game with my family.

What a game! 

Meg is the one in the gold costume.

Look how cute my parents are.

We sat in the nosebleed section, but we still had a good time.

I love this little girl so much.

***

Last night we went on a double date with my roommate Emily and her boy Preston.

We went to dinner at Applebee's and then went bowling at Fat Cats.

It was fun to do something with miss Emily.

We made a little wager that whatever couple lost, points combined, had to make dinner for the other couple.

We lost the first round, so we said double or nothing.

And we dominated the second round. 

And when I say we, I mean this boy ^.

Tonight we went to his cousins for dinner and games for his cousins birthday.

It was such a good weekend to just be with people that I love.

It's funny how the older I get the more I realize that I just want to be with my loved ones.

I don't feel the need to constantly be doing something, I just want to be with them.

I am grateful for the angels in my life and for the people that care enough to be there for me.

Here's to a new week and that your weekend gave you that extra push to get through another week full of responsibility.

Tag You're It

Tag You're It:

I've never done this before.

Maybe it will be fun.

Here are the rules.

1. Post these Rules. 

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things. 

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post. 

4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them. 

5. Go to their blog/twitter/fb and tell them you've tagged them. 

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I LOVE sugar. In simple terms, I'm addicted. 

2. I sleep with a teddy bear every night, I love it.

3. I am hot (temperature wise haha) ALL the time. I rarely get cold

4. I do NOT like it when people call my hair orange, drives me nuts

5. I love to people watch

6. I'm extremely self conscious-I'm working on that

7. I'm probably one of the most impatient people you'll ever meet-working on that too

8. I'm a die hard romantic. Always have been, probably always will be.

9. I really enjoy my free time. I love just watching a movie or hanging out at home

10. Probably one of my favorite things to do is laugh. I laugh at pretty much anything, its not hard to get me giggling over something

11. I hate being vulnerable and will do anything to avoid it. Again, something I'm working on

Questions for Me from Hannah:

1.  If you could be any X-man, who would it be?  Well, what mutation would you have?
I like being able to read other peoples minds. I would love to know what people are thinking

                                         2.  What is your favorite article of clothing to wear?

My blue and white striped pajama bottoms

3.  What is your very favorite scripture ever?
D&C 122:7

4.  What is one of your tangible treasures?  (baby blanket, grandma's jewelry, etc)
I don't really have one.

5.  How many babies do you want  to have one day?
Realistically? Haha I'm having a hard time imagining myself having a child, but I would like at least 4. I think it would be great to have like 6 but I don't know that that will happen. 

6.  What is one of your fondest childhood memories?  Feel free to tell the whole story.
Probably spending time with my uncle. I used to have sleepovers with him all the time and stay up all night eat otter pops and watching movies. We spent a lot of time together when I was little. It developed our relationship and are memories I'll treasure forever.

7.  Why did you pick the career you did?
Well my major is psychology, but ultimately I would like to do social work. I would just like to be able to help children that can't help themselves. I want to be able to make the difference that changes a child's life from always being in trouble with the law to accomplishing something great in their life. I just want to make a difference in someone else's life. 

8.  What is your favorite holiday?  Why?
St. Patricks Day! I love it. Haha I think mostly because I LOVE the color green and growing up my mom always made it a big deal. We always bought new st. patrick day shirts and she would get us tattoos to wear to school and she dyed our food green. I just love it. I don't really know why. 

9.  Football or soccer?

Probably soccer. I played for 9 years and that was the thing I did with my dad so thats probably why I love it so much. 

10.  Do you have any scars?  What happened?

-Only one big one and even then its not that big. When I was a sophomore in high school I was taking my cheer bag to the locker room and I had a pair of scrapbooking scissors it my bag, which means they are super sharp. As I was walking down the stairs they poked through my bag and stabbed me in the leg. Needless to say when I looked down blood was dripping down my leg. And when I called my mom to tell her she didn't believe me she thought I was trying to get out of the test I had that day.

11.  All time favorite movie?

-Remember the Titans, easily. LOVE that movie.

Questions for you:

1. What scares you the most?

2. What do you love to do?

3. Where do you want to be 5 years from now?

4. Who is your hero?

5. If you could go back in time, what time period would you go to and why?

6. What makes you laugh the most?

7. What's your dream job?

8. What's something that you have learned up to this point in your life?
9. What's something that really stands out to you from your childhood?
10. What is your favorite part of the day?
11. What is one of your goals in life?


Tagging these people:
Hayley Peay
Nichole Robertson
Jennie Newbold


Good Luck!