Once Upon a Time...and Happily Ever After

Listen to the words, "Once upon a time." 

What beauty, majesty, and hope do these words conjure in your mind?  Now think of "Happily Ever After."
I have always been somewhat of a romantic. A dreamer at heart.  I always have been and I suppose I always will.  The very notion of living a fairy tale is utterly enchanting.  And thus, as I anticipated the words of our leaders at the General Young Women's broadcast last Saturday, you can imagine the feelings of excitement I experienced as our beloved President Uchtdorf spoke right to my heart.  To the dreamer in me.
Listen to a few of his words.  Feel what he is saying to you. (His words are in pink)
"Isn't that what we all desire?  To be heroes and heroines of our own stories, to triumph over adversity, to experience life in all its beauty, and in the end, to live happily ever after?"

"'Happily ever after' is not something found only in fairy tales.   You can have it! It is available to you.  But you must follow your Heavenly Father's map.
"We all search for happiness and we all try to find our own happily ever after.  The truth is, God knows how to get there.  And He has created a map for you.  He knows the way.  He is your beloved Heavenly Father who seeks your good, your happiness. He desires with all the love of a perfect and pure Father that you reach your supernal destination.  The map is available to all.  It gives explicit direction of what to do and where to go to everyone who is striving to come unto Christ and stand as a witness of Christ at all times and in all things and in all places.  All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father.  Trust Him enough to follow His plan."

So, what do you want in your own fairy tale?  Will it be filled with adventure? love and romance? spirituality?  

 Stop for just a moment and formulate on paper or in your mind the outline of your fairy tale. Include the milestones, of course--but don't forget about the minutes and the moments...your daily response and personality to ordinary tasks.  These shape your very character.  In essence, life is made up of millions upon millions of these very ordinary moments.

Now that your fairy tale is formulated, consider the heavy toll of trials.  President Uchtdorf says this:

"In stories as in life, adversity teaches us things we cannot learn otherwise.  Adversity helps to develop a depth of character that comes in no other way.  Our loving Heavenly Father has set us in a world filled with challenges and trials so that we through opposition can learn wisdom, become stronger, and experience joy."
It is somewhat of a paradoxical irony that joy comes from mastering trials.  But this is indeed divine doctrine.  It's part of every fairy tale.  And it will be part of yours too.  Use it wisely.  Use it to shape, mold, and forge you into the King or Queen the Lord intends you to be.

Now the finale.  Ready?
"You are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God.  You are princesses destined to become queens.  Your own wondrous story has already begun.  Your once upon a time is now...And the day will come when you turn the final pages of your own glorious story.  There you will read and experience the fulfillment of those blessed and wonderful words, 'And they lived happily ever after.'"

Your Happy Challenge:
1-Formulate your personal fairy tale.  Know that you CAN be happy.  You CAN live a beautiful fairy tale.
2-Ponder the qualities and depth of character you have forged during your personal adversity.
3-Dream about the day when you will experience the fulfillment of the words, "And they lived happily ever after."
4-Live your fairy tale. to the fullest.








Let us continue our quest for happiness now and ever look forward to the day of eternal life when our own happily ever afters begin.  For this is what God wants for us.