Deep Thoughts During Thunderstorms

I live in Texas. Texas has thunderstorms. These thunderstorms are serious. These are the kinds where your house shakes, the lightning looks like a laser light show, and they go on for what seems like forever. My poor dog is scared to death of these storms, but for the eight and a half years we have had her I have learned how to deal with her during them. There are a few things you have to do to make her feel better and actually let you sleep:

1. I always play my "calming" playlist on my ipod when I am going to bed, but tonight I have it louder. It helps drown out some of the noise from the storm.
2. I turned on my lava lamp full of glitter so she can't see the lighting as easily and won't be so disturbed by the sudden flashes.
3. She needs constant contact. You cannot just you touch her. She has to be on you or you on her. I was trying to go to sleep, and she came and laid on my face. At that point I remembered how scared she was of these storms so I went to work on getting all of this done. The last step is to get her comfortable (she lays on a pillow and you cover her with a blanket) and then you have to practically lay on her.

This got me thinking. Life is like the thunderstorm. Our calming playlist is the gospel. When we focus on the scriptures and what we are supposed to be doing, we forget about the raging storm around us. We tune out everything around us that is not important and we focus more on the things that we need to in order to end in our final destination... heaven by the side of our Heavenly Father. 
Next is the glowing lava lamp. There are things in this world that add beauty to life if we only turn them on. There is almost always a storm in our world. When you turn on the news you hear nothing but bad things happening. Things flash across the TV or computer screen that try to distract us from our end goal. All we have to do to turn on our sparkle. We need to keep our testimonies strong in order to remain strong when the sudden flashes or unexpected turns in our life occur. People always tell me that I have a certain light about me. At times I can feel that light fading, but when I work hard to do the right thing it burns brighter day by day. We must always remember to turn on our sparkle and work our hardest to keep it on. It may even make the pathway brighter for someone else along the way.
The last thing is the constant contact. Sometimes we feel so alone with the storm raging more than ever. The funny thing is, we are never alone. Heavenly Father is always there for us. Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us. I learned a lot in my Book of Mormon class last semester, but the thing that hit me the hardest was the lesson about the atonement. My teacher pointed out that Christ suffered for our sins as well as our infirmities. Now, I always thought that meant if we were sick or something, but in reality it means anything you are having a hard time with. He also said that Christ's suffering was like a long line of people. He suffered for each one of us one by one. He knows exactly what you are going through at any given moment. So, all we have to do when we are scared or feeling lonely is to remember that Christ is there beside us and always will be. We have our constant contact.
Now that I have her all taken care of, she is asleep. The final goal. With all of these things helping her, she has overcome the storm to get a good night's sleep. I only hope that I can make the right choices and remember all of the things I have going for me to reach my final goal.... the celestial kingdom with my Heavenly Father.