Bike Riding and Life

Yesterday, I was riding my electric bike and thinking about how amazing it was that a person who can barely walk fifty feet at a time can ride five miles on the trails. I feel so blessed to be able to go out riding with my husband and enjoy our beautiful scenery. I told him that it was like I was riding tandem with a giant. He smiled. 

When we got home, I thought more about my experience riding an electric bike and realized that it is like my whole life. I put in a little energy which is all I have. Even though I'm doing my best, it isn't even close to being enough to enable me to do the things and progress down the trail like I want to. 

Since our Savior knows how much we all need help, He paid for our mistakes, enabling us to have His power in our lives. With His power to help me, I can change, grow, and progress down the path to eternal life with Heavenly Father and my family. It is so wonderful!

 

Help to Get out of Debt

In January of 1999, we came a sobering realization- without overtime money we could not pay our bills!  We rechecked the figures many times, but there was no denying the seriousness of our situation.  We were thousands of dollars in debt, without any savings, or enough regular income to cover our monthly expenses.

We started asking ourselves questions.  Mainly, how did we get into this predicament?  That was easy- we’d been raising several children and there had been many medical bills which even our good health insurance hadn’t covered.  Yes, there had been considerable expenses, but this really didn’t justify our debt.  We took a closer look at our spending habits.  Soon, it became apparent how we became so far in debt.  It really was easy.  We had been basing our financial decisions on emotion.  Our criteria was simply whether one of us “deserved” something, or with our income we “should” be able to afford it, or it was a “sale too good to pass up”.  “Get it if you really need it, but don’t buy it if you don’t really need it”, was our nebulous creed for managing finances.  We each bought what we thought we needed.  We spent money when we had it and charged when we didn’t.  We were amazed that we weren’t even deeper in debt!

My Remarkable Life

“No matter our age, circumstances, or abilities, each one of us can create something remarkable of his life,” Elder Wirthlin declared during April 2006 General Conference. Even me? Mentally I began to list my considerable health problems and all the limits they imposed, then I stopped — Even Me!
Slowly, I began to realize that I was allowing my health restrictions to imprison my soul. Where was my joy in living?

As I prayed for help in living a more meaningful life, I felt strongly that I needed to simplify my life by removing all unnecessary things and activities. This certainly didn’t seem to me to be the way to an abundant life!

I asked the Lord for faith, then, resignedly, began to eliminate non-essentials. Despairing, I could only see a bleak, barren existence stretching out before me. Maybe I needed to learn patience and endurance. It seemed so obvious to me that having better health and being able to do more would bring me happiness.