The Weekly Hope

    I've touched on the topic of body image and beauty standards a little on my other blog, but because Hats, Boots, & Chocolate is more of a writing blog now than a place for uplifting messages, this blog has been repurposed from happy news stories to encouragement in general--and I want to start with the girls.     In this day and age, women are presented with a monumental challenge. Between billboards, advertisements, social media, television, and so on, we are faced, every day, with the standards of beauty upheld by the world. Supermodels pose for us in a variety of fashions and styles, and we are encouraged to keep up with the current trends however we can.     The implications given to us seem to be that, if we don't conform and do everything just like the supermodels and celebrities, then we aren't really "beautiful" or "popular" or "good enough".     I have strong opinions about this, and these opinions of mine have been getting mol

    This is the last post in my three-part "Playing God" series. Hopefully you've gained some useful insights from the previous posts, but now it's time to wrap things up with one of my favorite Gospel topics: Agency.     When I was younger, our family was having a conversation about a story in the Book of Mormon where this guy called "the brother of Jared" has a ton of faith in God and gets to see everything that happens in the world from the beginning to the end, and my brother made the following observation (paraphrased):     "If God knows everything that's going to happen so well that He can show the brother of Jared the whole history of the world from beginning to end... what's the point? If He already knows what we're going to choose, why send us to Earth in the first place? He already knows who will be faithful and who won't! I feel like I don't have agency anymore, because everything I do is already pre-determined!"    

    This second installment in my three-part "Playing God" series relates to the first, in that it is an offshoot of the first. In the previous post, I said that God is the Author of our lives--the one with the plot in hand--and He is going to make sure that everything turns out to our good.     In this post, I want to answer a couple common questions asked by members of my faith (and many others too, I'm sure).     The first question is, "If I'm trying to be righteous and do everything I'm supposed to, why do I still go through hard things?"     In my experience as a fantasy author, my characters are justified in asking the exact same thing. Some of the things I've put them through are hard!  If I were a gambler, I'd be willing to bet that if any of my characters met me in person and knew who I am and the role I play in their lives, they would probably want to punch me in the face--probably multiple times.     A short list of the things I've

    The last few weeks have brought up a lot of little thoughts that have combined into one big breakthrough. Let's just say that my mom and I have been learning a lot about life, love, and God.      In this three-part series of blog posts, I'm going to try and summarize the thoughts I've accumulated--but I doubt it will be easy, because there's a lot here. I am never going to be able to collect all the revelations, realizations, and lessons we've had into one neat series of blog posts, and I'm not sure I'd want to try taking on that monolithic task anyway.      As a result, this series is just going to be about God, and the things I've unknowingly learned about Him from 5 years of intensive study into the art and craft of fantasy writing.    The first piece to this giant puzzle is the answer to the question, "Why fantasy writing?" (Or, rather, fiction writing in general...)     This ties in to the first thought that contributed to my recent di

    I had a strong impression to write this poem today, and as this blog is the one I've decided to devote to anything spiritual and uplifting, I decided to place it here instead of on my writing blog.     I don't know why I feel like God wants me to write this poem today. I've never been on a date, and have had little or no interest in boys at all--I know I want to get married one day, but to whom I have no idea.     Still, when I was a child, my mother always told me to pray for my future husband, because even if I don't know who it will be, God does, and He will listen to that prayer and bless the proper person. And so, I have--and in a form where I can share it with you. Thank you for visiting The Weekly Hope today; I know I don't post on here weekly in any way, because this is definitely a secondary blog for me and I don't think about it all that often, but I appreciate your presence here anyway. May your Valentine's Day be full of love for the one who

    Anyone who's read my other blog  probably knows I work at Thanksgiving Point. Today's Weekly Hope article is about a person there.     Most people who visit the venue I work at never see her. Only some of the team members seem to notice her. She's not the first face you'll see upon arriving, and she's not the sort of person you're likely to remember when you leave. She isn't an Explorer like I am; she's not someone who comes up to you and starts talking to you to enrich your experience and help you learn new things at our venue. But the role she plays in your experience is huge, even if you never have cause to notice it.     She's a hard worker--of that I can attest, having watched her do her job virtually every time I'm on shift for nearly six months. She's humble--she never calls attention to herself. But, like most people, she loves to be noticed, and if you say hello, she'll greet you with, 'Hola!'  and a smile.     How ca