First, I want to\u00a0take the quick opportunity to say \u201cThank You!\u201d to all those who sent birthday wishes my way. I can\u2019t think of a better birthday gift then words of kindness from others and I received that today in spades \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I also want\u00a0to share with you an amazing birthday gift I received today was from my 20 year old daughter Ashley. Ashley is an amazing writer, as any of you who follow my blog would know because I shared a few of the letters she wrote while she was away doing missionary service. For my birthday Ashley\u00a0surprised me with a few blog posts she wrote about life lessons she learned in the last few weeks that I could post for all of you to give me a few nights off from writing so I could relax on my birthday week. \u00a0What a thoughtful gift \u2013 both for me and for you since her posts are always loved by all!!<\/p>\n
~Amy Rees Anderson (Enjoy her post below and have an amazing day!):<\/p>\n
The following post is written by Ashley regarding what she learned during her day on August 30th<\/sup>, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n After recently returning home from an LDS mission, I have found that the overbearing feeling of fulfillment that I would have at the end of every day had slightly dimmed. It is something that I struggled with for a few weeks before it really started to take a large toll on me. I quickly began to lose sleep and found that it was a topic on my mind more than I would have liked. I pondered on why this might be the case and what I could do to get that special feeling back. If there was anything that I could do to return to who I personified on my mission.<\/p>\n After much thought, study, and prayer, I came to the realization that I was focusing too much on myself. Along my mission when I turned outwards and focused on helping others I was so much more full of a pure Christlike joy. That simple mind change is what I was lacking. \u201cIt\u2019s not about me.\u201d<\/p>\n Today after remembering this concept I was more aware of opportunities to serve my fellowmen. I went to the grocery store to buy one week\u2019s worth of food. While there I kept my head up and searched for someone who stood in need of help. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman arguing with her small children in a minivan, disputing over what looked like trouble. I walked over after quickly unloading all of the groceries into my car and asked if there was something that I could do to help. After listening to what sounded frantic, I soon came to understand that three of her young children were still in the store wandering around not knowing where she went. Because I was looking to serve, God allowed me to be a tool to help this scared mother quickly be reunited with her children.<\/p>\n What I learned is simple. We are given more opportunities in our path when we are actively seeking to do good.<\/p>\n ~Ashley (Amy Rees Anderson\u2019s daughter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First, I want to\u00a0take the quick opportunity to say \u201cThank You!\u201d to all those who sent birthday wishes my way. I can\u2019t think of a better birthday gift then words of kindness from others and I received that today in spades \ud83d\ude42 I also want\u00a0to share with you an amazing birthday gift I received today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1021,395,501,500,11003,101,1327,6521,46,6893,7145,10998,419,4955,4247,327,551,778,10993,11004,2587,10996,571,11009,8804,30,11008,29,10997,11005,55,144,11007,11002,10387,10995,464,11000,137,3369,867,710,535,10999,10994,11010,11006,80,351,1075,6496,134,3418,1665,354,1668,1662,10991,1416,145,2042,10992,1439,4308,489,1688,528,11001,5754],"class_list":["post-7307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amazing","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-arguing","tag-ashley","tag-ashley-lewis","tag-ask-for-help","tag-attitude","tag-author","tag-be-aware","tag-be-mindful","tag-birthday","tag-birthday-wishes","tag-bright","tag-christlike","tag-daughter","tag-depression","tag-dimmed","tag-dispute","tag-do-good","tag-fellowmen","tag-focus","tag-frantic","tag-fulfillment","tag-gift","tag-give-help","tag-god","tag-grocery","tag-grocery-store","tag-happiness","tag-help","tag-how-can-i-help","tag-in-need-of-help","tag-its-not-about-me","tag-its-not-about-you","tag-joy","tag-keep-your-head-up","tag-kindness","tag-lds-mission","tag-life-lessons","tag-light","tag-listen","tag-look-to-do-good","tag-losing-sleep","tag-lost-child","tag-minivan","tag-mission","tag-missionary","tag-opportunities","tag-pay-it-forward","tag-perspective","tag-ponder","tag-pray","tag-present","tag-sad","tag-sadness","tag-seek-to-do-good","tag-serve","tag-service","tag-shine","tag-spades","tag-struggle","tag-study","tag-thank-you","tag-thought","tag-thoughtful","tag-watchful","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7307"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7311,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions\/7311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}