CHOOSE

last night at institute, a rhetorical question was asked that i have been thinking about ever since:

who am i according to the choices i have made?

choices have defined my life.  they've defined yours, too.  good or bad, the choices we make determine who we are. 

i think back on the choices i've made that have affected me for good.  going to church.  going to byu.  going to girls camp and school and seminary and institute and the top of mountains and the back field of my house and out on the lake... places where i've been able to think and decide who i am and who i'm going to be.  friends that i've made that have taught me something and influenced me to be better.  people i look up to and say, i want to be like them someday.

i think back on the choices i've made that have affected me for bad.  and these are part of who i am, too.  people i shouldn't have been with or places i shouldn't have been.  the natural man that overcomes all of us at some point in our lives.  hard things that i chose to go through, when there could have been an easier way.

but you know?  i wouldn't take back any of these choices today.  i am who i am because of the choices i have made.  i am weak, silly, naive, forgetful, immature, unfinished around the edges, and imperfect.  but i am also strong, smart, brave, happy, hopeful, and willing to make sacrifices in order to become perfect. 

the Savior made it possible for me to feel this way, because although i have made oodles of mistakes in my short life, He always stands there ready and willing to help me get back on my feet.  it doesn't mean that i can feel justified in making mistakes.  i don't.  i won't.  ever.  but because of His selfless, atoning sacrifice, i can be a little better every day. 

i don't love all the choices i've made in my life.  but because of the Savior, i choose to love who i am.  and i wouldn't change it for the world.