In all the lessons I have learned this week, this was the theme:

Choose good, do good, feel good.

I’ve had a lot of stress this week from a variety of sources. For one, I forgot to take my English class midterm! I couldn’t believe it! I am not the type to forget something so important. But I did forget, and on Monday, I had to face my teacher, who respected us enough to generally not give second chances, or so I thought. But when I went to talk to her, she told me that I could retake it. I was filled with gratitude.

Later, I went to her office and asked her why she had let me take it, despite my irresponsibility. What she said changed me this week. She told me that it was because I was generally on time, participating, and hardworking in all my other assignments. She let me take my midterm late because she knew that I did care about the class.

Up until this point in my life, I have decided that teachers shouldn’t play favorites because it is unfair to the other children who need more attention and love than perhaps the “good” ones. I assumed that when teachers were more permissive to those who were good in school that they were playing favorites.

But now, I understand the concept of grace and natural consequence. I should learn to be more merciful to those who honestly make mistakes (if I had been the teacher against myself, I would have said, “Well, too late. You’ll get a zero for this assignment, but work hard the rest of the semester and you might make a low A- for the course”). I strive to be more forgiving, as my teacher was toward me.

Another stress this week was honestly about marriage and becoming someone who will match my future husband. This gets me a lot.

I know that I have high standards. I expect greatness out of those whom I date. But this week, I realized that whomever I date is also holding me to high standards. If I want to marry the stalwart, upstanding kind of man that I want to marry, then I have to become a stalwart and faithful woman myself. This whole week, I’ve been stewing over how I can do it. How can I improve myself even more?

Speaking of dating, I went on a double date this week. It was with a couple of my best friends. We ate sushi and went to a movie on campus. It was an old murder mystery film. I enjoyed the whole night.

And today, I went with an old coworker to visit the Teton Mountains. It was a long trip, and after we got back, I rushed so that I could still make a visit to the temple.

I had almost missed the opportunity, but I had chosen to go anyways. I’m glad I did. I just have this desire to improve my circumstances. Today, when I walked into my room to do a little bit of homework before bed, I had the desire to clean my room! It just came naturally.

I turned on some music and got to work. I feel much better with a clean room, but I feel even better knowing that I worked to get it clean.

Choose good, do good, feel good.

I have good desires. There are a lot of good things that I’m stressing over and thinking about. But instead of just focusing on what I lack, I can choose to do good. By doing good, I feel good. And when I feel good, I can do more good for those around me.

So, do good, and then feel good about it. Don’t just stop there, though. Carry on to do more good. You will like it. I promise.

Like what you’re reading? Get new content delivered straight to your inbox!