Can I Interest You In An Analogy?

So.....
I miss my high school running self. I miss the hard work I would put in each day and the feeling of exhaustion when I would come home. I miss the feeling of pushing myself and seeing results. But hey, life moves on, and so must we.
As I was thinking about running today... I compared it to the Gospel. Yep. I went there. I compared two things that I love to each other. Get on my level people. Jk, I tend to compare running to a lot of things. Well mostly life... And the Gospel is very applicable to life. So hey, I'm not a complete running nerd. Anywho, I compared them because they both require a lot of hard work and dedication, but they also bring so much joy and reward.
Here are a few of my reasons for comparison:
So I don't know about you guys, but when I don't run for a while, I tend to think I can just start up again and it'll be like nothing happened. But nope. You take just one day off, and you lose your momentum. You can get back up to your regular running, but it takes time.
Hmm.. Sound like the Gospel?
Have you ever missed church for a few sundays? Or even missed scripture study? At the time, these things don't seem to matter, but a little down the road, you realize it does.
Personal example: During the month of August, I missed practically every sacrament meeting, because of a lot of different circumstances. Any who. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but when I went back to church in September, I realized what I had been missing.
Another reason is that we can be working SO HARD, and not see any results. I'm gonna jump back to running for this. So senior year I was coming back from an injury, and I was trying SO HARD. And nothing. My times were so slow and I was discouraged after every race. Did I quit the team and go home and eat and watch tv? I wish.
Ha.
No, I kept trying. And trying. And I prayed a little. And tried some more. Finally, towards the end of the season, I started to see my old self coming back. And guess what. I was happy. It made my crappy times worth it. (something about going through hard times and coming out stronger than before. it didn't kill me, so therefore, i was stronger)
How, you ask, is this related to the Gospel.
Gee, I'm glad you asked.
Life is hard. We ALL know this. Sometimes we just seem to keep getting hit with anything and everything. And do we just give up? Nope. We continue to live life, struggling daily, waiting for the day when things will get better. I'm reminded of a quote from Batman. "Why do we fall?" "To pick ourselves up."
Guys. Life may seem hard at times. DON'T give up. Have hope. Keep doing what you do. Pray a little. Then keep doing what you do.
See.
I can make an analogy.

____DaysSince

So recently I found this really cool app that allows you to put in a day and then it will tell you how many days it has been since that day. I know, I could easily figure this out, but I'm just too busy/lazy for that. More so lazy, but oh well. The three things I have on the app are the days my three best guy friends left on their missions. Pathetic, I know. Any who, as I was looking at the countup(?), I started to think about the things I have done in those 99 days. Here they are:

• MOVED TO COLLEGE
• Made some really great friends 
• Gone to the St. George Temple a couple of times
• Heard Elder Christopherson speak LIVE (it was pretty great)
• Rappelled and Canyoneered
• Backpacking along the Escalante River
• Really grown closer to my Savior and learned more about the Gospel
• Stayed up really late/really early
• Played night games on campus

Those are just a few of the things I've done, but they've really made me grow up a lot as a person. College life is really fantastic. I'm going to try to blog more, so expect to be hearing more about my life. oh yay. :)