a letter

Dear Children,

Life sucks.

As you grow up you might face anxiety, depression, illness, injury, and so on and so forth. If you don’t go through one of those then you will certainly face sorrow, despair, grief, guilt, temptation…….. and the list goes on. You will go through things that just wear you down and almost break you. You will experience great pain and suffering. And you will want to quit.

So basically, life sucks and there’s no stopping it. We face an adversary that is unbelievably good at what he does. He knows you and he knows what you can’t handle and he knows exactly how you hurt. He is the one wearing you down and breaking you. He is telling you that you cannot make it. He hates you and he wants to destroy you. And guess what? He can. And a lot of times we let him.

But do you wanna know the greatest thing? You don’t have to let him. You can defeat him. You just have to keep the truth in your life. It doesn’t feel like it now, but when we come face to face with our adversary we will see that he is absolutely nothing. He only has as much power over us as we let him. The real power and the real strength come from our Heavenly Father and Savior. They are the ones that provide us with happiness and strength and blessings.

When you are at your end and you want to give up just remember that you are blessed. You have people that love you. It doesn’t matter how many, but as long as you have one person that loves you then you are blessed. If you have ever experienced happiness then you are blessed. If you have felt the Spirit guide and comfort you then you are blessed. If you have felt the power of service and sacrifice then you are blessed. You are blessed. And you are strong. If you are better than you were yesterday then you are strong. If you aren’t better than you were yesterday, but you want to be then you are strong. If you have any part of you that wants to gain power of Satan then you are strong.

And at the end of the day, the good ultimately outweighs the bad. And as soon as you realize that you are strong and that you are blessed then all the bad doesn’t seem so bad because even though life sucks, it is also the most beautiful gift that we have. So no matter how hard it is and how bad it gets you don’t need to worry because you are strong and you are blessed. And Satan can never take that away from you.

what's in a trunk

I was talking to somebody once about how a trunk can say a lot about a person.
So here's mine.
Climbing Gear: Cause, ya know, I climb.
Sports Gear: Cause I pretend to play sports obvs. See that soccer ball? Someone threw it at me my freshmen year and I kept it. That fishing pole? Only used a couple of times. The racquets? Well, those get used. I'm just no good at racquetball.
Toilet Paper: I've still got a bounty of the good stuff from when I got fired and took as much as I could hold.
Backpack: This just resembles my daily trips to practicum and then to the library. I never would have thought that I, McKenzie Sant, would spend so much time doing homework in the campus library.
Dishes: I never entirely moved out of my car......but I am prepared for any food emergencies that may arise.
Tent: It's a one person tent, but if you're confident enough it can fit two people. And it has.
I.C.E.: In case my car ever breaks down and I don't have a man. Strong, independent women ALWAYS have their own jumper cables.
Rope: Who doesn't need ropes?
So does this say a lot about me?
Could you write a book on my life now?

beautiful words

I'm one of those people that highlights.
I like to buy my own books so that I can highlight my favorite parts.
So when I read a library book, a good 'ol dog-ear will have to suffice.
The book I just finished is called Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent.
I just can't live without my dystopias.
Anyways, there was some beautiful words in this book.
And I wanted to share them.

I read somewhere, once, that crying defies scientific explanation. Tears are only meant to lubricate the eyes. There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion. I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity. Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom, toward Tobias, and, above all, toward life. And as hard as I try, I cannot kill it. So I sob into my hands instead.


"May the peace of God be with you, even in the midst of trouble."
"Why would it? After all I've done.........."
"It isn't about you. It is a gift. You cannot earn it, or it ceases to be a gift."


Color fills her cheeks, and I think it again: that Johanna Reyes might still be beautiful. Except now I think that she isn't beautiful in spite of her scar, she's somehow beautiful with it.


Smitten right?
Yeah, they kinda gave me the feels.