Soul Surfer

I've been trying to decide how to break up my posts about work so that you people don't start to think I have no life. I started thinking about what other things I do on a regular basis and the top two most interesting things I could think of are music and movies. I love both. I listen to music constantly and watch PLENTY of movies (though probably not as often as my friend, Liz). So I thought I'd use my blog to share my opinion on both subjects. So to start off...

I went and saw 'Soul Surfer' last night at the theater.


It's the story of Bethany Hamilton, a teenage competition surfer that lives in Hawaii. One day, while she is out surfing, she is attacked by a shark. In one bite it takes off her left arm right at the shoulder. I'd love to just sit here at tell you about the whole amazing story. It's no wonder they made a movie about this inspiring young girl.... I'm just going to tell you 1. I loved it (I cried, no joke). 2. The thing that amazed me most, and that they hardly touch on in the movie, is that one of the miracles of the attack is that Bethany stayed almost completely calm... and it saved her life. You would expect someone who has just been attacked by a shark and who has her entire arm completely removed in one fell swoop to just freak out, or pass out, or something! This girl just doesn't. In the movie you can tell that she is obviously hurting, but all she does is quietly ask for her family. She doesn't yell or scream or grab for her arm. If she had panicked, her heart would have pumped even faster, and honestly, she would have died. She lost 60% of her blood volume even with a calm heart rate! When she wakes up in the hospital, she reassures her family that, while she's had better days, she's okay. All she wants to do is get back out on the waves.

I think there is so much to be admired and learned from this. I am inspired by how brave this teenage girl was... I want to try and be more like that when I'm facing hard things. My stake president gave a talk that really stuck with me for the same reason. He reminded me how important it is to stay calm during hard times so that the Lord doesn't have to fight all of our emotions to help us and to lead us. He said, "When you're on fire it does no good to run around waving our arms yelling , 'I'm on fire! I'm on fire!' We need to stop, drop, and roll." It makes a lot of sense to say that sitting at computer feeling perfectly fine, but when it comes to it, I'm not always calm or reasonable when I'm dealing with a problem. I want to, like Bethany, have courage and faith in times of trial. I want to stay calm and show that I know that I can, with help, get through things. I know I now, and in the future, have the opportunity to be stronger and braver, and have more courage.

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

<3

Don't judge my review to harshly... I'm new at this ;)