Last summer my sister bought a birthday present for my nine-year-old daughter that proved to be quite the bargaining chip with my other girls.  It wasn’t an electronic device, a lululemon fanny or even a Stanley tumbler . . . it was a diamond art set!  For those of you who do not have girls between the ages of six and twelve in your house – diamond art is a type of ‘paint by numbers’ craft, only each little square on the picture is filled in with a small colored gem that eventually creates a beautiful image. These sets come in all shapes and sizes and the pictures can be anything from Disney princesses to elaborate landscapes. The set my daughter received was a compilation of small images that had a peel off back to create a sticker. 

Now at the time, my daughter Skylar was the only one of our four girls who had one of these kits, so the diamond art stickers created essentially their own currency in our home.  You would not believe the items, chores and opportunities that were traded to Skylar for the chance to make just one sticker!  To say she milked the novelty for all it’s worth would be an understatement (and for those of you who know her, this would come as no surprise).

Once completed, the most common use for the stickers was to decorate their water bottles.  Our three oldest girls had all been given new bottles for the upcoming school year and they were anxious to ‘make them their own’. 

I underestimated at the time what a trend these water bottle stickers were, but as my girls returned to school in the fall and flashed their bedazzled bottles to their friends, it was clear that the value of the diamond art currency had just increased. 

Now as I’m sure you can imagine…the beauty of the stickers did not last long.  They got wet and lost their sticky, became soiled from constant use and eventually started to peel off.  One day as Skylar lamented about the decomposing stickers on her water bottle, my younger daughter Brooklyn cheerfully pointed out, “that’s okay Skylar, now you have room for more!”. 

This ‘glass half full’ statement of positivity and potential has stuck with me all these months and especially these last few weeks as I have pondered on the love/hate relationship I have with the month of January.

LOVE – I love January because it is the calm after the ‘Christmas storm’, a time to slow down and enjoy cozy winter cuddles.  It is also a time of change and renewal.  An opportunity to start fresh, set goals, organize, evaluate and improve.

HATE – I hate January because I feel so much pressure (probably self imposed) to do all of the above!  Sometimes I want to take the “new year, new you” attitude, cover it in chocolate and eat it after 9:00 while watching Netflix on the couch. 

It’s not that I don’t want to be focused or aspirational, I think I just feel an immense amount of overwhelm as I consider another year passed and a new one upon us. I look at my water bottle covered in dirty peeling stickers and think to myself, “how could I possibly fit more?”

And so, it is in these “the struggle is real” moments of life that I have learned to turn to the wisdom of my sweet little Brooklyn.  We’ve all been given a water bottle and there is only so much space for stickers. 

Maybe it is time to evaluate not how I can add more to the already torn and tattered ones.  Maybe it is time to evaluate which stickers need to be taken off so I have room for new ones. 

There is only so much room on my water bottle – what kind of stickers am I filling the space with?

This principle was made abundantly clear to me last week as the hot potato game of “pass the flu” landed in my lap.  Being sick combined with the exhaustion that follows the Christmas crazies left me lying in bed aching from head to toe and totally unable to do anything productive…or so I thought. 

When I had rested so much that I could sleep no more, I found myself facing a large space of “free time” on my water bottle which I rarely have.  I could have used that opportunity to study my scriptures, listen to General Conference, read with my children, or even just watch a movie with them.  But what did I do instead – I lied in bed scrolling through Facebook, watching mindless TV and fell down several YouTube and Instagram rabbit holes that left me unfulfilled and even questioning so many values I embrace.  I plastered useless stickers of idleness and doubt on my water bottle where a fresh clean sticker of testimony or time spent with family could have been placed. 

There is only so much room on my water bottle – what kind of stickers am I filling the space with?

As the week ended and my health and energy levels improved, I was able to peel off some of the stickers of negativity, sadness and mess and replaced them with improved self worth, routine and cleanliness (meaning I finally showered, cleaned my kitchen and took the Christmas tree down).

Although small and seemingly insignificant, this experience has caused me to be more thoughtful throughout my day as to how I “fill the space” and how I “create room for more”.  Each day, each hour, each opportunity is a blank space that the Lord is anxious for us to fill with goodness and Godliness.  In other words, our lives are full of January firsts – fresh clean spots on our water bottles that we get to fill with beautiful stickers.  The challenge is knowing which stickers to keep and which ones to peel off.      

Michelle Craig taught that to increase our spiritual capacity to receive revelation, we must be intentional about creating time and space to hear God’s voice.  She said,

“As you use your agency to carve out time every day to draw closer to God’s voice . . . over time His voice will become clearer and more familiar to you.” 

She added, “in contrast, the distractions and noise that fill the world and our homes and our lives can make it more difficult to hear His voice. These distractions can so occupy our minds and hearts that we leave no room for the gentle promptings of the Holy Ghost.”

There is only so much room on my water bottle – what kind of stickers am I filling the space with?

With this challenge at the forefront of my mind, I was struck by a verse of scripture in the Book of Mormon that our family read together last night.  The prophet Nephi meticulously crafted thin plates of gold metal to engrave his testimony and the revelations of God.  There was no room for frivolous matters, “they cannot be written upon these plates” he said, “for I desire the room that I may write of the things of God”. 

Once again, Nephi for the win!  Reminding me of the precious little space I really do have in my life and that I too desire that room for the things of God.

Now this isn’t to say that I will never binge watch a TV show again in my life or find an hour of time waisted as I scroll down social media.  I’m far from perfect and unfortunately will not always use the space given me for shiny new stickers of eternal value.  Sometimes it’s hard to peel off the old stickers – they are habitual and familiar.

This is, however, to say that I am grateful there is limited space on my water bottle because it forces me to be accountable and reminds me how precious the space is. 

I’m learning to embrace the joy of repentance as I peel off the old to make room for the new. 

And at the very least, this lesson provides me with opportunities to assess and evaluate the stickers in my life as I am more aware of the simple, yet incredibly significant principle that,

There is only so much room on my water bottle – what kind of stickers am I filling the space with?