A Messed Up Pedicure

Today, I got a pedicure with my mama. It's tradition, I've never gotten a pedicure without her (although she's probably gotten some without me) and it's just a little bit of relaxing time for us.
For those of you who have never gotten a pedicure.......you sit on a comfy chair for about an hour-ish while someone scrubs your feet, cuts your toenails, and repaints your toenails, often adding a flower/jewel/design for an additional fee.

After the pedicure, I went shopping for new flip flops, something I probably should have done before the pedicure. I went to Target and was trying on a pair of shoes, attempting to be very careful but of course, I messed up my pedicure. The cute little jewel came off when the shoe came off. Now really, this wasn't a big deal at all but I was just annoyed. I was annoyed because my mom had spent a good chunk of money and I had JUST gotten the pedicure literally two hours ago and I already messed it up. Lovely.


Well, I decided to go back in. The nail salons are normally nice and understanding and will fix it for you. As I walked back in, every worker and all six ladies getting their nails done looked at me. I muttered out to the receptionist who I had seen 1 hour and a half earlier, kinda ashamed, that I had messed up my pedicure and she nodded to Linda, who had just perfected a pretty good looking pedicure on my feet. Linda looked at me and said, "Messed up?" And I reddened, and the receptionist said yes. She didn't ask what happened. She sat me down, wheeled her cart over, added a new jewel and helped me put my flip flops back on.  I was done in a matter of minutes.
I jumped back in my car, turned on my music, blaring, and started driving away. A few minutes later, I started thinking about this incident...and was hit pretty hardcore with some thoughts, enough that I turned off my music (which, if you know me, is unthinkable) during the drive home.

Repentance is just like a messed up pedicure.

When I walked into the nail salon, I felt awkward. I had just been in there two hours before! I knew they would recognize me. To make it worse, the receptionist acknowledge my mistake and I felt pretty embarrassed. But Linda just sat me down and within minutes, it was fixed.

We try our whole lives just to be good people. We aim for perfection, but as humans, we know perfection is just not possible.  When we make mistakes, we feel bad and sometimes awkward especially if it's a mistake that we keep making. We think that people will judge us and see us as "less-Christian" than the perfect family who sits in front of us every week at church. But our Heavenly Father does not judge us. He sits us down, acknowledges the mistake but the second that we repent, He remembers our mistake no more.  When we acknowledge our mistake, ask for forgiveness, and pray to our Heavenly Father, the mistake is gone and we can start over.

I'm grateful for this guidance and direction I received from Heavenly Father. I can't remember where I heard this quote but there was a speaker who said that repenting from our sins is uncomfortable for a second and in return, we receive eternal happiness.  I am no where never perfect and I know that repenting from our sins will let us return to live with our Father in Heaven after this life. I know that these things are true and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I'm a Mormon-I know it, I live it and I love it!