**Disclaimer this blog post is based off of my own personal opinion and regardless of if this topic resonates with you or not I still appreciate you taking the time to be here 🙂

Not going to lie. I’ve put off posting about this topic for a few weeks because I wanted my words to make sense/align with what I’m attempting to say and I feel like some people could possibly get heated about this subject and that isn’t something I want!

Drumroll please….some people know this about me, but not many! Once upon a time, not too long ago, I worked for Starbucks! Most people are shocked by that fun fact because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and if you know anything or have heard anything about my religion it’s probably the fact that drinking coffee isn’t something our religion typically practices.

I love the environment at Starbucks and being an employee there was great! I worked there because I needed extra money and they had great benefits! I absolutely LOVED working at Starbucks! I actually miss it and met some very close friends working there. People always asked me this, “You work/worked at Starbucks, but you don’t drink coffee? How do you do it?!” I used to drink coffee, before I was an active member in the church! But I have ADHD so if anything coffee mellows me out and although I love the taste it’s not something I currently participate in mainly due to what we call the ‘Word of Wisdom’ within my religion. If you’d like to learn more about what that means go HERE.

There are so many differing opinions when it comes to the Word Of Wisdom and that is 100% okay! I believe it’s something personal and a choice each of us individually chooses to follow or not! Personally I choose to abide by it. Honestly it wasn’t something I was taught about a ton growing up, I knew what it was but I never took the time to dig into what it meant to me and my life until later in life. Thus leading to this blog topic: How working at Starbucks affected my perspective and testimony when it comes to the Word Of Wisdom.

Working there and being around coffee for so many hours simply gave me a perspective on the Word Of Wisdom that I never knew I needed. Not in a bad way, in fact in an amazing way that I’m going to attempt to put into words. If you know me and my journey of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you know it’s been ups and downs, I wasn’t always active and it wasn’t something I always believed in. Working in an environment that I thought might tempt me to go against the Word Of Wisdom actually strengthened it. Somehow it forced me to understand it more and evaluate why I personally choose to follow it on a daily basis. I did a deep dive into the WHY and how it impacts my life. Every morning at 4:30am I got to make coffee and create different drinks, I got to interact with our regular customers, new faces and sometimes even a stranger from the past. I got the opportunity to learn about the different coffee beans and processes and it was fascinating, I loved it.

As I evaluated my own personal why behind following the word of wisdom I ultimately gained this perspective: God genuinely loves everyone, regardless of if they drink coffee or not. He cherishes each of us and our souls. While our choices do define our lives, should they be good or bad-with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ being subjective to personal opinion..God loves us. Period.

See, the culture in Utah can be so judgmental, from both sides. And I don’t believe that judgement should exist amongst us. Because God loves each of us no matter what! I thought about what would it be like if Jesus were in a coffee shop or a bar or anywhere really..I think he would be embracing everyone, getting to know them accepting them with open arms, showing that he cares. That’s how I envision it. And I see God grinning so big, being proud of Jesus and us, knowing our true intent behind every little thing we’ve ever done or will do. Simply beaming love.

There is SO much more I could and want to write about this topic, but I think I’m going to leave it at that. You are SO loved. Dig deep and find your why. Be open to different perspectives and growth.

If you’re curious to hear more about how the experience changed my perspective and strengthened my testimony feel free to reach out to me and I will gladly do my best to share in words that make sense! That’s all.

PS I’ve been creating content and doing creative photoshoots revolving around each blog topic-it’s giving me so much life and happiness doing so. I would love nothing more than you to share this blog post or a photo if it resonated with you at all! Who knows, maybe it will resonate with someone you share it with! Plus my amazing photographer @lexcmarie deserves to be shown off, she’s a creative genius!