Mormon Monday

These past couple of weeks, the Relief Society lessons have spoken directly to my heart. Yesterday, the lesson was on Tomorrow The Lord Will Do Wonders Among You, a talk by Elder Holland.

I know when I watch General Conference, I know I can do anything. I can become this person worthy of the celestial kingdom. I have hope for my future. But then General Conference is over and the adversary creeps back into my mind. Whispering how I won't ever be good enough. What is the point of even trying because you are just going to fail. Sadly these thoughts are regular in my mind. I am constantly comparing my progression to everyone else. And that is the most discouraging thing. 

Elder Holland included this picture in his talk.

  

He compared it to General Conference ending, but in reality, I think we feel like this everyday. With the responsibilities of school, work, church, family and friends, we are all stretching ourselves pretty thin. Every day we are trying to finish that "to do" list. I am guilty of just trying to get through the day. I am constantly wanting to get through today, this week, this month, this semester. I find it hard to see the progression in my life. While I am putting my entire heart on the web, I might as well say, that sometimes I don't see progression. I wonder if I am the same person I was a year ago or even five years ago. Or even worse, have I backtracked and now I am just trying to get back to where I was?

But then Elder Holland says this:

"With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed."

*Sigh of relief.* I get credit for trying.

I don't have to be perfect. Ever. I don't need to magically overnight become the person I was meant to be. It is going to take time. I will be the first to admit that I am not perfect. There are somethings I will just have to keep trying to fix. I will fail over and over again, but at least I am trying.

"Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."

To end, I wanted to include this video. We watched this at the end of our Relief Society lesson. I love what Kim says "I began to think maybe I couldn’t do this. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough. Maybe I might fail. But the Lord wasn’t going to allow me to fail. I know that’s not unique to me. He does that for everybody... The greater our sorrow is, the greater our capacity to feel joy.”

 I know we are all going through trials. Some are outward and everyone can see them, but some are inward trials that you must carry, but please remember that Christ is carrying those burdens too. You don't have to carry anything alone.