Learning to trust God in spite of our weaknesses and trials.

My friend and I were talking the other day about a lot of things but one of the last things that we talked about really stood out to me and I've been thinking about it since then. We were talking about weaknesses and strengths, and she named a whole bunch of things I consider weaknesses and she also named how they got turned into strengths. And it was a really special, kind of spiritual experience that I had with her. I have been thinking about how the way I view my weaknesses affects me. If I think of them as just weaknesses, it breaks me, and tears me down. But if I think of them as ways to be stronger, or things that led me to be strong, it builds me up. I see what I've overcome, and I know that I am strong and capable. But when I doubt myself, and let my weaknesses take over me, I feel weak, incapable, depressed, and uncertain of my worthiness and capabilities to be loved or looked up to. It's hard to remember to look at your strengths in a world that is so focused on weaknesses and imperfections in such a negative way, but focusing on your strengths, and how your weaknesses lead you to strengths, is beautiful and empowering, especially when you have God on your side.

I shared this on Facebook yesterday, after thinking about what my friend and I talked about earlier:

"I am my strengths...and I am my weaknesses. Together, they make me who I am. I have my strengths because of my weaknesses. 

My weaknesses do not define me. 

My weaknesses do not make me any less than I am.
My weaknesses make me human.
My strengths do not define me. My strengths do not make me more than I am. My strengths make me human. 

But one cannot have strengths without weaknesses. One cannot have weaknesses without strengths. You must have one to have the other. Together, they make you unstoppable. Indestructible. Powerful. 

God can turn any weakness into a strength. I've seen that in my own life, and a friend recently brought to my attention just how many weaknesses I have that He's helped me turn into strengths. I'm not perfect at them, but I'm trying my best. And that's all we can do."

I loved sacrament meeting today! Mariah talked about peace and Patrick talked about finding joy in the journey.
-Jesus is the source of peace–He understands our grief and pain and is there to lift our burdens.
-We need to turn to Him because He knows what we need and how to make it better.
-The purpose of this life is to have joy. Joy comes with a price. We have to make sacrifices.
-We are not here for the weeds in life, we are here for the flowers!

I loved the last thing that we talked about in Gospel Doctrine today. Nate shared this video of Elder Uchtdorf talking about creating. My favorite line is, "The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create." I love that! We can all create, and as we learn to rely on the Spirit He can guide us to create amazing, wonderful, beautiful things.

Relief Society was amazing!! It was based on Elder Ballard's talk, "You Have Nothing to Fear From the Journey". One thing that I loved was this quote, "Remembering our past and drawing strength to face and conquer the challenge of today." I loved that! In order to learn from our mistakes we have to remember them. BUT we do NOT have to dwell on them and rethink everything. Just remember what you learned and apply it today. Press forward and move on.

"The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it." ~Rafiki, The Lion King
"I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now." ~Edna Mode, The Incredibles

Our devotion to Christ will prevail our discouragement and murmurings, and will lead us to peace and joy. But our peace and joy is different than other people's. We have to find our own pillars of strength. 

God doesn't take something out of your life without replacing it with something better.

The things we have to work the hardest for mean the most to us.

We have to remember that it's okay to not be okay.

"We can take comfort in knowing that others have born life's most grievous trials and tragedies, but that they looked to heaven for peace, comfort, and hopeful assurance...as long as we continue to exercise faith and trust in Him there is nothing to fear in the journey...He is always there to give encouragement, to forgive, and to rescue."

He loves us so much. He is always going to be there for us no matter what. It doesn't matter what is going on in your life, whether or not you are doing well in school, whether or not you are following the commandments the best that you can, whether or not you can feel or hear Him all of the time, He is going to be there. He loves us so much!!! I cannot stress to you how much He loves you. It's sometimes challenging to trust Him, I know. But I've had experiences the past couple of weeks that have been really stressful and I was finding it hard to trust that everything would turn out all right. But they did. They turned out just fine, and I know that God knows what we need. He knows in what ways we need to learn things. And I know that someday, we are going to understand. Someday, everything will make sense, and we will know exactly what certain experiences taught us, and how it made us better. We can know a little now, but we will not know all right away. We have to be patient. But someday we will know. We just have to be patient and trust Him.

Xoxo

Mattie