Burdens and Gifts

(Artwork found here.)

I was reminded of a couple important things today, and I wanted to share them here.

Having faith in the Lord includes laying our burdens at His feet and letting them go.

Since starting counseling several months ago, I have been surprised over how much emotional baggage I have been carrying around for years. I have been laden with doubts, fears, hurt, sorrow, and heartaches that I didn't need to take on this life journey. Are they real emotions? Yes. Did they need to be uncovered and validated? Absolutely. Do I still need to carry them? I do not. They are no longer appropriate to my circumstances in life. I have been blessed with a wonderfully supportive and emotionally safe husband. (Safe may not seem like a romantic concept, but I find it hugely attractive. In fact, I hope I am able to give him the emotional support he gives me, because every time he is there for me I fall deeper in love with him.) I am not in crisis. I am not in emotional or physical danger. If I hang onto the pain, I am inhibiting joy and limiting the healing power of Christ's Atonement. If I cannot turn my burdens over to Him, how can I truly say I have faith in Him? And that means all my burdens. Even the ones I am most afraid of, including the weaknesses that have the power to affect my life today.

Our most precious gift in this life is our ability to choose.

I am not a victim to my circumstances. I am not a slave to my temptations or weaknesses. I can choose the direction I want my spiritual growth to go. I cannot control anyone around me, and I don't always have a say in what happens to me. But those things do not have the power to destroy me. They do not alter my relationship with God, or my personal worthiness. I am reminded of one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon:

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." 

~ Ether 12:27

I choose whether I want my weakness to lead me away from Christ or unto Him. As I read this verse tonight, I noticed that we are not promised that being humble and coming unto Christ will help us make perfect choices. Rather, we are promised that if we come unto him, His "grace is sufficient". And, eventually, those "weak things [will] become strong". Notice that the scripture does not say it will happen immediately. It may not happen in a day, a week, a year, or even in a decade. But it will happen.