I was particularly drawn toward two things as I was reading yesterday that I thought I would share.
- In Sheri Dew's book there's a section that discusses the impact of our premortal life. She explains that we can't remember what we had promised, how our Heavenly home was before we came to this mortal life, or where we were at regarding our spiritual maturity. However, there are things we do know. I love that saying that what we do know, outweighs what we don't know. We know that we were there. We know that we were there when Heavenly Father presented to us His son, our Redeemer. In the pre-earth life, we were given agency (right to choose good or evil), just like we are given agency now. One thing we chose in our premortal lives is when we chose to fight for truth. "We stood loyally by God and by Jesus, and did not flinch." We did not flinch. Just picture that would you? Standing side by side with our Father in Heaven and by our Savior, Jesus Christ, fighting for what we know to be true. We knew without a doubt in our minds, we were grounded to what was true, we were built upon a firm foundation. We had such a strong conviction that we did not flinch.
- I love our prophet and apostles and the council they give us. From the day I first watched conference, I was gravitated towards Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. His boldness floored me and still does today. His love behind each message is inspiring. I believe the reason he is so bold is because he knows our potential and wants us to understand that potential without sugar coating. I can't say it better than him so I'll just quote directly what he has said in this book: "If you lack confidence... or feel you have inferiority complex, get over it. We all start humbly.... we all think the fellow seated on our right and the woman seated on our left are more talented, are more gifted,... and are going to do better in life than we ever will. Well, they aren't, and they don't, and they won't! They are just like you. We all have our fears and insecurities." Bold but loving.
What I learned from both of these statements is that this life isn't just for us. It's not only about us. It's about who we are, what we know, and what we're striving to do each day to become more like our Heavenly Father and Savior. The second one struck a cord for me. If you truly know me, I'm not the one to put up a fight. I'm not the one to compete with someone. I always, like Elder Holland has pointed out, compare myself with people in my life-- especially people I look up to. Why? I'm not sure. I'm working on it though. I tend to let people treat me in ways that I shouldn't be treated. I don't put up the fight and I back down. It happens a lot more than I even expect. I have learned a very important thing though that has helped me discern why things happened the way they do. I know I have a divine errand and purpose in this life. There has to be opposition in all things but we need to "get over it" and continue doing what we know we need to do.
