Better Than You Think You Are

I read a book this weekend which was given to me on my birthday last year (our shared birthday) by my sweet friend who lifts me up with her influence! She is going through chemo right now, and I miss seeing her at school. Her inscription in my book is as uplifting to me as anything the author wrote.

"Happy Birthday! -a shared birthday to a delightful teacher and a good friend. You have become very dear to me - you light up my life."

I hadn't read the book until this weekend, but it's a week I needed the reminder of it's overall message. The anniversaries of both my parents' heart attacks, my mom's death, and my divorce finalization are all within a 2 week period, and I have an added feeling of disappointment atop those things.

My friend, who was in a head-on collision the other day, asked our congregation as he led our Sacrament meeting today, "How do I live the gospel in times of trial?" I believe most all of us are trying our best. I've tried my best...and I'm happy (and hopefully prepared now to *fully*) move forward--onward and upward!

I believe Orson F. Whitney's comments (p163): "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...And it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven." (I love him for including "Mother".)

At times I've wondered if He is still listening to my unceasing petitions. But I have a testimony that He hears us! This book, and my father, have inspired me to write and memorize what I'm calling my own personal Strength Mantra...because I know satan (I refuse to capitalize his name) gets to me through what my mom would have called "stinkin' thinkin'". I gathered thoughts throughout the book, and will formulate from them and other things, my mantra to recite to myself when satan is spewing his fiery darts at me.

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not," Jesus tells us.

Dad told me: "When satan discourages you with thoughts of your past, remind him of his future." God is my strength. He is who I depend on for sustenance. I can do hard things. And I do believe that we are "better than we think we are." Ours is a divine lineage and inheritance. Of what have we to fear?