This past week was a very tough parenting week... just tough overall... for me. By Tuesday night I just couldn't bear to be around anyone because I was on the edge of tears at every thought. I took a needed break and went to visit my best friend for the weekend.
Today in church, in Kansas, my friend's stake president (the Salina Kansas Stake) was visiting her ward and his talk helped me with my feelings of being overwhelmed by my personal weaknesses and the sins that do so easily beset me. Despite my best efforts, at times my struggle with self leaves me feeling like an utter failure in the most important roles of my life, wife and mother. This discouragement is because of the difference between what I know I should be and what I am OR between what I desire to be and what I am currently.
The Salina Kansas Stake president talked about how progression is made possible because of the law, agency, and the atonement of Christ. My thoughts during the first part of his talk, which was on the importance of the law, caused me to feel that it's because of my knowledge of the law, of what is expected of me, that I often feel so "fallen." I guess in this way you could say the law "hurts," but as he continued to explain how we would be unable to make choices that would move us forward in our progression without a knowledge of the law, my feelings of discouragement began to wear off.
He gently reminded me anew that the presence of law is essential to agency and agency essential to progression. He also talked about the principle that Obedience to the law increases our agency. He taught that positively exercising our agency doesn’t mean taking on every requirement of the law all at once and doing so with perfect execution, rather, it means opening our hearts and minds to the next step the Lord would have us take. He promised that the Holy Ghost will never demand of us more than we can do -- with our abilities, circumstances, and faith in the Lord --- he said that the Lord will move us along the covenant path line upon line, here a little and there a little as we exercise our agency in faith.
He promised that our positive use of agency will result in personal growth and progress. He asked us to engage our agency more actively, to submit more fully to his will, to more perfectly activate the enabling and strengthening power of Christ’s atonement in our lives. He also identified the Agency constraining thoughts and beliefs that are hurled at us from the adversary and asked us to resist these voices and replace them with positive agency affirming thoughts and beliefs.
There weren't any "new" principles in his talk, no concepts I hadn't already understood, but his choice of words and the Spirit that accompanied them spoke to my heart in a very personal way. Through his words it felt to me as though my Father in Heaven was reminding me that he doesn't expect me to be perfect right now and that his grace will sustain me if I but trust in him and take a step.
I was blessed by the words of this faithful man and the Spirit that accompanied them. I was blessed because I showed up, because I made an ordinary choice for me, the choice to go to church; to be where my Father wants me to be. My burdens of the week were made lighter as my hope was increased and I was comforted and I was able to feel the love of my Father in Heaven. This is why it is so important to worship together, to continue on in our daily and weekly devotions; to show up. These things keep the lines of communication with our Father in Heaven open so that he is able to speak to us when we are in need and keep us on the straight path home to him.
The Salina Kansas Stake president talked about how progression is made possible because of the law, agency, and the atonement of Christ. My thoughts during the first part of his talk, which was on the importance of the law, caused me to feel that it's because of my knowledge of the law, of what is expected of me, that I often feel so "fallen." I guess in this way you could say the law "hurts," but as he continued to explain how we would be unable to make choices that would move us forward in our progression without a knowledge of the law, my feelings of discouragement began to wear off.
He gently reminded me anew that the presence of law is essential to agency and agency essential to progression. He also talked about the principle that Obedience to the law increases our agency. He taught that positively exercising our agency doesn’t mean taking on every requirement of the law all at once and doing so with perfect execution, rather, it means opening our hearts and minds to the next step the Lord would have us take. He promised that the Holy Ghost will never demand of us more than we can do -- with our abilities, circumstances, and faith in the Lord --- he said that the Lord will move us along the covenant path line upon line, here a little and there a little as we exercise our agency in faith.
He promised that our positive use of agency will result in personal growth and progress. He asked us to engage our agency more actively, to submit more fully to his will, to more perfectly activate the enabling and strengthening power of Christ’s atonement in our lives. He also identified the Agency constraining thoughts and beliefs that are hurled at us from the adversary and asked us to resist these voices and replace them with positive agency affirming thoughts and beliefs.
There weren't any "new" principles in his talk, no concepts I hadn't already understood, but his choice of words and the Spirit that accompanied them spoke to my heart in a very personal way. Through his words it felt to me as though my Father in Heaven was reminding me that he doesn't expect me to be perfect right now and that his grace will sustain me if I but trust in him and take a step.
I was blessed by the words of this faithful man and the Spirit that accompanied them. I was blessed because I showed up, because I made an ordinary choice for me, the choice to go to church; to be where my Father wants me to be. My burdens of the week were made lighter as my hope was increased and I was comforted and I was able to feel the love of my Father in Heaven. This is why it is so important to worship together, to continue on in our daily and weekly devotions; to show up. These things keep the lines of communication with our Father in Heaven open so that he is able to speak to us when we are in need and keep us on the straight path home to him.
