The Struggle IS the Blessing

This past week I asked my missionary son to tell me what has been the primary struggle of his mission, among other questions, but I decided to answer his reply on this question this week. After writing it I wanted to record it here on Ponder the Path because it's an important concept that can't be repeated too much.

My son said: "I think my mission has made me aware of the deficiencies in my testimony, what I need to work on. I do feel like I've gotten a greater sense of urgency for being more fully converted and acting on what my purpose in life... I've learned that my personal relationship with the Savior is weaker than I would like... One of my greatest regrets is that I've never really been good at praying, and sometimes it is still hard, I wish I knew how to do it better, I wish I understood the spirit better."

My reply: None of us are all that we want to be... none of us are yet who we need to become... but Christ said: "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness..." If your mission is showing you your weakness then it is because you are striving to "come unto Christ." To begin to see our weakness is a blessing if we respond to it the right way. 

What is the right way? "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble..." Respond with humility, not pride. When we respond in pride -- and I will point out here that the most common ways that believing yet imperfect saints respond in pride looks like becoming discouraged, beating ourselves up, comparing ourselves to others, and trying to fix ourselves without the help of our Savior. All of this will cause us to fail and be caught in a depressing cycle that will not help us become what God desires us to be. I KNOW! I've made ALL those mistakes. 

The Lord tells us that the reason he sent us here to earth and gave us mortal weakness was so that this weakness would move us to our knees and humble us before him. I promise you that whether you do it now or not, someday you will be forced to be humble and admit that you cannot overcome these things without the help of your Savior in ALL things. He teaches us that his "Grace (the strengthening and enabling power of His atonement) 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." (Either 12:27)

There are two companion scriptures to this one that have helped me understand how this principle works. The first is from King Benjamin (Mosiah 2-4). In his address he basically lays out all the essential points of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what we must do to be saved. He teaches us that salvation comes ONLY through Christ, that we must repent and keep his commandments and that when we do he immediately blesses us, that we must serve others, that we must "submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us]" and be diligent and endure to the end.

"Be diligent that thereby ye might wind the prize."

After all these things I am sometimes out of breath and saying, "I know!, BUT HOW?" Well he tells us that too. He says, "See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that man should run faster than he hath strength... therefore all things must be done in order." (Mosiah 4:27) We cannot do what we don't have the spiritual strength to do, if we try to do it without the spiritual strength needed we will fail and fail. So how do we get strong? How do we get the spiritual strength we need to do all the things that God has commanded? 

Here I will add my final scripture in this lesson. Moroni 7:33: "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." To understand how to get the power of Christ's atonement, his grace, into our lives -- to understand how faith works to do this -- is the greatest lesson we must all learn in order to have our nature changed and become as God wants us to become. I have another lesson for this principle, but in a nut shell, we must put all our trust in Christ and pray always to him for his power to be with us that we may resist temptation and always remember him; and then he will be with us and his grace will make us stronger than we are naturally, better than we can ever be alone! Through his grace we will be able to sustain the good works and "not be weary in well-doing." (D&C 64:33). We will be enabled to be obedient. That obedience will bring increased power to maintain our righteousness and we will move ever closer to Christ as we become more and more like him.

So, you see -- your mission has given you one of the greatest blessings a person can receive -- it has shown you your weakness and in that is the first step toward becoming exactly who you want to be. It's a struggle but the struggle IS the blessing. I am happy to hear that you are learning these things and that you are turning to the Lord for help. If you keep doing that he will keep teaching you and he will strengthen you and change you, line upon line, a little at a time, throughout your life and you will walk a path that leads you closer to him. That is what this life is all about.