Earlier this week, I was having a conversation with one of my friends in which she made the passing remark, as if it were a matter of fact, "You can handle things." The conversation moved on, but that phrase struck me.
I've never considered myself a strong person. When I think of a strong person, I think of someone like my mother. Not because she doesn't take crap, to put it bluntly, or because of what some might call her strong-willed personality. But because she has experienced a lot in her life, has always been willing to follow the Lord's will, picks up and moves on in faith when the "stuff" of life happens, chooses to see the eternal, and through it all is a strength to people around her. That's what I think of when I think of a strong person.
I've never considered myself a strong person, but I've always wanted to be one. So I guess I was a bit shocked when I heard this friend of mine, who has great strength herself, tell me that I could "handle things". Really? I was thinking. Me handle things?
One of the scriptures we studied this year in seminary was Ether 12:27, in which Moroni declares that if we come to the Lord in our weakness, He will make weak things become strong unto us. I was musing on this scripture today as I started to recall several prayers scattered throughout the last few years. Asking to have more faith, be a better person, a better wife. I think maybe I inadvertently "asked for it". But what strength I have felt from the Lord! I really do think He is making me a better person, maybe even a stronger person. I still don't consider myself a strong person. I falter; I'm human. But the Lord is working on me, and I think that He thinks I'm worth the effort.
I think that I've also realized that the people I've always looked up to as strong are human too. When my mother called me to tell me that her sister had died, I honestly had never heard her sound as she did then. I think the intensity of the sadness in her voice shocked me more than the news did. Watching her be a source of strength to various family members during the weekend of my aunt's funeral, I saw that perhaps strength comes in part from being selfless. Since then, I have seen how my mother's acts of service to Alice and to her family, in addition to the voice of the Comforter, have helped her have "no regrets" about Alice's passing.
Do I think that my mother has always been as strong a person as I think she is? Well, I used to think so. But as I feel the Lord working on me, I also feel a hope that maybe my mother once had some of the same struggles I do. That maybe she still does. That maybe we're not so different after all. And that maybe I still have time to become the person, the wife, the mother, the woman I want to be.
I've never considered myself a strong person. When I think of a strong person, I think of someone like my mother. Not because she doesn't take crap, to put it bluntly, or because of what some might call her strong-willed personality. But because she has experienced a lot in her life, has always been willing to follow the Lord's will, picks up and moves on in faith when the "stuff" of life happens, chooses to see the eternal, and through it all is a strength to people around her. That's what I think of when I think of a strong person.
I've never considered myself a strong person, but I've always wanted to be one. So I guess I was a bit shocked when I heard this friend of mine, who has great strength herself, tell me that I could "handle things". Really? I was thinking. Me handle things?
One of the scriptures we studied this year in seminary was Ether 12:27, in which Moroni declares that if we come to the Lord in our weakness, He will make weak things become strong unto us. I was musing on this scripture today as I started to recall several prayers scattered throughout the last few years. Asking to have more faith, be a better person, a better wife. I think maybe I inadvertently "asked for it". But what strength I have felt from the Lord! I really do think He is making me a better person, maybe even a stronger person. I still don't consider myself a strong person. I falter; I'm human. But the Lord is working on me, and I think that He thinks I'm worth the effort.
I think that I've also realized that the people I've always looked up to as strong are human too. When my mother called me to tell me that her sister had died, I honestly had never heard her sound as she did then. I think the intensity of the sadness in her voice shocked me more than the news did. Watching her be a source of strength to various family members during the weekend of my aunt's funeral, I saw that perhaps strength comes in part from being selfless. Since then, I have seen how my mother's acts of service to Alice and to her family, in addition to the voice of the Comforter, have helped her have "no regrets" about Alice's passing.
Do I think that my mother has always been as strong a person as I think she is? Well, I used to think so. But as I feel the Lord working on me, I also feel a hope that maybe my mother once had some of the same struggles I do. That maybe she still does. That maybe we're not so different after all. And that maybe I still have time to become the person, the wife, the mother, the woman I want to be.
1 comment:
Thank you for your comments re my "strength". I am glad you noticed that strength does come when there is no alternative but to give in to life. The Lord does comfort and support you. And there is no greater and more dependable source of strength. Little one, I am NOT perfect.
Do I sometimes "role-play" the strong person? Yes, when circumstances demand it. But inevitably I find the source to tap into in the midst of adversity. Do I give in sometimes? Yes! But I don't like that person much.
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