Trust

My little brother is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints right now and he sends e-mails every week letting us know what's going on over there. Today I read his letter from earlier this week (I guess I somehow missed reading it before now) and there was a part that jumped out to me (and maybe I just needed to read this now instead of earlier this week based on what's happened). He said, "On page 120 of Preach my Gospel under Humility, there's a line that says: '[When you have faith in Christ] you are confident that you can do whatever the Lord requires of you if you rely on him.' Next to that highlighted line, she wrote 'When I am nervous or worried about something, I realize that I am trusting in myself when I should be trusting in God. That is pride!'"

I'm really good at worrying. I don't like not knowing how things are going to happen and I hate not knowing how people will react. It's how I've always been. I should probably work on that.

Anyways, there is a lot of change happening right now: it's a new year, it's a new semester, I'm working different hours, and taking different courses. I'm saving every penny I own so I can meet payment deadlines for my study abroad program (that's another story entirely), and friends have started coming home from their missions all at once.

Suddenly the people I've missed but have grown used to not seeing are back and I recognize how much we've all grown, and I can see how distinctly our individual experiences shaped us. And suddenly I find myself meeting them again. It often feels like I'm starting over but with the same people. It's weird. Good, but weird.

Well with everything that's been changing I've found myself worrying over anything and everything that's not staying the same/familiar. I've been stressing myself out over things that I have no power to change and honestly wouldn't want to change (because Heavenly Father knows the best way to make things turn out wonderfully). And it all comes back to pride.

Pride is a funny thing. It's debilitating and sneaky and hard to shake. But I believe the way to get rid of pride is through faith. It is through faith in Christ and Heavenly Father that we are able to humble ourselves. It is through faith that, like we read in the hymn Lead Kindly Light, one step becomes enough for us.

Heavenly Father truly does know what He's doing. If He prompts us to do something with our life and we rely on Him we will not fail. And that,my friends, that is faith.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

-Helaman 5:12