Gifts I Need...

Sometimes I can be a hoarder. I don't like throwing things away that have meant a lot to me at some point in my life. That's why I have a lot of old church handouts and notes I've taken that I can't seem to get rid of. After my mission I had a specific prompting to create a binder full of my mission study notes and other favorite church talks/quotes organized with dividers based on subject. It was a huge undertaking and luckily I didn't have a job back then and had all the time in the world. It would be harder to get done now.

I've been going through a lot of my saved stuff since we've moved into the new house. Some of these uplifting talks and handouts are loose and haven't been organized in the binder yet. I can't seem to throw any of them away, so I will have to categorize them. The one I started reading tonight was about gifts of the Spirit.

The big takeaway for me was that God gives us weaknesses so we will turn it around and ask for gifts of the Spirit to mold us into more Christ-like people.

Here's a quote from George Q. Cannon, an early apostle of the church:

"These gifts are given by Him for the perfection of His people, that in this vale of tears, shut out as we are from His presence, a veil of darkness having been drawn, as it were, between us and Him, those who will exercise faith in His promises and will keep His commandments may receive the aid that is necessary to enable them to walk before Him and to enjoy His power...." Read full quote 

Anyway, obviously no one is expected to be perfect in this life and the best way to work on self-improvement and enduring through life's challenges is to ask for the Savior's grace and be strengthened by Him. 

I like this for a couple of reasons. #1 - this life was designed to be hard and that's not just me or you feeling the burden of it #2 - light is found in this life through faith and obedience (as best we can do) and the Savior's grace will make up the rest, giving us power and spiritual gifts to navigate through the darkness. 

I can apply this right now. Being pregnant with two little kids can be exhausting because I don't get a chance to rest as much as I'd like. I've got six weeks left and most days I'd rather be taking a nap than cleaning up messes and cooling down temper tantrums. I'm not emotionally in the mood to be patient when my five year old spends twenty minutes in her room, at least a few times a week, throwing a fit about an outfit she's tried on that she doesn't like (so grateful she got into a lottery public school with uniforms next year!)

I can easily justify feeling irritable or impatient on pregnancy hormones. Or, I can dig in and be humble enough to ask the Lord to help me be patient and loving and energetic enough to field the challenges that will inevitably arise again and again every day. Escaping to the couch and rolling my eyes is another option, but trusting in the Savior to strengthen me with the spiritual gifts of patience and love is a more rewarding outcome.