Obstacles as Opportunities

A little child loves a good opportunity. Mom leaves the room? The cookie jar is unguarded. The counter is too high? Pshh... I can just stack pots and pans so I can climb up. Any obstacle becomes a challenge, an opportunity to conquer. I'm not sure at what age that starts to fade in us. I remember when I was seven or eight, my sisters and I thought it would be really fun to tie me up in multiple ropes and see if I could escape (we had just seen a movie about Houdini). Suddenly my sisters transformed into Navy sailors with astonishing knot tying abilities. And with pride I can tell you that I became Houdini that afternoon--I wiggled, twisted, and freed myself from every single knot.

At sixteen I had begun the college search in earnest, researching, comparing, and arranging campus visits like a pro. The summer before my senior year, I spent some time checking out universities in D.C before starting my summer program there. My aunt dropped me off in the city on her way to work and I walked and took the bus all over D.C. Alone. At 16 years old. Fearless. I was so excited for the opportunities before me that any obstacles were quickly pushed aside.

I can't seem to put my finger on a day or a moment when that approach to challenges became less instinctive. I think we all experience a time or have a certain situation in which we start to brace ourselves for the worst when a difficult obstacles appears in our path. The fears start to creep in, the doubt and uncertainty in our own abilities, and the questioning of divine help. The baggage we carry around from life experience, if not properly handled, can start to cloud our vision of the opportunities before us.

The story of young Nephi, the son of Lehi, in the Book of Mormon is the perfect example of this phenomenon. The Lord commanded Lehi to take his family out of Jerusalem and flee into the wilderness. With every commandment given to them during this time, there was an obstacle or a difficulty to overcome. Obtaining the plates of brass required going through a process to follow the guidance of the Spirit and get the plates from Laban. The challenges they faced such as breaking their bows, building a ship, gaining direction in their travels, etc, all provided opportunities for them to rise up, increase their faith, and draw closer to the Lord.

Ok, this is the point in the post I had reach before my wonderful trip to California. But I was so excited and distracted I didn't finish putting all my thoughts together. Now I'm glad I didn't because I had some great challenges that became opportunities, and because I had been thinking about how I wanted to face these challenges I was able to find the blessings behind it. Upon arriving at the Oakland airport all excited last Friday morning, I took the shuttle over to the car rental plaza to pick up my rental. I made these reservations months ago and paid for everything in full beforehand. However, upon arriving there were some problems with the rental. Long story short, they wouldn't give me my rental and other companies would charge me an arm and a leg to do so at short notice and because a big convention was in town. So I found myself in a big city that I've never been in, trying to figure out how to get from downtown Oakland to Walnut Creek. I reflected on our discussion in institute about doing all we can so after praying for guidance, I tried everything I could think of to make it work. When that didn't work, I came up with an alternate plan and prayed for guidance. I gave myself a very "edna-like" pep talk and took the shuttle back to the airport. From there I took the the bus to the metro station (called Bart in the Bay area), and took the metro north switching lines along the way before arriving in the correct city. After leaving the metro station I got lost looking for the hotel, but finally made my way there. Quite the adventurous first day.

Not always in these kind of situations are the blessings immediately apparent, but I feel that this time they were. Because I didn't have a rental car, I carpooled with other bridesmaids and the bride's family to the dance, the sealing, and the reception, not the mention when we went into San Francisco. Having my own rental car might have isolated myself in a situation where I already didn't know very many people. Also, later on my hotel reservation for an extra night was mixed up so my friend offered to let me stay with her family. Doing so became one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. I will blog more about the trip later ( it will probably encompass multiple posts because of the incredible nature of it all).

Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to learn, to act upon our faith, to trust Him, and to follow the Spirit. Sometimes, when the "mists of darkness" cloud our vision, all we can see are obstacles and frustrations. But I know with all my heart that because He loves us, he lets us learn through experience, allows us to do all we can and rely on the Savior so we can become more like Him.