Besides being one of my all time favorite quotes, this is how the new book, The Peter Potential, by David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman starts. And perhaps the apostle Peter illustrates this principle better than anyone else. Peter's journey from ordinary fisherman to the chief disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing short of miraculous. The Lord teaches, invites, and guides Peter to help him grow, progress, and become who the Lord knew he could become. Doesn't the Lord do that with all of us? He sees us as we really are. He knows our hearts, our minds, our desires, our dreams, our weaknesses and strengths. And when we give all of that to him, He makes us more. As the book says, "If the Lord can do great things with a single loaf [of bread], imagine what he can do with a single life."
This is not a rare development-this is Heavenly Father's pattern of loving and teaching His children. This week in my Book of Mormon institute class we were in 1 Nephi 3-4 studying the process Nephi and his brothers go through to obtain the plates. We talked about why the Lord didn't have them get the plates before leaving Jerusalem- He knew they needed them from the beginning. They are many reasons or ideas as to why, but the one that stuck out most to me was that the Lord needed to allow them the faith building experiences that would come as a result. Learning how to trust in the Lord, how to follow the Spirit, and many other lessons were planted deep in Nephi during this journey. The Lord was building Nephi into the prophet, offering the opportunity of faith for Laman and Lemuel, giving Sariah and Lehi a chance to put their trust in Him and know for a surety that this was His plan for them. God loved this family so much he gave them faith-building, soul-stretching opportunities. He does the same with each of us.
We see it in the story of Alma the Younger and his incredible conversion- the Lord saw his potential to do good and change millions of lives. In the stories of his converts, Amulek and Zeezrom, with the brother of Jared, with the life of Saul/Paul, with each and every story of young prophets and kings- Samuel, David, Enoch, etc. Maybe their communities told them they were nothing special, but the Lord said otherwise.
All my life, people have told me I'm smart. Smart or intelligent being the key words, not beautiful or funny. I like being smart and I work hard to be smart. I love to learn and discover, but rather than pure intelligence, most of it comes from just work and study. There was a time when I tried to define myself by what my brain could decipher, create, and figure out; when I thought I could measure my worth by the number of recognitions, awards, test scores, and rankings. Certain setbacks made me step back and realize that it was only a part of me.
So I started to concentrate more on relationships-forming lasting and loving relationships. I have a lot of love to give and sometimes I give too much. I try so hard to be loyal and supportive and dependable and sometimes I feel like I don't get back the same amount of effort and love in relationships. I feel like I've failed in many relationships, including most of my romantic ones. That can be a post for another time, but I include this because for awhile I tried to define myself exclusively by the quality and success of my relationships.
These are just two examples. I didn't need the Divergent series to tell me I want to be more than more thing. I'm not just a scientist, or a teacher, or selfless, or generous. I want to be all of those. I can be all of those things and more because of Jesus Christ. Because of the Savior, I can change, grow, and progress like Peter. I can become who He needs me to become. And like the opening quote reminds us, we are are children of God and we are meant to shine.
No comments:
Post a Comment