"Then Will I Make Weak Things Become Strong Unto Them"

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them". -Ether 12:27

I read this scripture my sophomore year of high school. That was the year that I started to procrastinate doing worthwhile things in my life. Before that, I had always been pretty good at doing things on time and not staying up too late to get things done. But my sophomore year, I started to procrastinate. First, just in my Algebra class, then in my science classes, and eventually, it had spread to all of my classes. Procrastination is an awful thing. It will weigh on you and cause you to be unable to perform to the best of your abilities for extended periods of time. I've felt this. I knew that managing my time was my weakness, and that I needed to change. 

Since then, I've been working on how to remedy the situation. I've always kept this scripture in my mind to help motivate me, sometimes when I thought it was impossible. I remember reflecting on how much work I had to do and what little time to do it in. I thought to myself, "How can this ever be a strength for me? How can something I am so bad at ever become something that I am good at, or even enjoy doing? I am too far gone." How wrong I was!

This has definitely been a journey, but I am able to look back at the path I have traveled to get where I am, and I am proud of my progress.

This semester has been a real turning point for me, and I can only hope that I continue to progress :) Every semester before this, I would always try to say to myself, "This semester I am going to do better and stop procrastinating." But then I would never do anything that actually helped me to progress. Sure, I was trying to find things and I would try things that other people suggested, but nothing seemed to work. Last summer I reflected back to Ether 12:27: "for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them". I like "if, then" statements. They make sense to me. If you do this, you receive this blessing. I decided that I would use this as a contract with God: "If I humble myself before thee, and have faith in thee, then you promised me in this scripture: that you will make weak things become strong unto me." I think that doing this itself shows faith. Try to look for scriptures that apply to you, and have faith that Heavenly Father will follow through on His promises to His children, just like He did in ancient scripture stories. He does this because He loves you.

At the start of last summer I started this blog. I decided that I needed to create more avenues in my life where I could be humble and show my faith. This blog has already helped me come closer to my Heavenly Father, and I hope that it will continue to do so. Since then I've been looking for ways to do better and to improve (as you can tell from my previous blog posts).

At the start of this semester, I started out with a new resolve to do better in my studies, time management, and life goals. This time was different though. I asked my Dad for a Father's blessing, which I usually do, but this time I decided to use his blessing like I do with "if then" scriptures. I was going to listen and look for things that I was told to do, and the blessings I would receive. Here are the bullet points that I wrote down after the blessing:

- I will be successful this semester

- I need to love, help, and support my sister this semester

- I will be able to develop successful study habits

- As I put the Lord first, He will help me progress

- I will be able to develop spiritually, physically, mentally, and academically

- I should take time to recognize that I have progressed so far and that I can be happy about it

I wrote these down shortly after I received the blessing from my father, and I put it in my scripture case and forgot about it. Then at the start of the semester, I decided that I needed to schedule time in my life to study the scriptures, read conference talks, and write on this blog. I decided that I cannot do these things at night right before I go to bed, since I am too tired then, and I do not personally get anything out of gospel study when I am winding down for the day. I decided that I needed to do this in the mornings. I reasoned that if I need to do that, I need to go to bed earlier and make time in my schedule for it. 

I sat down one day and thought: I need to make scripture/gospel study a priority in my life. How can I do this?! I decided to browse the internet and see if anyone posted any blog posts that would show how they make time in their schedule for scripture study. I found this blog post by "The Red Headed Hostess" called "How a Busy Mom CAN Study Her Scriptures". I love the ideas she talks about in this blog post. I like that she talks about reading your scriptures in front of your kids as an example. I also like the part where she talks about her "power hour" right when she wakes up where she is able to make her bed, get ready for the day, read her scriptures, reassess goals, and say her morning prayers. She says that for her, the effectiveness of her day is usually determined by how she spends the first hour of her day. I know that that is true for me as well, since for a long time I have been reading my scriptures for a couple minutes before I go to bed, and I know that it does nothing for me when I do that. I was inspired by her example and I decided that if she can change, I can too. 

So I sat down and logically scheduled my week by days/hours so that I would be able to allocate adequate time for all of the activities that I wanted to include in my life. I made scripture/gospel study time a priority. Here is my schedule that I came up with:

I categorized major activities in my life that I need to schedule time for on the left. I then decided (based off of university recommendations and personal insight) for how much time I needed for each activity. I then went to my calendar and blocked out time each day that I could do the necessary activities that I had planned for each day. This has helped me so much! I am a very structural/analytical person, so I like to organize things and have things make sense and have a system. My prayers at the start of the semester consisted of praying that I will be able to develop a system so that I can study my scriptures. Heavenly Father gave me that! My prayer was answered! It didn't all happen at once, I was able to formulate a system that works for me in a few days, but Heavenly Father answered my prayer.

Now I have been able to dedicate time to those things which matter most to me. I can't believe I am about to say this, but I am actually managing my time well! Do you realize how unbelievable this is for me?! I have been struggling with this for 6 years! And Heavenly Father has helped me to start overcoming it!! I am hesitant to say "completely overcome" because I'm not perfect yet, but that's okay. I only expect progression from myself; not perfection. Some of you may say, well why did Heavenly Father make you wait 6 years to start overcoming this? I don't know the reason for that right now, but I know that I learned many valuable lessons in the time that I struggled with procrastination. Henry B. Eyring once said, "The Lord's delays often seem long; some last a lifetime. But they are always calculated to bless. They need never be times of loneliness or sorrow or impatience." I know that whatever trial Heavenly Father gives to me, no matter how hard it is, is calculated to bless me the most. Heavenly Father has created a personal path to exaltation for each of us that will help us become the best person we can be.

I promise that if you have faith in the Lord, and humble yourself before him, the Lord will make your weak things become strong unto you.

From Limbo to Exaltation

Sometimes you feel stuck. Like you are making no progress. Like you are trudging along a grey and gloomy rock bottom – walking around and around in your trench of bad habits. You know that there is a way out– by climbing up and over the ledge, but that seems impossible to do. You know you want to get out, and that you hate what you're doing. You know that you should just stop walking and reach up, but right now, you're stuck in a trance. In a state of limbo, wanting to be out, but stuck at the same rhythmic pace, trudging along. Step, after step, after step... going nowhere. At least... that's what it feels like. But, as I've come to see, it's not like that. Actually, it's exactly the opposite. Let me explain.

In my New Testament class we read this scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

When I first heard this scripture, I was confused. How is it that the Savior of the entire world, Jesus Christ, who atoned for each and every sin for every person who has ever lived and will ever live, able to say that His burden is light? How is it that He who bled at every pore under the pressure of suffering the penalty and the pain of every sin, bad feeling, wrong-doing, and injustice can say that His yoke is easy?


I asked my New Testament teacher this question and he just stood there for a minute. Then he smiled and marveled at the question and just repeated it back to me. He then showed me a different way to think about it. He said, "It seems like he is talking about the eternal blessings and consequences of sin and following His commandments. Addiction is not easy; sin is not easy; they shackle you down with chains. What is easy, is feeling those burdens removed from you."

Jesus doesn't say, 'Just give me your burdens and I will do all of the work'. No, He asks us to take on extra responsibility. To take His yoke upon us. To carry the burden with Him. After all, the burden He is carrying was ours to begin with. This yoke that Jesus wants us to take on is to put him first in our lives. To us, it may seem impossible to take on extra responsibility. How can I take on more, when I cannot even do right with what I have now? Seems counter-intuitive right? Well, that's what faith is for.

Faith is giving your all to God even when you don't know what "all" is. Faith is saying, I don't know exactly how you are going to have me accomplish this thing you have asked me to do, but I'm going to try my hardest and do it anyways. We show our faith in Jesus Christ when we stop preoccupying ourselves with our weaknesses, trials, and shortcomings and start to put Him first in our life. We can do this by serving others, praying, reading our scriptures, making an actual effort to schedule meaningful time to do these things, and reflecting often on the abundant blessings that the Lord bestows upon us. Ezra Taft Benson once said, "When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or dropout of our lives."

Just when we think that we cannot take on any more, that the albatross around our neck might make us crack under the pressure, when we think that we will forever reside in our rut in rock bottom, Jesus says: reach up and I will show you the way out – higher than you can see or imagine.

Pure Love

Today I witnessed one of the sweetest moments I have seen in my life. I was at the Microsoft cafeteria, eating my Mongolian stir fry. I heard a man a few feet away from me ask, "Are you ok?" I looked up and saw a man, probably in his 40s, and a little boy with blonde hair, probably around 3 years old. The little boy was just in the middle of getting up from the ground. I assume that he had fallen after reaching the top of the staircase they had just climbed. The father, who seemed to be balancing their lunch on his tray took a second to restack the boxes and soda cans that tumbled on their lunch tray. I assume that the food on the tray toppled when the man tried to stop the boy from falling. While the man was doing this, the boy stuck his elbow up towards the man with an innocent pout on his face. I assume that he fell on his elbow. Once the man rebalanced the food on the plate, he looked down and slowly, being careful not to let the food on the tray topple again, bent down and kissed the boy's elbow. The boy immediately burst into a smile and started skipping towards their table.

For some reason this event touched me so deeply. A simple act of pure love. It didn't matter to the man that he may be a bit out of breath from walking up the stairs. It didn't matter that as he bent down he could have dropped their food again. It didn't matter that maybe he was hungry and just wanted to sit down and eat after searching for an empty table. All that mattered was that his little boy wanted him to kiss his elbow better. All he wanted to do was to make that little boy happy. 

The thing that touched me the most about this event was that the boy immediately knew that the man would kiss his elbow. This didn't look like the first time this happened; like the man made a habit of caring for and loving the boy and the boy could rely on and trust that he could always come to him for help, comfort, and love.

I am not exactly sure why this happened directly in front of me, but I am happy that I was blessed with this personal experience. I hope that I will be able to look back on this moment and make meaningful connections as I go on through my life.