Friday, January 24, 2014

Humble Happiness

A few days ago I woke up, as they say, on the wrong side of the bed. Something about me is that I make it a point in my life to be happy as much as I can, but that morning, I just couldn't be, no matter how hard I tried. So, I told myself that I couldn't get ready for school until I was happy. I said a prayer, telling Heavenly Father that I wanted to be happy, and that I was trying to be happy. I asked Him to help me be happy. But when I completed my prayer, I still wasn't happy. Frustrated, I immediately began praying again. This time I said, "I can't do this on my own. I really need thy help to be happy today.". All of a sudden, it was as if the negativity inside of me was swept away. It just kind of dissipated. Throughout the course of the day, several things went wrong, because of which, a couple people told me it just wasn't my day, but I was still genuinely happy nonetheless. This is because my happiness came not from my circumstances and surroundings, but from God, and my relationship with Him.

This experience reminded me of one of my favorite scriptures (which happens to be a Book of Mormon scripture mastery!), Ether 12:27-

"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." 

Usually I think of this in term of "big weaknesses", habitual ones that take lots of time to correct. However, that day I realized that it can apply to "small weaknesses" as well. Because I went to the Lord in prayer and recognized that I couldn't be happy by myself that day, and that I could only do it through Him, He made that weak thing become strong for me that day.

I am going to try to apply this more often in my life. For example, you may recall that my favorite phrase is, "I can do hard things!". I am now amending it to say, "I can do hard things with God!". What can you do in your life through humility? It really is a power. 

*(By the way, finding "if/then" phrases in the scriptures is really cool. You'll see that I highlighted the scripture above in that way. These are conditional promises the Lord gives us. It's pretty cool to find them! I always mark them in my scriptures when I come across them! And they don't ALWAYS have the words if/then explicitly written, but the promises are still there.)  

 

3 comments:

  1. Great post! Humility is something I've been working on lately! I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father loves us enough to send us strength when we need it, even with the small things.

    Love that " I can do hard things with God. " I'm making it my motto. ;) also, yes, discovering promises in the scriptures is so great! I love it! It's like finding precious pearls among all the big doctrine.
    Hugs!

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  2. I love this! I have had a similar experience with happiness lately. I've been so stuck in a rut with school and work that I started to hate it all. Then one day I just decided I was going to enjoy it. Every bit of it. And since then everything has been a lot more enjoyable and I have been better able to recognize the hand of God in my life as well! Thanks for an awesome post!
    -Whit

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  3. This is awesome. I have never thought about that promise in Ether 12 as applying to small weaknesses before, but you are so right! We can do all hard things, large and small, through Christ. Thank you for this great reminder!

    Hugs!

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