A couple of weeks ago, my companion and I were driving down a road, trying to figure out where we should go next when off to the side, by a fence, we see a pheasant. We stop the car and begin admiring this beautiful creation of God’s. As we are looking at all of the different colors and designs we notice that it only has one leg. At first we thought that it could just be standing on one leg (I don’t know if pheasants normally do that or not). Then the bird begins hopping forward and we knew for sure at that point that it definitely only had one leg.
I’ve given this pheasant a lot of thought and in many ways, we are similar to that pheasant. We all possess qualities that are beautiful on the inside and on the out; on the other hand, we all struggle with trials that can be quite debilitating. These struggles may not be apparent at first glance, or they might be. But I know that our struggles that we have are tailored to what we can handle. I know at times it really doesn’t feel like we can but with the Lord’s help, all things are possible and so is overcoming each of our trials.
Now I know when I have trials, I’m a whiner! If I don’t say anything at all (which is rally rather rare) then I wish and think and hope and pray that other people will notice and take pity, or help me out of anything at all. Thankfully Heavenly Father is kind and doesn’t give me extremely hard trials because He knows that I don’t handle them well at all. What I always seem to forget is that, other people are doing the exact same thing! They are hoping that somebody will notice them and help them out. And because we are all God’s children, that is what He would have us do.
In a recent talk given by President Deiter F. Uchtdorf “Pride and the Priesthood” President Uchtdorf is speaking on overcoming price and he says this about becoming humble. “Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of seving God and our fellowman.” I love this quote because we can feel powerful in the knowledge that we are children of God and we can continue forward and rely solely on our Father in Heaven as we go about serving God’s children and helping them through the individual trials that they are having.
What President Uchtorf is saying is an echo of what Christ says when in Luke 9:24 it says “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” If we give up our own desires and serve God’s children, our brothers and sisters, we will all be able to realize who each of us is and treat one another accordingly. We can make a difference in this dark and scary world and share the light that we already possess.
sisterivie 