STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

If I could choose one word to describe myself, it would be "procrastinator."  I am really good at it.  Just ask my parents, friends, and professors.  I could also say that I am not a procrastinator, I am a delegator.  I am really good at delegating tasks to my future self.  All joking aside, procrastination is a real struggle for me.  In fact, it is a weakness that I have had for a really long time.

 What is neat about weaknesses, is that we are given strengths to help us overcome them. As I have been thinking about my weakness of procrastination, I have been kindly reminded by the Holy Spirit that I have been taught how to set goals and make plans.  That is the core of what I did as a missionary.  Without setting goals and making plans, we had nothing to do as missionaries.  We even had a whole day set aside to plan out what we were going to do for the next week.  Every missionary will tell you they dreaded weekly planning, but for some reason I LOVED it.  It gave me a sense of purpose.  It gave me a reason to work hard, and do my best. Planning gave me a guideline of how to use my time.

Since being home from the mission, I have fallen back into my procrastinator ways.  Which, by the way, is super frustrating.  I feel like everything is 10 times harder than it needs to be.  I get distracted easily, which leads to wasting time.  Which then leads to a heavy feeling of discouragement that I can't seem to shake.

We learn in Ether 12:27, in the Book of Mormon, that when we come unto Christ, our weaknesses can be made into strengths.  I think we all forget a really important part of this verse... HUMILITY.  "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." We are given weaknesses so that we can be humble.  Think about it.  Without weaknesses, we would have no reason to grow, change, or improve.

I am so grateful that our Father in Heaven loves us enough to give us opportunities to grow, and change.  They aren't always the most enjoyable times when we are going through it, but these times of growth are definitely for our benefit.   Heavenly Father sets the perfect example of how to make plans.  His plans are always perfect.  We might not understand the timing, or why we must change to become something different.  But god's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

I hope we can all come unto Christ in humility and recognize our weaknesses so they can become strengths.

Have a blessed week y'all!