Thankful, Grateful, Blessed.

A few Sunday's ago, I was really touched by the hymn “More Holiness Give Me.”  I have recently been thinking about how I can improve in my discipleship, and this hymn really shed some light.  The first verse of the hymn reads:

"More holiness give me, More strivings within, More patience in suff’ring, More sorrow for sin, More faith in my Savior, More Sense of his care, More joy in his service, More purpose in prayer. "

Holiness, strivings, patience, faith, and purpose were things that stood out to me most.  Some of us might see that list of attributes and think, “I will never be able to obtain all those qualities.”  I will readily admit that I have similar thoughts.  However, one thing that I have been learning is that if we have the desire to learn, grow, and improve, the Lord will provide a way. 

This last week, the Lord definitely provided a way for me to learn, grow, and improve, but not in the way that I would have ever expected.  Learning, growing and improving requires both opportunity and opposition.  Well, this time around I caught the opposition end of the stick.  We can let opposition defeat us, and drag us down to the gulf of misery, or we can see opposition with a new light.  We can see opposition as an opportunity to draw strength from the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His infinite Atonement. 

This particular opposition that I faced wasn’t something that I automatically thought was an opportunity to learn and grow.  This particular form of opposition was something that I had thought I overcame before my mission.  I had not experienced this form of opposition for a very long time, so you could say that I was pretty confused.  As strange as this might sound, I am grateful that this opposition presented itself.  Not only did it give me the opportunity to learn and grow, but it gave me the opportunity to draw closer to the Savior, and find more holiness in my life.

To overcome this opposition I decided I would fast. The purpose of this fast was not just to show that I was being sincere, but the purpose of this fast was also to ask for divine help and understanding of how I can overcome temptation, and no longer yield to it. I read a few conference talks with this purpose in mind.  As I read, I was amazed at how simple the answer was.  Very simply and lovingly was I reminded to come unto Christ. The answer was not just to come unto Christ through repentance and faith, but to be willing to put off the natural man and strive to be like Christ by learning of him. 

I cannot explain the amount of love and peace that I feel knowing that the Savior loves me despite my imperfections and many flaws.  I am filled with gratitude to know that because of Jesus Christ, I can be forgiven of my shortcomings and mistakes. 

We all know that Satan is a dirt-bag.  That is the doctrine of Melissa, but I find it to be accurate. Satan finds ways for us to slowly let down our guard through distraction, and desensitization.  The distraction comes when we are setting aside the important things, and justify the way we spend our time.  We begin by telling ourselves that we will get to the important stuff later. Then, the desensitization comes in.  We find ourselves justifying our priorities just enough that we begin to become idle in our actions.  That is when Satan swoops in to mess up your day.  Satan thrives when we are idle, distracted, and finally desensitized.  It is almost as if he makes us think that wasting time watching Netflix, or scrolling through social media, is more important than spiritual things.   

This experience of challenge and opposition I faced last week reminded me of the importance of sincere prayer and scripture study. I have found that when I begin and end my day with prayer, and scripture study, I have greater capacity to make better choices.  I attribute this to the companionship of the Holy Ghost. When we pray sincerely and study our scriptures with real intent, we qualify ourselves for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  When we aren't doing our part to qualify ourselves for this heavenly companionship, our ability to think clearly, and overcome temptation is lessened. 

" Holiness is in the striving and the struggle to keep the commandments and to honor the covenants we have made with God. Holiness is making the choices that will keep the Holy Ghost as our guide.³ Holiness is setting aside our natural tendencies and becoming “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.”⁴ “Every moment of [our lives] must be holiness to the Lord.”- Carol F. McConkie.

The answer for any trial, temptation, opposition etc. is simple, sometimes it is too simple that we often overlook the answer.  Come unto Christ, and all will be well.