Starting and developing a new relationship is a good time for personal growth and reflection. In the first couple of days we were dating, Ryan asked me what my biggest fear was. My own answer surprised me. Since being an almost 100% Extrovert (Thank you Myers-Briggs), I usually respond to that question with “Being alone is my biggest fear.” I hate being a lone for too long, I prefer to work next to someone even though we don’t talk, I prefer to go to the store with someone else, I prefer to have a person who I can tell everything to. But that was not my initial reaction this time. I had made the realization that I have learned how to be alone; that I have gone through enough “lonely” time of my life and moments of “adulting” (for lack of a better term, I hate that word) to know what it feels like to be alone. The thought of being alone again hurts and I don’t really want to go there again, but I know I could make it through. I conquered what I thought my biggest fear was, without even really knowing it! What is my biggest fear, then? I replied to Ryan, who was so sweetly listening intently, “Missing my potential. Not being the best version of myself.” So what does one person do with that, once the realization has been made? The correct answer would be to change my behavior and instantly change to become the best version of myself that I could imagine! Right? Wrong. I think one of the reasons that I feel this way is because I heard someone, somewhere (maybe it was a credible source, maybe it wasn’t…) say something like this: Your potential is always moving forward, and if you don’t keep up with it, you will lose that potential of potential. Okay, don’t let your brain explode yet. Let me explain with a picture. I never thought that I could make up that gap. That time was passing and I was actually missing my Potential (with a big P, the type of potential that is the best version of myself). With a closer study of the Atonement and Grace, I am beginning to learn that this may not be true. I have been forgetting one important factor. From one of my most favorite talks, “His Grace is Sufficient” by Brad Wilcox, comes a great explanation to my concerns: Christ asks us to show faith in Him, repent, make and keep covenants, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. By complying, we are not paying the demands of justice—not even the smallest part. Instead, we are showing appreciation for what Jesus Christ did by using it to live a life like His. Justice requires immediate perfection or a punishment when we fall short. Because Jesus took that punishment, He can offer us the chance for ultimate perfection (see Matthew 5:48, 3 Nephi 12:48) and help us reach that goal. He can forgive what justice never could, and He can turn to us now with His own set of requirements (see 2 Nephi 2:7; 3 Nephi 9:20). We may think we see two sets of footprints in the sand and then sometimes one and back to two sets of footprints. But, that is the wrong way to look at it. There is always only one set of footprints in the sand. (If you don’t know what I am referring too, read up on a modern poem that I have heard in several talks/lessons http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/footprints.htm ). Christ is always carrying us. His grace is already sufficient for us! He atoned wholly and completely for me, but I need to do my part to receive the type of blessing and eternal life that I want. Nothing ever comes from just letting things happen to you. For me to be whole and complete, to reach my Potential, I need to work hard AND let Him carry me. This is what the graph really should look like: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13 Christ was the one thing I was forgetting. I need both obedience and hard work, coupled with Christ to enable me fill The Gap of my Potential.
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single.The Ability to Be Whole and Complete on My Own Archives
April 2017
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