A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation” (Joseph Smith, comp., Lectures on Faith [1985], 69).
Some people read these words and think “all things” refers to all possessions. How has surrendering all your weaknesses to the Lord increased your understanding of what it means to sacrifice all things?
I’m working hard on this, although I’m not sure if I’ve completely surrendered all my weaknesses yet.
Some of the weaknesses I feel I still need to surrender:
- Resentments
- Towards some of my colleagues
- Towards my children at times
- Towards my parents at times
- Towards the owners of the company I work with
- Towards my boss
- Towards my wife at times
- Towards the teachings of the gospel at times
- Towards my feelings of inadequacy
- Procrastination
- I feel I procrastinate most when I have a lot to do and don’t really know where to start
- I feel a lot of this is FEAR
- Staying up late
- Not being consistent with reading my scriptures
- Not being consistent with personal prayer, although I do feel I turn more to God now than ever before in my life with short “I need your help” prayers
I feel like one of the weaknesses I recently surrendered to the Lord was my tendency to judge others and criticize how they are doing things. I had the big temptation to rip my team teacher for not being prepared and wasting an opportunity to teach our primary boys. BUT, I surrendered my will to God in this moment and feel it to be a moral victory.
I look forward to reviewing the questions in Step 7 one more time before I move to Step 8. I feel like there are things I can do to really feel “complete” with Step 7. I feel there are sacrifices I have thought about making that I really haven’t committed to yet.
I’m grateful to understand more about what the quote by Joseph Smith meant when he talked about “surrendering all things”.
Things I’m Grateful For
- That I made it through this day without any set backs (today was a tough day: fear, tiredness, resentments)
- That my kids returned to us safe and sound
- That I’ve been able to be pretty consistent in journal writing and answering the questions
- That we are going to Wisconsin soon for a break in work and day to day stuff
- That I have a job that lets me work on my own businesses
- That my parents are healthy
- That my children are healthy
- That Becky is healthy
- That I’m healthy
- For a great Father’s Day with my family
- For the power of prayer in the moment of weakness
Hasta luego!
Nate
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