Becoming

I heard a quote at church today that I really liked.


“Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle.” - President Thomas S. Monson

The quote really hit home to me right now. And really, I think it probably applies to most any stage of life that we are in.

Currently for me, there are days when I feel overwhelmed by my current life situation. Days when living in a foreign country, with two boys 3 and under, without a car, without family nearby, without many friends, and while 7 months pregnant, just feels plain overwhelming and hard. There are moments when I am pushing my boys up a hill in the rain and my body aches and I'm moving at a snail's pace and I just want to give up because I feel like it is too hard. Moments when I know that, although it would be nice to have a friend show up and offer us a lift "just then," I know it won't happen. I'll admit that there are many times I absolutely LONG for America. A land where I understand the medical system. A land where I have family and friends and a car and an American-sized fridge! I tell myself that life would be so much easier with a car or with this or with that. But right now that is not my life. And those things are not an option.

I love the idea of praying for "abilities equal to your tasks." I've heard this idea presented in other ways as well. The whole idea that instead of trying to change our circumstances all of the time (because quite frankly some things in life can't be changed, no matter how much we want them to), we work on changing ourselves. And this quote is even more poignant because it talks about changing ourselves with the aid of prayer.

One of my friends from Texas wrote the following quote on her blog a few weeks ago: Elder Richard L. Evans wrote, “It is not the usual purpose of prayer to serve us like Aladdin’s lamp, to bring us ease without effort. Prayer is not a matter of asking only. It should not be always as the beggar’s upturned hand. Often the purpose of prayer is to give us strength to do what needs to be done, wisdom to see the way to solve our problems, and ability to do our best in our tasks."


I feel that these two quotes really go hand in hand. We all will have times in our life when we will WISH for instant relief from suffering or instant solutions to problems. But life doesn't always work that way. There are some experiences that we simply have to face head on. And oh, how much easier it is to face those difficulties WITH the Lord. He wants us to succeed! And, as the poem I referenced in an old post says, "My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me...Oft times He weaveth sorrow and I, in foolish pride, forget He sees the upper, and I the under side. Not til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly, shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillfull hand, as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."


Everything that we experience is making us who we will become. But it is up to us how we will let our experiences shape us.