A friend of mine posted a quote and a link. I clicked on it and just listened to exactly what I needed to hear today from a BYU Devotional Elder Jeffery R Holland gave back in 1980:
For Times of Trouble
Do you ever feel untalented or incapable or inferior? Would it help
you to know that everyone
else feels that way too, including the prophets of God? Moses initially
resisted his destiny, pleading that he was not eloquent in language.
Jeremiah thought himself a child and was afraid of the faces he would
meet.
And Enoch? I ask all of you to remember Enoch as long as
you live. This is the young man who, when called to a seemingly
impossible task, said, “Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight,
[I] am
but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech?” (Moses
6:31).
Enoch was a believer. He stiffened his spine and
squared his shoulders and went stutteringly on his way. Plain old,
ungifted, inferior Enoch. And this is what the angels would come to
write of
him:
And so great was the faith of Enoch that he
led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them;
and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the
mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water
were
turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of
the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word
of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given
him. [Moses 7:13]
Plain old, inadequate
Enoch—whose name is now synonymous with transcendent righteousness. The
next time you are tempted to paint your self-portrait dismal gray,
highlighted with lackluster beige, just remember that in like manner
have this kingdom’s most splendid men and women been tempted. I say to
you as Joshua said to the tribes of Israel as they faced one of their
most difficult tasks, “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will
do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5).
There is, of course, one
source of despair more serious than all the rest. It is linked with
poor preparation of a far more serious order. It is the opposite of
sanctification. It is the most destructive discouragement in time or
eternity. It is transgression against God. It is depression embedded in
sin.
Here your most crucial challenge, once you have
recognized the seriousness of your mistakes, will be to believe that you
can change, that there can be a different you. To disbelieve that is
clearly a satanic device designed to discourage and defeat you. When you
get home tonight, you fall on your knees and thank your Father in
Heaven that you belong to a Church and have grasped a gospel that
promises repentance to those who will pay the price.
Repentance
is not a foreboding word. It is following
faith, the most encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary. Repentance is simply the
scriptural invitation for growth and improvement and progress and renewal. You can change! You can be anything you want to be in
righteousness.
If there is one lament I cannot abide—and I hear
it from adults as well as students—it is the poor, pitiful,
withered cry, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” If you want to talk
about discouragement, that phrase is one that discourages me. Though
not a swearing man, I am always sorely tempted to try my hand when I
hear that. Please spare me your speeches about “That’s just the way I
am.” I’ve heard that from too many people who wanted to sin and call
it psychology. And I use the word
sin again to cover a
vast range of habits, some seemingly innocent enough, that nevertheless bring discouragement and doubt and despair.
You can change
anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That’s another
satanic suckerpunch—that it takes years and years and eons of
eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you
to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it. Of course there will be
problems to work out and restitutions to make. You may well spend—indeed
you had better spend—the rest of your life proving your repentance
by its permanence. But change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come
for you as instantaneously as for Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Even if
you have serious amends to make, it is not likely that you would qualify
for the term, “the vilest of sinners,” which is the phrase Mormon
uses in describing these young men. Yet as Alma recounts his own
experience in the thirty-sixth chapter of the book that bears his name,
his
repentance appears to have been as instantaneous as it was stunning.
Do not misunderstand. Repentance is not easy or painless or
convenient. It is a bitter cup from Hell. But only Satan, who dwells
there, would have you think that a necessary and required acknowledgment
is
more distasteful than permanent residence. Only he would say, “You can’t
change. You won’t change. It’s too long and too hard to change.
Give up. Give in. Don’t repent. You are just the way you are.” That, my
friends, is a lie born of desperation. Don’t fall for
it.
...In this Church we ask for faith, not infallibility.
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