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Weaknesses and Strengths

I'm sure there are some pretty amazing examples out there of super heroes who were originally kind of wimpy or insecure or weak who, through some freak accident, become amazing individuals...but my knowledge of that kind of person is limited, so I'll leave that up to my children.  However, there is a scripture that applies to this idea:

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for it they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" (Ether 12: 27)

I remember reading this verse many years ago and wondering how some of my weaknesses would ever become my strengths.  The one that I remember praying about the hardest was my fear of social situations.  Being married to a man who thrives in social situations, and belonging to a church that forces us to talk to others, I felt a great loss in who I naturally was.  How could I be the servant of the Lord that I needed to be if I didn't want to interact with other members of the church?

Well, for those who may be reading this many years from now, we are currently experiencing the fear of an outbreak of the coronavirus.  As a result, it's all over the news, and social media.  I ran across this meme the other day on a friend's page:



Having proclaimed myself an introvert for years (and knowing that I actually WAS one), I felt like this should speak to me.

But you know what?

While I understood exactly what it was saying, I didn't FEEL it anymore.

Dare I say that I like to be around people now?  I search out people to talk to them.  I have friends because I have gone out of my comfort zone.  And I don't always want to stay home, but instead feel lonely occasionally and call up someone to get together.

A huge part of this has been leaving PA where I felt the need to hide from the trolls and naysayers who seemed to watch my every move, and another huge part has been working in the temple.  But along with that, I have made a giant effort to reach out to people in the Chelsea ward and have found that being with some of them is as fun or even more so than staying home.  This isn't saying that being with people doesn't mentally exhaust me anymore, because when I come home from socializing, I need TV, food and a nap to get rid of my headache.  But the main idea is that I actually enjoy being with people now.

It's taken years for this to happen, and I know in the beginning, I wanted it to happen pretty much as soon as I got up from praying about it, but it has.  It's taken time and patience, and I wasn't bitten by a freak spider, and like the proverbial boiled frog, I haven't really noticed it along the way, but it's there now.

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