Hope you've got your New
Year's Goals all lined up and are excited to start the New Year! To think --
It's 2014! That means it has been two years since I graduated from high school,
one year since I started college, and six months since I started my mission!
Yes, that's right. My mission is already a third over! Ugh, just typing that
gives my heart little shivers. I never want this to end. The reality that it
will, one day, is not something I even like thinking about. The thing is
though...does it really ever have to end? In a sense it does; I can't be a
full-time missionary in Japan forever. BUT I can be a missionary forever. I can
take the things I've learned with me and apply them for the rest of my life.
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| New Year's Day at a Member's Home |
This week, my companion
got sick. Really sick. She's doing better now, but we had to spend all of
Saturday inside our apartment. She slept all day, only waking up to eat some
food, and then go back to bed. This left me with a lot of alone time, which to
some, might sound a bit appealing. But, on a mission, it's anything but. It's
harder to stay focused when it's just you and the Lord. It's such a TEMPTATION
to think of other things, to get distracted in the first place, and that's when
you are out working. But being in an apartment all day virtually by yourself,
with nothing to do but study the scriptures and pray to the Lord, it becomes
much more of a tug-of-war between the me that wants to do what's right and the
me that is entrenched in the "Natural Man."
Now, what does that
mean, "The Natural Man?" I've been thinking about that too,
especially in the light of the new year. The new year means New Year’s
Resolutions, but if we are all honest with ourselves, we tend to fall a bit
short of those faster than we would like. At least, for me, when I make New
Year’s Resolutions, I usually forget about them by February, if not before. And
why is that? Well, I would like to say that it's due to the "Natural
Man" that is in each one of us.
A Scripture in the Book of Mormon reads:
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19)
Okay, so what does that mean? WELL, to me at least, the natural man is our innate tendency to be selfish. To not choose the right. To look inward instead of outward. It prevents us from becoming like Christ because we are too busy thinking about ourselves. It closes our hearts so that we don't have the room to think about the needs of others.
It is this, I think, that makes it so much easier to just follow the ways of the world, and not follow the way of the Lord. It is this natural tenancy towards selfishness and laziness that blocks the way for developing all of the divine qualities that we desire to obtain: love, mercy, patience, kindness, and so on. As Neal A. Maxwell said, "The natural man is truly God’s enemy, because the natural man will keep God’s precious children from true and everlasting happiness. Our full happiness requires our becoming the men and women of Christ." But, here’s the best part, we can overcome that! We can overcome all the things we don’t like about ourselves. We can overcome the weaknesses and the little habits we wish we didn’t have. We can overcome it all! We can become better people! We can reach every goal we set – including those ever elusive New Year’s Resolutions. We can put off the natural man and become a saint! The hitch is that we can't do it alone. If we try to do it by our own power, we will find it infinitely more difficult. Impossible, I would say.
It is only through the merciful atonement of Jesus Christ that we can ever hope in becoming the people we desire to be. It is only through His matchless love and His infinite Grace that we overcome the selfish desires of our bodies and embrace the spiritual desires of our hearts. Jesus Christ is the key to success, and He is ever willing to help us. All we need do is ask for it. To supplicate Him in humble prayer for His divine power. And I testify that He will always give it freely.
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19)
Okay, so what does that mean? WELL, to me at least, the natural man is our innate tendency to be selfish. To not choose the right. To look inward instead of outward. It prevents us from becoming like Christ because we are too busy thinking about ourselves. It closes our hearts so that we don't have the room to think about the needs of others.
It is this, I think, that makes it so much easier to just follow the ways of the world, and not follow the way of the Lord. It is this natural tenancy towards selfishness and laziness that blocks the way for developing all of the divine qualities that we desire to obtain: love, mercy, patience, kindness, and so on. As Neal A. Maxwell said, "The natural man is truly God’s enemy, because the natural man will keep God’s precious children from true and everlasting happiness. Our full happiness requires our becoming the men and women of Christ." But, here’s the best part, we can overcome that! We can overcome all the things we don’t like about ourselves. We can overcome the weaknesses and the little habits we wish we didn’t have. We can overcome it all! We can become better people! We can reach every goal we set – including those ever elusive New Year’s Resolutions. We can put off the natural man and become a saint! The hitch is that we can't do it alone. If we try to do it by our own power, we will find it infinitely more difficult. Impossible, I would say.
It is only through the merciful atonement of Jesus Christ that we can ever hope in becoming the people we desire to be. It is only through His matchless love and His infinite Grace that we overcome the selfish desires of our bodies and embrace the spiritual desires of our hearts. Jesus Christ is the key to success, and He is ever willing to help us. All we need do is ask for it. To supplicate Him in humble prayer for His divine power. And I testify that He will always give it freely.
Now, for the longest
time, I found that hard to believe. I understood it in my head, but not in my
heart, the place where it matters most. But as I’ve come on my mission, I’ve
felt changes occur in my very nature. I’ve seen other people working to
overcome that “Natural Man” too, and step by step, start to achieve it. Here’s
something my dad said in his most recent email that I think really applies to
this:
"Many people are
afraid of change and so they put it off or don’t even try. There are many
reasons for being afraid but, in my opinion, if we don’t try we already have
failed. We have failed to try, we have failed to improve ourselves, we
have failed to give ourselves the opportunity to become more than we
are."
Let us not be afraid of
change. Let us move forward in faith as this new year begins. Let us give
ourselves the opportunity to become more than we are. Let us rely on the Lord
everyday of our lives.
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| CREPES....Yummy! |
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| Eating our crepes at our apartment |
I forgot to mention, I finally made that crepe recipe today! It was delicious! Loved it, and so did T-Shimai! You should send more simple recipes like that!
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