Today’s Reading: 1 Nephi 12:16-23
“And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men.”
About three years ago I had the courage to confront the loudest voice distracting me from feeling God’s love — mine. That voice told me 15-20 times a day that if I just used the “great and spacious makeup kit” [i] the world had to offer I could have my body back from being hostage to the unfortunate side effects of birthing and nursing five precious children.
Like an addict, I finally realized I had a problem. A talk given by Elder Randall K. Bennett gave me the courage to do something about it. He said,
“In what we choose to think about, feel, and do, are you and I choosing eternal life?” [ii]
When I really pondered his words I knew that the thoughts I chose to have were not leading me to the tree. They were not leading me to feel God’s love in my life. I realized instead I was heading towards that great and spacious building representing the “”vain imaginations and the pride of the world” or in other words, distraction and deception.” [iii]
My thoughts were distracting me from expressing God’s love for others through me. My thoughts were deceiving me by clouding my ability to feel God’s love for me, EVERY SINGLE PART OF ME.
So, trusting in the enabling power of the atonement, I made the decision to stop trying to compensate for those unfortunate side effects or daydream about the magical procedure that would. Like detox, I felt completely exposed and utterly naked to the world. However, as the days passed, I felt my mind released from my “vain imaginations and pride” and begin to really feel God’s love for me.
Oh, it is wonderful to choose eternal life!
Oh, it is wonderful to partake of the fruit!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me. [iv]
I was born and raised in Alberta, Canada and California and promised every childhood friend I would never raise my family in Utah…until I fell in love with the most amazing fourth generation Orem boy. Now we are raising our kids in the house he grew up in and we love it. I am an estate planning attorney and marriage educator but I really want to be better at those half-baked talents like speaking Spanish, playing the piano, and making dinner every night! Read more about me at mormon.org
This is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. Knowing that you are a daughter of God and that He loves you no matter what can help you overcome all the bad things you think about yourself 🙂 Let’s make the choice every day to choose eternal life!
Thanks Chelsea! It took a lot of drafts to tell this story. It could really be a book!