Amazing Grace! Are you missing it?
Have you tried over and over again, to change something in your character- a weakness that keeps circling back? Meet me on the trail to talk about how to change your weakness into a strength. There's something you're probably missing.
Transcript
Welcome, friends, to the Creative
Spiritual Journey podcast, where Guy and
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:I walk with you in this amazing journey of
life and share with you the things of our
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:heart and the lessons and the blessings
that we are gathering along the way.
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:I am so grateful that
you join me on the trail.
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:Today, we're gonna talk
about our weakness.
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:does that just sound so much fun?
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:If I was to hand you a piece of
paper and say, "Write a list of
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:your weaknesses," are you like me?
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:And it would be maybe a notebook.
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:seriously, let's take a dive into
understanding why we are so blinded
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:and so troubled by our weaknesses.
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:Recently upon the return of our
mission, I was called to serve
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:as the Relief Society president.
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:my first thought was, "Uh-uh, not me."
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:But then grace intervened and I said yes.
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:But since then, I have felt like my
weaknesses, my inability to organize,
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:my squirrels running in my mind, and
my oh shinies, and procrastination, and
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:worrying about what to say, and after
I've said it, worrying that I said
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:the wrong thing, And my yard is full
of weeds, my home is full of clutter.
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:I forget things.
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:I feel overwhelmed, having to ask to
come into people's home and minister and
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:deal with some heavy, heavy things that
I feel inadequate for, to say the least.
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:So weaknesses is another
word for our humanness.
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:It's messy.
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:It's this natural man.
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:Fear of what others think about
us, fear of failure or rejection,
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:jealousy, um, thinking someone's
better than us or thinking
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:someone's less than us, it is pride.
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:It is so normal.
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:We all have weakness.
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:So the other day, I had to
teach with the elders quorum
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:president a fifth Sunday lesson.
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:And I had prepared, and I had toiled
and worried about what to say and how
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:to say it, and I woke that morning, and
in tears, I told my husband, "I do not
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:want to be Relief Society president.
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:God chose the wrong person."
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:It reminded me of a story of a
girl who goes to her mother And she
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:cries, "I don't wanna go to school.
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:the kids might be mean to me.
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:I might forget.
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:what I wanna say, and it just is too hard.
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:I just don't want to go to school today."
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:And the mother said to her, "But
darling, you are the teacher,
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:and you have to go to school."
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:So here I was.
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:I had to show up as the
Relief Society president.
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:and teach the fifth Sunday lesson.
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:As bad as I'd love to be just the person
on the back row that doesn't say a
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:word and can just sit and enjoy or sit
and criticize whatever it is that they
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:are doing or you think they are doing.
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:I just didn't wanna be
in the spotlight anymore.
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:In Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon,
the Lord assures us that if we
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:humble ourselves before Him, He can
help us overcome this natural man.
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:He says, "If any man come unto me, I
will show unto them their weakness.
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:I give unto men weakness
that they may be humble.
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:And my grace is sufficient for all
men that humble themselves before me.
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:For if they humble themselves before me
and have faith in me, then I will make
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:weak things become strong unto them."
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:Do you love that?
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:Notice that it's weakness, not weaknesses.
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:It is just one thing, the natural
man, the humanness of us But I wanna
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:point something out that I am missing.
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:Maybe you too are missing this.
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:"My grace is sufficient."
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:What does the word sufficient mean?
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:Sufficient is enough.
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:meeting the need of what we're in need of.
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:It's just like Christ meeting us right
where we are with sufficient grace.
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:So what is grace?
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:In the Bible dictionary, it says, "Grace,
the main idea of the word is divine means
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:of help or strength given through the
bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ."
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:Through this love of Jesus Christ, we
receive strength and assistance to do
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:good works that otherwise we would not be
able to maintain if left to our own means.
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:So this grace is an enabling power
that allows you and I to lay hold upon
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:eternal life and all the great gifts
that our Father in heaven and our
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:Savior are pouring down on, upon us.
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:Divine grace is needed by every soul
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:So there is a Tibetan dakini.
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:You know what that is?
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:It is a female Buddhist monk.
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:I hope I'm saying her
name right, is Niguma.
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:She lived a thousand years ago, and
she was trying to teach the people
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:about this kind of grace, this divine
love, and she says we're missing it.
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:So she came up with the four ways that
we are missing it, And I want you to
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:ask yourself which one rings true to you
when it comes to dealing with this big
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:long list of your weaknesses so you can
receive sufficient grace Are you ready?
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:Number one, it is so
simple I didn't believe it
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:Do you think sometimes we overthink,
overcomplicate, and make things much
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:bigger than they need to be, especially
when it comes to spiritual matters?
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:It is so simple, I didn't believe it.
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:… Number two, it is so close,
I couldn't recognize it.
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:What is that quote about missing
the forest because of the trees?
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:So is this grace, so close to us,
that we're not recognizing it?
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:Three, it is so profound, so
deep, I couldn't conceive it
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:It's like the waves to the ocean.
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:They're just one and the same.
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:And the same is for this grace,
this divine love of our Savior.
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:It is part of us, a part of our soul,
just like the waves are to the ocean
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:number four, so noble, I
didn't believe I deserved it.
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:That one rings true to me
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:I love the story of the prodigal son.
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:My favorite part is when he is
returning home and he feels like he
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:doesn't deserve to be welcomed home.
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:In fact, he even says he's gonna
be happy with just being a servant
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:and he hopes that his father will
take him back and understand.
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:And while he is, still a long way
off, his father saw him coming.
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:Filled with love and compassion, he runs
to his son, embraces him and kisses him,
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:puts a ring on his finger, a- coat on
his back has a feast and a celebration.
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:We are his divine daughters and sons.
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:And it is his great pleasure to give
us his kingdom, to give us his grace
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:sufficiently, what we are in need
of, meeting us right where we are.
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:So what are we missing?
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:Is it so simple that you don't believe it?
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:Is it so close that you can't see it?
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:Is it so deep that you
can't comprehend it?
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:Or is it so noble you think
you do not deserve it?
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:I think we're a little bit
of all of them, don't you?
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:And I'm just going to remind you,
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:this was written over
a thousand years ago.
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:Humanness.
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:Our story is as long as time has existed.
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:Adam and Eve worried about their weakness.
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:They hid.
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:They sewed fig leaves to cover it up.
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:What are we doing?
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:Probably the same thing.
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:So it's my invitation to you to take
a moment in meditation, meditative
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:prayer, to contemplate not a whole
list of your weakness, just one.
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:The weakness of our humanness, the natural
man, and how we are separating ourselves
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:from this divine grace, this amazing
grace that is all around you, that God is
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:relentlessly pursuing you, and his arms
are always outstretched, calling you home.
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:And my promise is his grace is sufficient
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:And how about we make our grace
sufficient for each other?
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:Offer each other grace in our weakness and
just say, "Hey, it's okay you have weeds
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:in your yard, and it's okay you forgot."
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:I love you.
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:I don't know if you noticed this, but I
tried a little experiment on this episode,
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:that the music has been running throughout
the whole episode while I'm talking, this
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:is to cover up the mistakes, my weakness,
the background noise, my little clearing
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:my throat, or the computer revving up.
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:And it got me to thinking, this
is how his grace is sufficient.
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:It is always there, so simple, so close,
so profound, and so noble, always with us.
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:So be humble.
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:We all have weakness, We're all human.
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:And have faith that God
will make weakness, your
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:strengths, your superpowers.
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:You've got this I believe that,
and I'll see you on the trail
