Images Reflected

It was my turn this month to prepare the presidency message for Relief Society. I feel impressed to share what I wrote here on my blog:

My Dear Sisters,

If there is one message I can bring to you this month, it would be this: You Are Not Alone!

Your Heavenly Father loves you! He understands your needs, your challenges, and where you are on our pathway back home to Him. Many times we try to disguise what we are feeling or hide it from others. Maybe we don’t know how to express what we feel. Maybe we feel guilty about how we are feeling. Or maybe we think others won’t understand what we are going through. Whatever our reasons, know that you are not alone. We are all on this journey to return back home together. We are here to help one another, to strengthen one another, to lift one another. And when the time comes when we feel we cannot go another step, or do one more thing, we are here to help carry one another, until we are ready to move forward.

We are daughters of God! He has promised us, that if we endure this journey, all that He has will be ours. Elder Robert D. Hales said, “In the same way we cross a bridge or follow a path, we live the gospel one step at a time-- “line upon line, precept upon precept” (2 Nephi 28:30). The  more steps we take, the more clearly we understand that life on earth is, in fact, a journey to a familiar destination. We have been in the presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son already. We have felt Their love and we have loved Their light already. And now we are walking in that light--following that light-- back to Them.” (Hales, Robert D. Return: Four Phases of Our Mortal Journey Home. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2010.)

One day, after really struggling with the things that were going on in my life I wrote the following words:

Images Reflected

are not always what they appear.

On the outside

a canopy of disguises covers

the innermost strugglings of one’s soul.

Images Reflected

do not portray the ongoing battles

that weaken the spirit.

Personal wrestlings for

Spiritual Growth often conflict

with worldly desires.

Choices are made.

Consequences Final. Although it is hard,

I know why I struggle.

One day, I shall return

Home. To My Father.

Upon myself, I hope to find

His Image Reflected.

Sisters, please remember that life is a journey that we are all taking together. How glorious it will be, when we finish our journey, and see each other again, back home in the presence of Our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, and we truly see in ourselves  their image reflected.