Grace, Strength, and Trials: What I learned from losing a spelling bee

I was talking with a friend earlier today. She felt so weak. She felt like she had failed at some decisions in the past, and thereby was suffering today. Maybe that was true, but I'd like to share an experience with you that I told her about.

In 5th and 6th grades, I participated in the school spelling bee. 5th grade was my first time ever making it to a school level, and I was so excited and nervous. I studied like crazy. I memorized the words. I knew it front and back. And then...I got sick. The stress built up until it emerged as a fuzzy head, bad cold, and congested nose. Bleh. You know what I mean?
Well, I went to the competition anyway. There were probably 30 students. I was one of the first to spell in the first round. And the word came. I don't even know what the word was, but I was so sick and stressed that I missed it. On the first round, I lost. I got last place. I bawled my face off and drenched my jacket in boogs and tears. I was a mess.

The next year, I returned to the spelling bee. This time there were only 15 students, I'm guessing. I had prepared equally, but this time I was not sick. And ya know what - I got 5th/6th tied and made it through quite a few rounds. Wahoo!

Well, why did I share that story with my friend and now with you? An embarrassing story that involved me failing the spelling bee & having to fess up to my favorite teacher and my large class that I slaughtered the spelling bee (and not in a pleasant way)? Well, this is why.

Many times, we walk into a situation as prepared as we can be. We all have our limitations, and we try our best. We step up (figuratively) to the mic & look the judges square in the eye and watch their mouths as they say the word. And then somehow, despite all we've done, we fail. We collapse. Perhaps we even break down and vow to never step up to the mic again. We feel pointless, worthless, and like something nobody would ever care to claim.
In that moment, we may ask God why He let us fail. Why does someone who loves us so much let us get last place??
There are many reasons. Perhaps it is to chastise us. Perhaps it is a warning. Perhaps it is His way of helping us embrace Him and Christ's grace. Perhaps it is a way to open our hearts to future opportunities and exquisite joy.

My friends, overall, you will often not be strong enough. God really does give us challenges that are beyond our scope. Despite all our preparation and the hours we spend looking at a list of a couple hundred words, we are not enough. We've got limitations (like my sickness) that keep us from fulfilling our dreams.
Luckily, Christ is strong enough. Ask Him for that strength. Ask Him for the help to forgive, to aid, to lift, and to try again. And often, His strength may not be used in order to help you get 1st place the first time, but perhaps just to help you be strong enough to try again. Maybe you'll never get 1st. But that isn't the point in this life. This life is about learning how to love, to lift, and to become like Him, and ultimately to learn how to humbly accept help and chastisement.

Don't give up. Don't think you are weak because you fell the first time. Don't think God doesn't love you just because you didn't score first or because you scored last. Simply know that He is all wise and that Christ's grace is sufficient for all of us. Ultimately, it is strong enough to take "the loser" and turn them into "a winner", or at least give them the strength to try again and again.
No one is a loser in His sight.
Grace: It's not just there to mend sins. It's there to mend will.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Julie

Look to the Light

My dear friends,
   I wish I could just reach out right now and hold each one of you in my arms. I wish I could sing you to sleep or say something that could particularly touch your soul. I wish I could lead you or follow you. I wish I could know you. But I can't. So I will do what I can.
    I feel like Satan is pushing us more and more by the day. And it isn't just the temptations of "go steal that candy bar" or "go yell at your little brother". No. They are temptations far more internal and far harder to detect.
     Inadequacy is one of Satan's greatest tools. He loves that tool. He carries it in his little chain-link belt and sleeps with it on his pillow...if he sleeps. Why? Why does he love that tool so much?
     Because he is inadequate. Have you ever noticed that when you feel down on yourself, you want everyone else to feel miserable too? You judge them and you want everyone to walk around with a little rain cloud over their head, just like you are. Satan is that way. He is misery and he loves company. In fact, company is what gives him his "power". The more people he can persuade to feel inadequate, hurt, alone, or pointless, the more "power" he gains. It's rather pathetic, but it is true to the core.
     My friends, I cannot say 2013 was easy. I saw a lot of people fall. I saw them fall to drugs, to immorality, to depression, to inadequacy. I even frightfully saw myself fall. Satan loves to keep you company when you are face-down on the floor. He loves to pin you down and sit there with you, basking in the misery that radiates from your life and his life. He is a sick twisted being.
       In the moments that you fall, it feels like he has all power. It feels like he has biceps the size of basketballs and is pinning you to the cold hard snow. It feels like you'll never escape. But I have a secret for you.
     Even in the moments when Satan has you in a death-hold, you are stronger than him. Thousands of times stronger than him. Why? Because you are something that he gave up. You are a child of God. And that title is more than just a name. It is a power. Satan may dress up in an inflatable sumo suit and parade around with nerf gun, but you have true power. However, all too often we feel the pressure of his inflatable muscles against our skin and feel like struggling is pointless. From our position on the ground, we can only see the hard-packed snow and ice and feel his "muscles".
We would never guess they are inflatables.
    My friends, the only way you can overcome the devil is by looking up. When you look up, you will see your captor in all his weak, inflatable junkiness. You will see a puny, heartless creature - a creature that you were misled by to think that he was all powerful and so strong. You will see his true form, his inadequacy, his weakness.
     Look up. Look up and see his weakness. See the being who has you pinned and ask yourself why you are letting a sponge pin down a mountain, why a plastic bottle is keeping the sea from rising. And look to Christ. Look up and see the god who died for you. And feel His strength surround you. And stand. And kick Satan's inflatable sumo suit bottom and watch him roll away.
    My friends, you have that power. You just have to look up. And that takes prayer. And that takes fasting and scripture study. And that takes hope and trust and humility. Trust Christ enough to look up. And love yourself enough to move away from your pathetic captor. Serve others. Attend the temple. If you don't have a recommend, get worthy and get one. Cast aside your pride and your mindless passions and embrace others, yourself, and Christ.
Once you look to the light, who is the darkness to hold you down?
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Julie

EMbrace Yourself

 “BRACE YOURSELF!!!” I’m sure most of you have heard that saying before.

Scriptures, Sharing, and Sledgehammers: The Art of Rebuilding #2

   I have written to you previously about something very dear to my heart– the art of rebuilding. Here’s the [link] to my old article about it. Today, I’d like to go a little further into the same topic.

You are more than just scars

     Over the past few months, I have either talked to or heard of many friends who have been hurt, who have fallen, who are broken.

I Pray for You: Living Worthy to Someday Be Sealed for Eternity

  I am so grateful for a gracious, loving, forgiving Heavenly Father. He truly does love us. He truly does care immensely for every one of His children. I know He is willing and open to revealing great and wonderful things to you in His time.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Here's something I heard this week that I think is so awesome, especially for Thanksgiving--