"And my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" (Ether 12:27)

The other day, I showed up at my mom's house to see what I could do to help get my sister-in-law and 10 of her 14 children ready go to the airport. When I arrived I asked what I could do to help and my sister-in-law took me to the laundry room, showed me two boxes that were, in my opinion, already full and then said she needed my help loading the rest of the clothes from the dryer, a laundry basket, and a drying rack. Now, these clothes weren't just socks; they were jeans, and sweaters, and sweater dresses, and bulkier clothes. The thought ran through my head of, "there is no way these things are going to fit", but I didn't verbalize it. I just said, "Okay" and she left the room.

Sometimes, we are asked to do things that seem impossible. They might be minor tasks but are truly life saving for someone else, and we feel completely inadequate, insecure, and unsure of our abilities. Gratefully, the Lord knows better. He always does. The Lord has promised us that He will sustain the righteous. For forty years he sustained the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. "Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not" (Nehemiah 9:21). He not only sustains the righteous, but also will carry their burdens: "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" (Psalms 55:22). What great comfort in a world where there is turmoil and challenges to be faced, great and small, on a daily basis.

As I looked at the boxes I knew my sister-in-law needed them filled. I then said out loud, and kind of to myself, "Okay, if the Lord can feed five-thousand and have baskets of food left over, He can definitely help me make these clothes fit. I need a miracle". I then silently prayed for a miracle to make it all fit. I just got to work. I rolled clothes, jeans, shirts, dresses, socks, more jeans, and more dresses. I opened the dryer and was surprised how many clothes there were in there. But I just kept working. My sister-in-law came in and put a hairdryer and a cosmetic bag in of the boxes. She even brought in more socks and undergarments from some where else. All the clothes fit, and more. I called for my nephew to come and help me tape it shut. I call it the miracle of the boxes.

Sometimes I do feel very inadequate, and I am. I am not saying that I don't have talents or that I am not good at things, that's not the point. The point is, He makes up the difference because He is the difference! We all have weaknesses and need the Lord's help no matter who we are and whether or not we recognize it. The pride of man makes us think we can do it all on our own; that we can be perfect, or that we can handle it all without help, even the day to day stuff. Thankfully, we are so loved, that we don't have to, nor are we expected to do it alone. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" (Ether 12:27). When we are called to serve or do what seems to be an impossible task, He is the One that will fill the already full boxes just as surely as He fed the five thousand with two barley loaves and five fishes and "filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten" (John 6:5-13).

I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." (1 Nephi 11:17)

Some days just don't go as planned. I have an agenda all laid out and it doesn't go at all like I planned. Sometimes I am able to go with it and be just fine, and others, for whatever reason...I can't. On those days that I can't seem to let it go, at the end of the day I realize that it did me no good to fret over it all, but things work out, or will work out, I don't know how, and maybe not when or how I think they will, but they will work out. Most often, it isn't the big stuff that causes me the most stress, but it is the little things that seem to needle their way into the agenda I had all laid out. What is up with that, I ask?

And then today, this thought came into my mind: "...lean not unto thine own understanding." I had to think about that one, seriously. All too often I want to be the one to know where I am going, I like to read the road map when we are in a new city, I like to know where I am and where I am headed. I don't mind having an adventure, but for some reason, I like to know how I am getting there. So, when I was walking today and this thought came to me, and I couldn't think of the scripture reference off the top of my head I knew that I needed to let things go. I knew that there was a lot that I don't understand, A LOT. I needed to go home and look this one up.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; 

and lean not unto thine own understanding." 

(Proverbs 3:5)

Trust in Him with all my heart, not just some of it, but all of it. The Lord has "not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim.1:7). When things don't go the way we think they should, even when they are righteous desires, it doesn't mean we aren't headed in the right direction. Sometimes, our agenda needs to be tweaked, and that's okay. That's not a bad thing. God does give us the spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind...not a frenzied mind, a mind that is all over the place trying to make sure we have all of our bases covered or that our agenda is totally in place. The key is to make sure our agenda is God's agenda. And sometimes, what was once the correct agenda, like having a certain number of children, which is a righteous desire and in line with God's idea's, but perhaps, has become my agenda, God's agenda has now changed for me. (That happened to me.) It's hard to discern when those changes take place. But it sometimes happens and it takes faith to continue forward amidst those changes.

One of my favorite scriptures is in 1 Nephi 11, it says: "I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things"(vs. 17). I don't have the answers to all the problems in the world or even pretend to begin to understand them. Everyone suffers...big and small. The depths of sorrow is great. But God totally understands our sorrows, our worries, our stresses, our messed up plans. How? Because "God loved us and He sent His Son! (1 John 4:10) How we choose to respond to our suffering or messed up plans, is up to us. Will we trust in the Lord with all our heart, and lean not unto our own understanding? 

On those days or weeks or months or years that don't go as planned, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" (Psalms 55:22). "[He] will strengthen thee; yea, [He] will help thee; uphold thee with the right hand of [His] righteousness" (Isaiah 41:10). He will make our burdens lighter so that we can bear them (see Mosiah 24:15) because He loves us and wants us to succeed. "For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

I wish I could express this in more explicit words, more poetic words, but there are only the simple and pure words that are true...our Savior Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father love us. I don't know the meaning of all things, but this I do know, This I Testify, God loves us, He loves His children! And you are His child.

Feel His Love, it surrounds you.