“He did deliver me from bondage” p. 74

“He did deliver me from bondage”  p. 74

I had not considered that trying to ‘appear to be perfect’ would put one in an emotional prison.  We were talking about prisons yesterday in our lesson on charity, and how Christ said that we are to visit those in prison.  I am struggling to figure out this principle because of my daughter who often hurls herself there in her temper tantrums.  My husband says that we should not ‘wallow’ with someone in their prison who does not want to move on.  Perhaps he lacks the compassion or patience to love them in these unlovable moments.  When I was in prison and felt this way I wished that someone would have been there to show me the way out. But really I had to be left alone so that I could turn to the Lord, knowing that I had no other options, and let Him help me figure it out.  I think this is part of the necessity.  We have to pay our ‘utmost farthing’ to get out of prison, and He is the only one that can get us out.

I used to feel my Husband was cruel in the first years of our marriage.  My victim mentality blamed him and I felt abandoned.  But the very fact that he let me alone was exactly what I needed so I could figure it out with the Lord, and thereby win my personal victory and gain the Savior’s power and love. 

I have notice lately, even people like Elder Cook, who by confessing their humility and weakness doesn’t make me love them any less.  The fear that I will subject myself to public disapproval by public confession in a myth.  When Elder Cook was here for Stake Conference last month He said that he feels so inadequate to fulfill his calling.  He shared his struggles and helped us feel like he is a ‘struggling mortal’ just like the rest of us.  He is an Apostle of the Lord, and we felt as He ‘witnessed’ of the Savoir that he really has seen Him face to face.  His confessing his ‘small-ness’ before us did not decrease our opinion of him, but in reality helped us to elevate our own status up to his level.  We did get a feeling of equality, but it was not because we were wallowing in the mud.  It was elevated and beautiful.