Trash To Master Piece

Usually when you see pictures such as these you think, well that's a bunch of junk! It's just worthless trash! But, is that true? Or is there hidden value in this piles?

How often do you feel like worthless trash? For Americans it must be pretty often. According to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,  over 34,000 people die each year due to suicide. That's about 90 people a day that take there own life. People do such things because they have thoughts like they are worthless, no one loves them, they are gone beyond repair, or there is no other way out. These are all tools that Satan uses to weaken us and try to overcome us. We MUST NOT let Satan win!!! All of those thoughts are lies from Satan, for we are children of God! And Christ has said, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." (D&C 18:10) Our souls are of great worth, we have been sent here to this earth to do a great work. One of the purposes of the church is to "invite ALL to come unto Christ!" (D&C 20:59) not just a few, not just the ones that are rich, or educated or of high social status, but ALL! God wants all of his children to return to him, we are all worth it to him! We must not let the lies of Satan distract us from our goal to return to our Father in Heaven, we must maintain self-esteem, a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself.

So how do we maintain a healthy self-esteem? Well, President James. E Faust said, "A key to an adequate self-esteem is humility. I do not mean the breast-beating, sackcloth-and-ashes kind of humility. I mean the humility that comes with inner strength and peace. It is the humility that allows us to accept and live with our own warts, without cosmetics to hide them.” Being humble is something that God wants us to be, it is very important in our lives. But being humble does not mean that we are supposed to tear ourselves down. I love what President Uchtdorf says about humility. "Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman." (Pride and the Priesthood.)

So to me being humble is realizing that we are a piece of trash, but have great potential. Meaning that there is not much we can do alone, and that we mess up and make mistakes everyday, but that we are happy with who we are, because we know that God loves us and we are trying! We know that through the atonement of Christ we can be made whole!

Stay tuned for "Look Through Heaven's Eyes," 
for the rest of the story.
Debuting June 2011