Have you tried over and over again, to change something in your character- a weakness that keeps circling back? Meet me on the trail to talk about how to change your weakness into a strength. There's something you're probably missing.

Welcome, friends, to the Creative

Spiritual Journey podcast, where Guy and

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I walk with you in this amazing journey of

life and share with you the things of our

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heart and the lessons and the blessings

that we are gathering along the way.

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I am so grateful that

you join me on the trail.

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Today, we're gonna talk

about our weakness.

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does that just sound so much fun?

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If I was to hand you a piece of

paper and say, "Write a list of

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your weaknesses," are you like me?

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And it would be maybe a notebook.

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seriously, let's take a dive into

understanding why we are so blinded

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and so troubled by our weaknesses.

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Recently upon the return of our

mission, I was called to serve

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as the Relief Society president.

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my first thought was, "Uh-uh, not me."

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But then grace intervened and I said yes.

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But since then, I have felt like my

weaknesses, my inability to organize,

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my squirrels running in my mind, and

my oh shinies, and procrastination, and

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worrying about what to say, and after

I've said it, worrying that I said

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the wrong thing, And my yard is full

of weeds, my home is full of clutter.

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I forget things.

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I feel overwhelmed, having to ask to

come into people's home and minister and

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deal with some heavy, heavy things that

I feel inadequate for, to say the least.

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So weaknesses is another

word for our humanness.

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It's messy.

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It's this natural man.

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Fear of what others think about

us, fear of failure or rejection,

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jealousy, um, thinking someone's

better than us or thinking

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someone's less than us, it is pride.

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It is so normal.

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We all have weakness.

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So the other day, I had to

teach with the elders quorum

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president a fifth Sunday lesson.

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And I had prepared, and I had toiled

and worried about what to say and how

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to say it, and I woke that morning, and

in tears, I told my husband, "I do not

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want to be Relief Society president.

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God chose the wrong person."

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It reminded me of a story of a

girl who goes to her mother And she

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cries, "I don't wanna go to school.

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the kids might be mean to me.

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I might forget.

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what I wanna say, and it just is too hard.

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I just don't want to go to school today."

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And the mother said to her, "But

darling, you are the teacher,

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and you have to go to school."

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So here I was.

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I had to show up as the

Relief Society president.

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and teach the fifth Sunday lesson.

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As bad as I'd love to be just the person

on the back row that doesn't say a

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word and can just sit and enjoy or sit

and criticize whatever it is that they

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are doing or you think they are doing.

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I just didn't wanna be

in the spotlight anymore.

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In Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon,

the Lord assures us that if we

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humble ourselves before Him, He can

help us overcome this natural man.

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He says, "If any man come unto me, I

will show unto them their weakness.

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I give unto men weakness

that they may be humble.

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And my grace is sufficient for all

men that humble themselves before me.

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For if they humble themselves before me

and have faith in me, then I will make

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weak things become strong unto them."

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Do you love that?

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Notice that it's weakness, not weaknesses.

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It is just one thing, the natural

man, the humanness of us But I wanna

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point something out that I am missing.

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Maybe you too are missing this.

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"My grace is sufficient."

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What does the word sufficient mean?

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Sufficient is enough.

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meeting the need of what we're in need of.

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It's just like Christ meeting us right

where we are with sufficient grace.

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So what is grace?

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In the Bible dictionary, it says, "Grace,

the main idea of the word is divine means

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of help or strength given through the

bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ."

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Through this love of Jesus Christ, we

receive strength and assistance to do

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good works that otherwise we would not be

able to maintain if left to our own means.

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So this grace is an enabling power

that allows you and I to lay hold upon

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eternal life and all the great gifts

that our Father in heaven and our

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Savior are pouring down on, upon us.

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Divine grace is needed by every soul

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So there is a Tibetan dakini.

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You know what that is?

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It is a female Buddhist monk.

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I hope I'm saying her

name right, is Niguma.

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She lived a thousand years ago, and

she was trying to teach the people

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about this kind of grace, this divine

love, and she says we're missing it.

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So she came up with the four ways that

we are missing it, And I want you to

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ask yourself which one rings true to you

when it comes to dealing with this big

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long list of your weaknesses so you can

receive sufficient grace Are you ready?

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Number one, it is so

simple I didn't believe it

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Do you think sometimes we overthink,

overcomplicate, and make things much

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bigger than they need to be, especially

when it comes to spiritual matters?

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It is so simple, I didn't believe it.

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… Number two, it is so close,

I couldn't recognize it.

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What is that quote about missing

the forest because of the trees?

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So is this grace, so close to us,

that we're not recognizing it?

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Three, it is so profound, so

deep, I couldn't conceive it

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It's like the waves to the ocean.

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They're just one and the same.

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And the same is for this grace,

this divine love of our Savior.

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It is part of us, a part of our soul,

just like the waves are to the ocean

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number four, so noble, I

didn't believe I deserved it.

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That one rings true to me

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I love the story of the prodigal son.

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My favorite part is when he is

returning home and he feels like he

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doesn't deserve to be welcomed home.

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In fact, he even says he's gonna

be happy with just being a servant

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and he hopes that his father will

take him back and understand.

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And while he is, still a long way

off, his father saw him coming.

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Filled with love and compassion, he runs

to his son, embraces him and kisses him,

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puts a ring on his finger, a- coat on

his back has a feast and a celebration.

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We are his divine daughters and sons.

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And it is his great pleasure to give

us his kingdom, to give us his grace

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sufficiently, what we are in need

of, meeting us right where we are.

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So what are we missing?

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Is it so simple that you don't believe it?

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Is it so close that you can't see it?

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Is it so deep that you

can't comprehend it?

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Or is it so noble you think

you do not deserve it?

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I think we're a little bit

of all of them, don't you?

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And I'm just going to remind you,

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this was written over

a thousand years ago.

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Humanness.

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Our story is as long as time has existed.

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Adam and Eve worried about their weakness.

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They hid.

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They sewed fig leaves to cover it up.

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What are we doing?

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Probably the same thing.

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So it's my invitation to you to take

a moment in meditation, meditative

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prayer, to contemplate not a whole

list of your weakness, just one.

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The weakness of our humanness, the natural

man, and how we are separating ourselves

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from this divine grace, this amazing

grace that is all around you, that God is

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relentlessly pursuing you, and his arms

are always outstretched, calling you home.

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And my promise is his grace is sufficient

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And how about we make our grace

sufficient for each other?

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Offer each other grace in our weakness and

just say, "Hey, it's okay you have weeds

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in your yard, and it's okay you forgot."

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I love you.

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I don't know if you noticed this, but I

tried a little experiment on this episode,

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that the music has been running throughout

the whole episode while I'm talking, this

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is to cover up the mistakes, my weakness,

the background noise, my little clearing

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my throat, or the computer revving up.

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And it got me to thinking, this

is how his grace is sufficient.

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It is always there, so simple, so close,

so profound, and so noble, always with us.

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So be humble.

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We all have weakness, We're all human.

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And have faith that God

will make weakness, your

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strengths, your superpowers.

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You've got this I believe that,

and I'll see you on the trail