"Lean Not Unto Thine Own Understanding"

Becoming something is not always an easy thing, imagine if you will, a blacksmith toiling away in his shop. He first begins with a large hunk of metal, it is nothing to wink at, nothing that would make you look on in awe and wonder, but the blacksmith sees in his minds eye what that hunk of metal can become; the hunk of metal doesn't see it (most obviously because it doesn't have consciousness)  but this achievement of potential will take time and great care. He begins by heating the metal, putting it under extreme pressure, and beating it down to become a beautiful sculpture, or a tool that will be useful in days to come. The metal could not have become that tool or sculpture on it's own, it took the hands of the craftsman and patience and care to become what the master saw that it could become.

If the hunk of metal was not an inanimate object and had a consciousness of it's own, wouldn't it have had to trust that the master had a far better plan for it than it had for itself?

Now I know that this is a pretty far fetched metaphor, but hear me out. When we lived in the pre-mortal existence with our Father in Heaven he told us of our Heavenly potential, we had been shown the opportunity to become something far greater when we came to this earth and through his help we could become greater than we could when left to our own devices. So we accepted that it would be hard, that we would be under extreme pressure, and sometimes we would rather break than undergo the stress and the pain that this world has to offer, but the Master always is there to comfort, to uplift and to help us to see that we have a far greater potential than we have ever imagined.

This begins my story of becoming......

I figure that I will not share someone else's story of becoming if I am not willing to share a story of my own first.

As a child I didn't ever understand the point of Church, it was a boring thing that we had to do for 3 hours every Sunday, it was exhausting, and unless I had something to doodle on, you would most likely catch me sleeping, my mom would nudge me and quietly say "pay attention" but I never really understood the point of it all, why was church so special?

I continued on with this indifferent thought process and I continued to attend church, I would ask my father occasional questions and we would discuss intriguing gospel topics but never did I care to understand what was being taught because somehow I thought, "this doesn't apply to me."
Well, because my faith was lackadaisical I started to slowly slip away,
C.S. Lewis once wrote about this slow slipping in a book called the Screwtape Letters he says

"It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing... Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts"

This is the effect that I brought upon myself, things that I would never be comfortable with became the natural, and things that I thought I would never do became the norm, I had lost sight of my heavenly potential, and even my earthly potential, ultimately I was lost.
Finally I reached my lowest point, I had no idea how I had gotten there, I had no idea why I was there, but I knew something had to change, so I started to make things right, I knew something in me had to change but I didn't know what, so I left the life I knew and went to the other extreme and really didn't do anything except for school and work, I wasn't very social and I lost all of the people who I once thought really cared, I was devastated and I still was not of the belief that God, or Jesus Christ and my lack of faith could ever be the answer.
July 13, 2012 my world was turned upside down. Six weeks prior my sister had been admitted to the
hospital and she had been slowly getting worse, she had been put in a medicated coma because her seizures weren't stopping, and her brain was still seizing in the medicated coma, she was in a slow decline of her life, and my family and I watched helplessly from the sidelines. We were told that we would either have to pull the plug, or take her out of the coma and she would live as a vegetable for the rest of her life, so we made the decision to let her go peacefully on July 13. As we watched the life slowly slip from my sister, my heart was torn into a million pieces, this amazing wonderful girl was gone from this earth, and a spark was lit in me, that this life couldn't be it, there was assuredly more, I would see my sister again, and I knew at that moment that somewhere deep inside I had always known that.
My dad one day in his sorrow said pertaining to the gospel "if the gospel is true, then I hope I will see her again" and I responded "Dad, it's not IF it's BECAUSE it's true that we will see her again" suddenly the roles had shifted and my faith was growing and I could feel it, I had more of a desire in my life to align my will with God's then ever before because I knew if I did I would be able to be with my family for eternity as a result. As I began to do this I felt more joy, even though I had gone through this loss in my life I was at peace because I knew that there was a higher power that was there looking out for me and assuring me it would be okay,he was there the whole time shaping me to what I needed to be.

God has a plan for us, I testify that He is there, that he loves us, and Faith is only the beginning, Faith leads to great things and as we have Faith, and submit to the masters will, we are able to become something much greater than we ever thought possible!

If you have a story of becoming you want to share, send it to me at kaitlyn.king@myldsmail.net