I Am Enough (and So Is Everyone Else)

Blogging for me acts, rather often, as a kind of scrapbooking or journal. My journals, besides being a record of thoughts/memories/events, help me make sense of what's in my head and build my life on the best things that come into it.

A year or so ago, I attended a conference on parenting with my sister, who is a professional educator. After the needs of children were addressed, the focus turned to the needs of parents. Everyone in the auditorium was asked to close their eyes, listen to the following song, and welcome any thoughts it prompted:



Tears streamed down my face as I listened. And afterward the following thought hit me over the head like a 2x4:

Having W in my life has been teaching me that no one is "less than." And every day of my life I think of myself as "less than."

Several years ago, I was re-reading a favorite book of mine, when I came across the following (which is a basic premise of the book):

I am acceptable the way I am, and you are acceptable the way you are.

I balked at this statement. If I am acceptable just the way I am (and everyone else is acceptable the way they are), why all the talks and lessons about becoming more kind, honest, etc.? I sat there stubbornly for a moment or two, then asked silently (just in case), "Father in Heaven, am I acceptable just the way I am?" The response through the Spirit was a resounding "yes." Since then, I've remembered when I neared the end of my full-time LDS mission and knelt to ask if my offering was acceptable to Him (not thinking, myself, that it would be). He'd responded with an overwhelming "yes" then too.

My initial impulse is to wonder how that is possible. But, then, how is any good thing possible in this life without the Savior? I am learning that at any given moment I am (and everyone else is) enough with Him, because He is everything.

I nothing lack if I am His. And He is mine forever. - The King of Love My Shepherd Is

One morning recently, I caught a replay of a BYU devotional given by Brad Wilcox in July last year. I'd heard parts of it before, but it fits in with current heavenly tutoring.

Grace shall be as your day.

No matter where anyone is in their progression, He has got it covered.

Hold the phone, though. What if someone is not even trying to repent. Are they still acceptable the way they are? Don't we need to be availing ourselves of the atonement to be O.K. (with Him)?

The thing is, that's (as Gollum says) "not it's business." The minute someone who feels like they're close to the Lord, starts to feel like they're better than someone they're worried isn't close to the Lord (presuming to know whether someone, even themselves, is close to the Lord or not), they're not as close to the Lord anymore.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

Only the Lord (and those he's designated as Judges in Israel) can judge at all. Not my job. It's not even my job to judge myself. I'm in the exact same boat as everyone else. Remember Elder Uctdorf and the bumper sticker?



The Lord tells me what my job is.

Love one another as I have loved you.

(That means I'm supposed to love me too.)

For all intents and purposes (of those of us who are not the Lord or His bishops), I am acceptable the way I am, and everyone else is acceptable the way they are. And I can be certain that when the Lord judges, it'll be with love for He is love. All I have ever felt from the Lord or a bishop (when acting in the office to which they were appointed) is loving kindness, acceptance, and a sense of their walking forward with me, step by step.

Everyone is "different, [but] not less." (This clip makes me cry.)



So this is true:

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. 

and this as well:

 No kind of sneetch is the best on the beaches.

I am enough. And so is everybody else.