Faithening Strength

I wrote last week's post with one session of conference remaining, and there was something coming that would touch me deeply.

Elder David F. Evans gave the invocation, and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to have our strength faithened. He quickly realized what he said and corrected it, but I was amazed by how natural the first way sounded, and believed that there was something profound there.

My first thought was of Matthew 13:33:

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

Perhaps faith was something that could start in a small part of your strength and grow until it it was a very faithful strength. That sounds powerful, and we use analogies of seeds and plants growing for faith all of the time.

We have a general feeling that our faith should be strong, and an idea of how to go about making that happen. It is less common to think about how our strength should be full of faith, and how to make that happen.

I believe that a lot of time could be spent on this simple phrase, and there would be insights and inspiration. These words are in no way definitive, but here are some thoughts that I had on faithening our strength.

1. We can increase our appreciation and gratitude for our physical strength and abilities.

There is so much that is amazing about the human body, with the interactions of nerves and muscles and brain function that goes into even the simplest things like walking, grasping, or lifting. Even with your body set up to work correctly it needs nourishment, which means sunlight and chlorophyll and photosynthesis and digestion. Along with these basic functions come pleasures like taste and hearing the sound of crunching.

There is so much to appreciate, as individual components and as parts of systems, but they can easily be taken for granted. Devoting some time to noticing how all has been provided could indeed make your strength more faithful.

2. We can increase our appreciation and gratitude for the steps that led to our current level of spiritual strength.

In many ways, my family's spiritual history begins with a broken projector. The elders needed it repaired, and came to my grandfather's electronics shop where an uncle invited them back. My parents did listen, and did get baptized. Because of that I was born in the church.

Going forward there was that time a speaker said you should read the scriptures daily, and it resonated with me and I started, and the things I learned there. There have been the times when things were whispered to me, and felt, and ways in which others served me and I served them. There was the time when the Spirit practically shouted at me to serve a mission, and I listened, and what happened right after that and for the next few years after that. There is a process, full of many building blocks, that led to my present state of activity, and there were many beings who helped. That is worth remembering, because there was faith that led to that strength.

3. We can apply faith to our strengths and talents.

What have we accomplished already in the service of God? What things might we be intended to accomplish?

One thing that disturbs me a lot is that fear of pride has caused many people to discount their own abilities. That leads to unhappiness as we feel inadequate, and less, but we can nonetheless all do many things and it does not benefit the world to hold back because we think we can't be enough.

As we examine the past, for times we have helped others, even if it was simply by listening them, then we can build on that and move forward and do more.

This is only an ego problem if you use this as evidence of your own superiority. If instead you acknowledge the large debt you have to God for your abilities, and acknowledge that all others have their own gifts, and that we need the gifts of all to achieve the most good, then you will not be proud, you will be humble. Your strength will be faithful.

In my life right now I am trying to pursue dreams that I have wanted for a long time. It is very easy to doubt. It is very hard to believe that what I want is possible or deserved.

But I have a patriarchal blessing, with promises in it. That includes references to the talents that I am trying to build on now. I have faith that my Heavenly Father loves me and wants me to be happy, and knows what will make me happy. So if I feel pulled down one path, and there is confirmation, even without fully knowing where the path will lead I can feel confident setting out on it, that my strength will be enough, or that I will be shored up when my strength lacks.

I can have faithened strength.