Thoughts on self-reliance…we women may need clarification on occasion…. as we (I) sometimes get confused. Do you ever feel that if you let another person help you that somehow you have failed at being self-reliant? (Might have to take the capital letter off your cape?) After a week of laying low with back problems, I came across this affirming quote:
“Self-reliance should not be mistaken for complete independence. After all, we are ultimately dependent on our Heavenly Father for everything. We need His continual guidance, preservation and protection. We also depend on one another. Since we are given different spiritual gifts, we are expected to share what we have been given so that all may be blessed. The key is to become self-reliant where we have the power to do so, to serve others when we can, and to allow others the blessing of serving us as the need arises.” March 2013 Ensign, pg 65.
I have been reminded of the balance many of us are trying to achieve; being self-reliant and service- minded but also being willing to receive the service of others when we are in need. Without receivers there are no givers. It has also occurred to me, in my quiet-slowed-way-down hours this week that the all-powerful, all-compassionate Jesus received the precious ointment that a humble woman had saved to use in anointing him as a token of his burial. He did not push her away or insist that she save the ointment for some other purpose, but with graciousness accepted her gift.
Because of all of the service that has been given to me and my family of late I am humbled; mostly by the warmth and compassion that has been shown in each kind gesture but also by being made more aware of those opportunities I may have missed to reach out to someone who needed some encouragement or laughter, something I could have given to them, but didn’t. And so my perspective is continuing to shift and I am learning. It is a good thing to be tutored and taught by what we experience, and certainly our learning is made easier when we are tutored by kindness and hope as well as sickness and uncertainty.
We rightly sing the question, “Have I done any good in the world today?” but we’d do well at times to add an alternate verse, something like, “Did I graciously receive when I was in need today?”
I surely hope that wherever you are on this spring day, the Son is shining in you.
Love,
Jacque