As a pre-teen, teenager, and even into my early 20's I learned the power of Christ's love and His power to save me from my sins. No one is beyond His reach. When Morgan and I were a young couple and faced with financial struggles while trying to grow our family I learned to trust Christ and his timing, and that faithfully keeping His commandments will bring blessings. As I've grown as a parent I have also grown to learn that Christ can save us from our fears and weaknesses, and that the atonement can teach us how to react with love, and to love others unconditionally. But there is a lesson I have yet to learn, and over the years He has tried again and again to teach me but I have struggled to understand.
There have been distinct events in my life where I have thought all might be lost...feeling worthless or not enough, self-harm, drowning in sin while knowing there is a better way, yearning to become a mother, yearning for a child to be healed, self-doubt, feeling worthless, not enough, or like you're ruining it all, wanting to disappear, etc.
But He keeps bringing me back to His light. His love and His joy.
All is not lost with Christ.
About four years ago I fell into a deep depression after moving and not connecting with any new neighbors. Isolation and insecurities ran my life and soon I turned to a professional for help with these self-destructive feelings because they were affecting the kind of wife and mother I was and wanted to be. Along with medication he required a healthy diet and exercise. Six months later and I was feeling better, still not completely like myself, but I felt like I could manage any future difficulties without medication.
Two years ago I felt the pains of social anxiety, worthlessness, and isolation resurface only a few months after having Leah. I knew right away that imagining myself disintegrating into darkness would lead to something worse and that I needed medication again. Along with a prescription, my doctor emphasized the importance of self-care. Same story, and six months later I felt more capable of handling life and my emotions without help.
January 2019 started this round and my insecurities flourished within me. Three months earlier I had finished a coaching program and even though every day of it felt like I was battling myself, physically I felt better than I had in a while. Mentally I was still not convinced that I was worth the effort, and thus could not sustain the healthy choices and gym sessions on my own. Feeling poorly about myself led to eating poorly, and crap food became my go-to whenever I was feeling like crap, which was more often than I'd like to admit. I doubted my abilities, intelligence, and every good thing about me became irrelevant.
I didn't want to turn to medication since I had tried it twice before only to find myself returning to the same scenario for a third time. So in April I turned to therapy. I have learned some helpful tools in becoming mindful of my thoughts, the power of our thoughts, and calming techniques, and I feel like I have been able to manage "the mess" inside. But only a couple of weeks ago I realized I'm still "a mess" inside. The progress I thought I had made seemed to crumble around me in only a day. Horrible, self-harming thoughts seemed to come from nowhere and even with prayer and meditation they were uncontrollable. On the advice of my therapist I turned to a holistic doctor. Her recommendation was a handful of supplements, and to limit sugar and flour.
Here we are, five days of a conscious diet and taking the supplements as directed, and listening to Elder Holland's talk "Like a Broken Vessel" over and over again. And a couple of months into trying to pray and read just a bit every day (and make my bed...something a speaker shared at BYU Women's Conference).
"So how do you best respond when mental or emotional challenges confront you or those you love? Above all, never lose faith in your Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend....Faithfully pursue the time-tested devotional practices that bring the Spirit of the Lord into your life. Seek the counsel of those who hold keys for your spiritual well-being. Ask for and cherish priesthood blessings. Take the sacrament every week, and hold fast to the perfecting promises of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Believe in miracles."Through all of this I feel like I have searched for Him, although the intensity fluctuates. My devotion to prayer and study have gone up and down. So has my temple attendance. I have faithfully taken the sacrament, fulfilled my church callings, and read the Book of Mormon almost daily with my family last year, even if I had a bad attitude about it. Any of it. Our family is struggling, but still attempting, to study the New Testament this year and even though we don't study every night we have had some great, faith-building conversations with our kids.
So what is it I am supposed to learn in this wilderness of mine? Have I forgotten Him? Is He trying to bring me to remembrance? Have I been ungrateful? Do I need to have better consistency? Because I seriously struggle here, but I do try and give a real effort. Are my walls against Satan not tall or strong enough? Is there more I need to learn about self-love and acceptance? Because I thought I had conquered this before, and now I've gotten lost or it's been taken.
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