Self-Protection Vs Personal Growth
President Chipman and I have said goodbye to many missionaries over these few years. Each of their mission experiences vary greatly based upon how they embraced personal change. Those who guarded themselves and tried to control the mission environment to meet their needs, finish with relief as if they are checking off a difficult duty. However, those who put their trust in God and leaned into the obstacles, finish their missions with gratitude for what they experienced and learned. Self-protection is a good thing, but we need to make sure that we aren’t preventing what we truly want, which is personal growth. The sooner our newer missionaries figure this out, the happier they become.
President Erying has said, “To be called to serve is a call to come to love the Master we serve. It is a call to have our natures changed.” (Erying- As a Child, April 2006). Changing our very nature is how we discover our divine nature and who we really are in God’s eyes. Patterns of embracing change can be similar to the path of conversion.
In Alma 5:14 it says, “Have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this might change in your hearts?” And then in verse 26 it says: “If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”
Alma’s words are inviting us to examine ourselves. Personal conversion or change cannot be seen as a one-time event, but rather a lifetime of continued growth. This concept demonstrates the difference between enduring to the end and enduring well to the end. To endure is unavoidable because time never stops, but to endure well shows personal growth during that time. How much we grow is entirely dependent upon how willing we are to embrace the change, even when we are uncomfortable. It also takes a lot of humility because we are tackling our weaknesses. This is why our Savior has instructed us to become as a child. Children approach new things with curiosity and hope. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off for them, but they are always willing to try again and again. This is how they learn to crawl and eventually walk, but it only happens after they have collected a lot of bruises! But oh, is it worth it!
Matt 16:25
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
