A True Helping Hand

A True Helping Hand

Run, look, run, jump, hop, run, jump, look, hop, run, look, jump…we’re not even half way. My heavy feet trudge upwards in combat boots, my legs and arms continue to sweat in military fatigues, my right hand clutches an M-16, and my lungs feel restricted by the LBE tight around my waist holding two canteens. Dashing through the woods of up-state New York I am grateful for the Kevlar protecting my head. Run, run…my foot rolls outward and a sharp shooting pain strikes from the heel to my head…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww!!!...I have to stop; I’m hurt!; I can’t keep going… or can I?

The military skills competition at West Point I just returned from was mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging. I was pushed to my limits to learn that I was capable of more than I thought possible and I am stronger than I was before. After busting an ankle I needed help to continue…but what was the right kind of help? What does it mean to really help someone in need? We often think of help as a temporary hand-out ; giving of our time or money or talents to others. “Hand-outs” are wonderful ways to temporarily lift one another although we must be careful not to confuse them with “help-ups” wherein we give others the opportunity to make choices as we help them. True help may be assisting in a way that empowers those around us to do what they couldn’t do before – to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.

Before this earth was created and before all of us were sent to this earth, we had the ability to make choices. It was God’s plan that we be given an opportunity to live in mortality with happiness, sorrow, beauty, pain, love, misery, joy, and challenging difficulties – all of which fall into one grand plan of happiness that provides us with opportunities to progress eternally. When I was 16 years old I moved to New York City to pursue a professional dance career. I was going to be rooming with an unknown roommate on the upper-west side of Manhattan, navigating the Big Apple via taxi and Subway on my own. My parents let me make this choice with concern and worry and perhaps even some fear of what would come to be of their little girl. My Father gave me a Priesthood blessing before leaving and spent time counseling with me about some of the difficult situations I may encounter. He told me that he loved me and he was confident that I would succeed while he also encouraged me to take careful strides in the new world I was going to live in. I often think of this when thinking about how our Father in Heaven must have felt when wishing us well on our journey in this life. Just like my earthly father didn’t want me to end up knocking my teeth out while rollerblading down Broadway (and I did), likewise, Father in Heaven doesn’t want to see his children in pain or at war or suffering, but in order to help us progress a good Father must allow us to make our own decisions. Research has proven the same within the workplace; the CEO who delegates to his employees various responsibilities of importance succeeds far beyond the CEO who micromanages every decision and/or task those he is in charge of.

In letting us use agency to make good and bad decisions, God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves but he expects us to do all that we can in this life while using the tools that He has given us. I recall times when I was frustrated as a teen-ager with my father when hiking in the mountains. He was often pushing me to hike faster than I wanted to go and there were times when I wanted him to carry me up the mountain but he didn’t. He would let me stop and rest, grab a drink for a short moment while looking down over the valley below and showing me how far we had already come – then he led the way again at a challenging pace. We each have many mountains to summit in mortality; and with every challenge or trial along the way the Lord leads us and strengthens us.

Jesus Christ provided the central role in our Father in Heaven’s plan as he did for God what the Father couldn’t do for himself; God the Father cannot die - he is a resurrected, glorified, eternal being who cannot suffer according to eternal laws, which is why Christ is such a central part of God’s plan. In taking upon Himself the sins of the world Christ also empowered each of us to be made whole and complete by following Him. He is our Exemplar in performing the greatest selfless act of true help and help everlasting.

Spring; A Season of Truth

This weekend my husband and I took off to enjoy the beauty of the mountains in a cabin where we could "veg-out," sleep in, and listen to the words of modern-day Prophets (speakers at the semi-annual Latter-Day Saint General Conference that teach principles for our day). Upon arriving we were surrounded by steep cliffs, boulders, snow-covered switchbacks, a flock of wild turkeys, and barren trees not yet showing the first buds of spring.

As I think upon the coming spring and Easter season, I reflect on the process and growth involved of nature's beauty. Roots extend, branches unfold, and leaves grow, facilitated by Living Water. Buds soon turn to leaves of smoothly rounded edges, leaves of prickles and thorns, tattered leaves, healthy leaves, and leaves of scent; no one leaf is like the others, given careful consideration by the Creator, and each leaf is nourished by surrounding elements of Love. Some leaves are bigger, smaller, brighter, or more intricate, but the Source of Light from which each leaf is granted life, looks not to compare, but sees beauty in them all; light penetrates all leaves regardless of size or difference, providing The Way for true growth and progression.

Christ is that Light from which all of us stem; He is our Creator, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Exemplar, our Brother, and our Friend. He loves each of us as no respecter of persons and he knows how to succor our needs regardless of our circumstances. Budding leaves, new flowers, green grass, rainbows, and many other beautiful signs of Spring would all be for not if it weren't for the "the way, the truth, and the Light" from which they thrive.