Courage Comes from Above

courage (n): strength in the face of pain or grief


March has been one heck of a month. Luckily, for me at least, it's gone by really fast. But I was hit with a major trial of my faith. In an instance, plans were changed, my health went from bad to worse, and everyday life challenged me in ways I never thought possible. I was scared. I spent many nights on my knees, pleading that these trials would be taken from me. I knew they wouldn't and that all things were for my good.....but it was hard.

One thing you may not know about me--I love words. I love quotes, phrases, lyrics--my room has always been covered in words and pictures. I think words can really hit you at a time you need them the most, so I always save every LDS picture with quotes on my phone and look through them from time to time.

I'm also a huge fan of being positive. I hate being sad and throwing pity parties because real talk, they don't help. I'm also a huge fan of faking it till you make it.

But after the month of March, I believe in courage.

Recently, the LDS Church's media sites have skyrocketed with posts about courage. I noticed it a few weeks ago but every day, there's a new post about #courage and how LDS members face trials. Interesting, right? Maybe it's just because the world is getting worse but maybe sometime huge is coming and we are going to have courage. Whatever the reason, it's been awesome. A few weeks ago, this quote was attached to a fellow LDS member's instagram account, that the Church featured on their page.

"In your 20s, nothing is set in stone. Every decision you make you have to do with courage because you don't know where it will take you. And so you have to decide what's important in your life and what you want to do, and then trust that it'll work and have courage that you can make it work."

I just love that. I think often times, we float through life and think we have no control over the events. We have to go to school, work, and we can't change that. So we let things happen to us that weren't in our plans and as such, our attitude suffers. We become pessimistic and we worry that things will never be better.  We feel lost and we feel that we are unable to control the events we face. But that is ENTIRELY FALSE. That is a lie.

I believe that if we take control of our lives, we will be blessed with courage. We will be capable of much more than faking it till we make it. We will steer through life with confidence, courage and happiness.

But where do we get this courage??

This morning, I was listening to the song "Be Still my Soul." I listened to the lyrics and realized that every line is so true. Heavenly Father is our Friend and He is on our side. We can bear our cross of grief or pain (Go back and look at the definition of courage!!!!) patiently and courageously. Those who are faithful during times of trial will be granted heavenly help and heavenly courage and lead their lives to a joyful end.

Heavenly Father grants us with courage when we are faithful during trials. Life is not easy. It's hard. If you're sitting there comfortable with how things are going, get ready. When I was sitting around, realizing how comfortable I was with life, that's when things flipped. And lucky for me, I was listening to the promptings of the Spirit and prepared when things were still going well. Prepare for the worse. And then when the worse comes, pray for courage. Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and sends courage when we need it the most. He loves you and me perfectly and more than we will ever know.

Life is hard. But we can do hard things with help and courage.