FEAR

FEAR.

This has been something that has been on my mind almost everyday this last week and ironically I attended a club meeting the other night where the speaker focused a lot of the topic of fear.

We are all scared of things. We all have fears. I think especially as a college student its easy to be really afraid. We are afraid of classes, of tests, of what we want to do/become/create/major in. Who is our future spouse? Will I ever find them? The list could go on foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
We honestly have no idea what the future holds.

How many times have we been so afraid of something, so worried, so terrified that we just simply shut down? It happens to me almost every week. I get so scared, so worked up, so overwhelmed that I just can't do anything but do nothing.

I hate it. I hate it so much. I know that I will be fine. and I know that everything will work out, I mean it always does. Literally always. But its still really hard to not be afraid.

One night this last week I was feeling particularly "fearful." So I opened up the scriptures, and I turned right to the scripture in Alma where it talks about the stripping warriors. Its in Alma 56...

45 And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.
 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

They didn't fear because they trusted in the Lord! They knew that if they were obedient and acted they would be alright. They had so much faith. Also note that they didn't doubt what their mothers had taught them, which is also kind of ironic because if I always believed what my mom says than I would have no reason to fear either.

Lastly, when I attended the meeting where the lady discussed fear I like the quote that she shared with us. She said she has this posted on her bathroom mirror...
"What would I do if I were no longer afraid?"

When I honestly ask myself this question, I realize that there are so many opportunities that pass by based solely on my fear of failure. With that being said I hope to be less fearful of the future, and I plan on accomplishing that by trusting in the Lord. Its definitely easier said than done but it just takes one day at a time.

Nevertheless

Today I woke up and my laptop was not turning on. I drove a friend who just had surgery to campus and looked for a handicap parking spot for 40 min. My classes were hard. It was freezing rain outside. It was only DAY THREE and things weren't looking as great as I hoped.

Fast forward a few hours and I'm in my Book of Mormon class. We are ready 1 Nephi chapter 1 verse 1...

"1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days."

We placed emphasis on the 'nevertheless' and Nephi's purpose in using it. He is basically saying "all these bad things have happened, nevertheless, god is real, and he loves me and thats more important than the bad things that happened to me." Nephi had a lot of bad stuff happen to him but he chose to see the good things, he chose to see the blessings.
In class we used the 'greater than sign' to represent nevertheless. Like this...

Its raining today < I have an umbrella and a car to drive in and appropriate warm clothing.

This was really exactly what i needed to hear. I started to list off all the "bad things" that were happening today and changed them into 'nevertheless' statements.

My laptop wont turn on, nevertheless, I have a car and can drive to an Apple store thats not too far
School is so hard, nevertheless, I have been blessed to go to an amazing university where I can grow and learn and be stretched to become someone better.
Parking on campus is a pain, nevertheless, YOU HAVE A CAR. be happy.
Everything seems to never go my way, nevertheless, god has a better plan for you.

You get the idea... After I did it though I really was so much happier. I saw all the blessings that I had in my life and all the things in front of my 'neverthelesses' became so small and insignificant. Being positive and really looking, searching for gods hand in your life will make you so much happier.

So next time everything seems to fall apart, just take a look at all the 'neverthelesses' you have.