As I recently made an entry about, there were some important lessons I learned from serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a sister missionary, I served for a period of 18 months, and since I've been home for another 18 months I have recently been reflecting on the things I've learned since I've been home. (Okay, it hasn't been exactly 18 months, it's been more like 20 or so, but who says I need to be technically accurate?) Here are some of the most important lessons I've learned.
When you are serving as a missionary, you are taught and conditioned to be selfless, constantly look for ways to serve, and to focus completely on others. This is all really important and I'm not discouraging that, but when you go home and transition into "normal" life, you have to learn to be a little selfish. I'm not trying to say that everything is all about you and that you shouldn't care about anybody else. But after your mission, you're in the time of your life where you have to learn to really take care of you. You have to figure out what to do with your life and choose what paths to take that will impact your life for years down the road. It's the time to build on what you've learned from your mission, and apply it to your life now. Things aren't easy when you get home, and taking care of yourself is really important. And the more you take care of yourself the better you prepare yourself for being a spouse and a parent, ultimately.
...If nothing else, make sure to treat yourself to ice cream once in a while. :)
After serving a mission and getting back into the routine (or lack of routine) of life, things get in the way. Real life happens and sometimes you lose sight of things that are really important for a while, whether it's not studying the scriptures, forgetting to say prayers, or whatever it might be. Let's just be honest. Real life happens. You can't be 100% diligent about everything all the time. And God doesn't expect you to be. He only expects you to try your best. And I found that time and time again, when I was having a hard time or not making spiritual things more of a priority in my life, I was led to go back to the basics. Faith. Repentance. Prayer. Obedience. Listening to the Spirit. The basic building blocks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whenever I build up a strong foundation of faith, then everything else builds off of that and I'm more capable of handling the challenges of life.
I started to realize this on my mission, and it has continued to become apparent since I've been home - there are so many different ways for people to live the same gospel. Even in one religion, people will think and act differently. I'm attending college at BYU, where Mormons are plenty and just about everyone has the same belief in Christ. That's one of the things I love about being here, is that I'm surrounded by people who generally have the same standards and same faith as I do. And yet they can still be so different from each other - they have different opinions, different political views, different ideas on how things should be done at work or at home, etc. I've come to realize that everyone is just trying to live and contribute in the best way that they know how to do, and even if that's something different from what I think is best, it's okay. If girls want to wear pants to church, it doesn't matter to me. Faith is a personal thing, and we're all just trying to do our best.
As my mission came to a close and I was returning home, I had this image in my mind of exactly the type of person I wanted to be. Which was a lot different than what I was like before my mission. And guess what? That didn't happen. I fell short. I fell back into my old habits, my old way of life. And I hated myself for it. I served a mission, my testimony grew and strengthened so much, so why was I making the same old mistakes? I had a real hard time with this for a year or so after my mission. There were moments when things seemed right and good, but for the most part, the year after my mission was really hard. And I had to learn how to love myself. What I've realized is that it doesn't matter how many times you falter. God still loves you as His precious child. Jesus Christ atoned for all of our hurts and mistakes. Of course we're going to fall short. That's never going to change, not in this life. That's the point. We have weakness so that we must learn to rely on the Savior. He has forgiven me if I will just come to Him, so if I think that I'm not good enough for His help, isn't that kind of turning my back on all that He went through? He loved me enough to suffer and die for me. ME. Faults and all. My Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me for who I am, and that is good enough for me.
1. Be a Little Selfish
When you are serving as a missionary, you are taught and conditioned to be selfless, constantly look for ways to serve, and to focus completely on others. This is all really important and I'm not discouraging that, but when you go home and transition into "normal" life, you have to learn to be a little selfish. I'm not trying to say that everything is all about you and that you shouldn't care about anybody else. But after your mission, you're in the time of your life where you have to learn to really take care of you. You have to figure out what to do with your life and choose what paths to take that will impact your life for years down the road. It's the time to build on what you've learned from your mission, and apply it to your life now. Things aren't easy when you get home, and taking care of yourself is really important. And the more you take care of yourself the better you prepare yourself for being a spouse and a parent, ultimately.
...If nothing else, make sure to treat yourself to ice cream once in a while. :)
2. Go Back to the Basics
After serving a mission and getting back into the routine (or lack of routine) of life, things get in the way. Real life happens and sometimes you lose sight of things that are really important for a while, whether it's not studying the scriptures, forgetting to say prayers, or whatever it might be. Let's just be honest. Real life happens. You can't be 100% diligent about everything all the time. And God doesn't expect you to be. He only expects you to try your best. And I found that time and time again, when I was having a hard time or not making spiritual things more of a priority in my life, I was led to go back to the basics. Faith. Repentance. Prayer. Obedience. Listening to the Spirit. The basic building blocks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whenever I build up a strong foundation of faith, then everything else builds off of that and I'm more capable of handling the challenges of life.
3. There Are Many Ways to Live the Gospel
I started to realize this on my mission, and it has continued to become apparent since I've been home - there are so many different ways for people to live the same gospel. Even in one religion, people will think and act differently. I'm attending college at BYU, where Mormons are plenty and just about everyone has the same belief in Christ. That's one of the things I love about being here, is that I'm surrounded by people who generally have the same standards and same faith as I do. And yet they can still be so different from each other - they have different opinions, different political views, different ideas on how things should be done at work or at home, etc. I've come to realize that everyone is just trying to live and contribute in the best way that they know how to do, and even if that's something different from what I think is best, it's okay. If girls want to wear pants to church, it doesn't matter to me. Faith is a personal thing, and we're all just trying to do our best.
4. Love Yourself
As my mission came to a close and I was returning home, I had this image in my mind of exactly the type of person I wanted to be. Which was a lot different than what I was like before my mission. And guess what? That didn't happen. I fell short. I fell back into my old habits, my old way of life. And I hated myself for it. I served a mission, my testimony grew and strengthened so much, so why was I making the same old mistakes? I had a real hard time with this for a year or so after my mission. There were moments when things seemed right and good, but for the most part, the year after my mission was really hard. And I had to learn how to love myself. What I've realized is that it doesn't matter how many times you falter. God still loves you as His precious child. Jesus Christ atoned for all of our hurts and mistakes. Of course we're going to fall short. That's never going to change, not in this life. That's the point. We have weakness so that we must learn to rely on the Savior. He has forgiven me if I will just come to Him, so if I think that I'm not good enough for His help, isn't that kind of turning my back on all that He went through? He loved me enough to suffer and die for me. ME. Faults and all. My Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me for who I am, and that is good enough for me.
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