It Doesn't Have To Be A Certain Way

I have had this going through my mind for a while, I just hope it comes out in a way that is understood. I am taking a psychology class right now that I absolutely love! Recently we have been talking about development and specifically the development of our personality. How our surroundings impact who we are both for better and worse. Each experience that we have is an agent for us to develop beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. Some of these beliefs are true and some are false. Whether or not it is true or false it stays with us in our subconscious brain until proven other wise. Ultimately we develop our own reality and this reality shapes our actions. With all these beliefs that we have we tend to be closed minded whether we see it in ourselves or not. This happens because of the lens we view the world through that has a tendency to be bias towards our reality. If you think about how you view different aspects of life whether it is dating, marriage, traditions, roles in families, you have developed a normal for yourself and it becomes your "certain way."

Now let me back track and give a little back ground to this post. Yesterday I had an appointment with one of my neighbors to help me with my psychology homework. It didn't go quit as planned but I ended up talking to her husband for a while about life. We were talking about one specific aspect of my life that has required extra faith and trust right now. I was telling him about how I felt it should go and how it wasn't going at all how I had planned. He asked me if he could give me a little advice which I readily took. He simply said, "it doesn't have to look a certain way." This really hit me hard and I realized that I had been letting my reality and what I felt was true get the way of allowing it to happen the way the Lord would have it happen. I had developed a fixed belief on how people should act because it was truth to me. Individual truth is good for us, we need to have that as part of our lives but we need to be careful not to allow our truth get in the way of Gods truth and if I may add expectation for us. He asks us to have faith in him, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. The scriptures are a great place to see how individuals lived this things. Each story is so unique but has the same core doctrine. Naturally the Lord would have requirements that need to be done a certain way, he has given us commandments that need to be followed and ordinances that are done exactly the way he has commanded, but other than those things He has given us agency to choose for ourselves how we go about living our life. 

So going back to looking a certain way. Are there aspects in your life that you feel should look a certain way? Can your recognize them? I know I thought of a few different parts of my life that I feel should look a certain way because of culture and the reality that I created, which if I may add, can be effected greatly by how we view  other people lives especially when they are experiences similar experiences. My invitation to you...take the time to look at your life, pray for the guidance of the spirit, and let go of fixed beliefs that would be keeping you from viewing your life in the way the Lord sees it. "It doesn't have to look a certain way," the Lord knows what he is doing and if we are willing to let go of whatever is keeping us from seeing his way, we will be able to see more clearly the path way HE would have us take! Our lives are so individual and unique that we cant compare them to others! It requires faith and trust in Him, that He knows best! I know that God loves us and is aware of us.The Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us the strength and hope that we can change!  He is in the details of our lives and is more than willing to give us understanding if we are willing to receive it.