Enough

 One of the biggest lies Satan has sold me has been the "I'm not good enough."  

I'm not a good enough mom.

I'm not a good enough wife. 

I'm not a good enough friend.

I'm not a good enough writer.

I'm not a good enough teacher. 

I'm not a good enough neighbor. 

I'm just not enough. 

But I'm also not alone.  

Elder Holland stated, "Around the Church I hear many who struggle with this issue: “I am just not good enough.” “I fall so far short.” “I will never measure up.” I hear this from teenagers. I hear it from missionaries. I hear it from new converts. I hear it from lifelong members. One insightful Latter-day Saint, Sister Darla Isackson, has observed that Satan has somehow managed to make covenants and commandments seem like curses and condemnations. For some he has turned the ideals and inspiration of the gospel into self-loathing and misery-making."

Dr Becky Bailey says that all of us have that empty hole inside of us - only it's actually not real. We think it is and feel it but it's a lie. 

And she says we try desperately to fill that hole with what we can- food, alcohol, over working, compulsive exercising, drugs, shopping (and she says that includes Home Depot and not just Target), TV binging, instagramming, serving until we run ourselves ragged, or any of millions of other things we try to "get" to fill it.  

Only here's the problem.  If the hole isn't really there, because we ARE enough, it can't be filled. 

Neuroscientists and psychologists are studying this together and have found that the best way to actually fill that hole is to change our perception. And to do that we need the law of reciprocity.  You get what you give. 

So figure out what you are lacking and give it to someone else. 

Are you lonely and needing connection? Reach out and offer connection to someone. 

Are you needing to feel safe and secure? Find someone to help protect (that's why so many people get pets while struggling with other issues). 

Are you needing more faith? Find someone to share the little bit of faith you DO have with. 

Are you needing more reassurance? Offer reassurance to someone else.

Are you needing more forgiveness? Forgive someone.  

Amazingly enough Jesus has been preaching this same message for millennia.  We know it as the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Only sometimes we mess it up and use it to say, "I did this for you now do what I want!" It was never meant to be a manipulation tool.  

But when we do it right and reach  out in love, the hole disappears, little by little, as our perspective aligns with Heaven's.  

Satan wants us to think we are less because he is less.  But in reality following the commandment to love and serve others shines the light of Christ so brightly it's clear to see there was never a hole at all.