You Don’t Have to Fake It to Make It

Man looking in the mirror

When we face uncertainty, the Lord doesn’t expect us to pretend to know what we’re doing.  When my mom was called to be our ward choir director, she felt insecure because she had no experience. The previous choir director told her, “Fake it ’til you make it. Don’t show any… Continue reading

Embracing the You That You Are

Woman smiling at the camera

God loves us perfectly, so why don’t we love ourselves? In today’s world, we can easily get bogged down by questions about our self-worth. Why are we not as pretty as our friends? Why can’t we perform as well in school as the other students? Why don’t we ever get… Continue reading

You Were Meant to Be Different

Assorted sliced citrus fruits on brown wooden chopping board.

You may feel you don’t belong in church because you are different, but God designed you to be different, and he needs you and your unique strengths in his plan. There may be some times in the Church when you feel like you don’t belong. But you do belong—of course… Continue reading

Remembering Who You Are

Young Japanese girls in graduation kimono

“Many traditions can reinforce gospel standards and principles.”  —Elder Donald L. Hallstrom When I was growing up, my family didn’t celebrate a lot of the traditions of our Mexican culture. I think a lot of it was because my parents and extended family members didn’t want to stand out more… Continue reading

Uprooting Negative Body Image

man looking at reflection in window

Seeing ourselves as God sees us can improve our “body image resilience” in an objectifying world. We’ve all been there. We’ve all looked in the mirror and found things we disliked about our bodies, be it our height, weight, hair, glasses, braces, or acne. We’ve wondered why our appearance isn’t… Continue reading

Avoiding Pinterest Perfect Comparisons

On social media we usually see only the “picture perfect” ideal. We must learn to embrace reality for all its glorious imperfections. Have you ever scrolled through social media and felt horrible about yourself? With so much pressure to portray a certain image, social media too often becomes a platform… Continue reading

The Second Miracle: Made Confident through Christ

Jesus hugging the man who was born blind

There’s no shame in simply starting with what you know. If you just continue moving forward, Christ will help you build your confidence. When we doubt, we may think that we lack faith; however, we do not need to be ashamed of our doubt. The story in John 9 about… Continue reading

We Always Have a Place with God

Although sometimes we may feel like we do not belong, we always have a place as God’s children.  Deserved or not, lasting or temporary, major or minor, we have all probably had the terrible experience of feeling like we don’t belong. It’s an emotion to which we humans are all… Continue reading

Choosing Your Own Path

A forked path in the woods

It can be scary to make big decisions without heavenly confirmation, but if we trust ourselves as God does, we’ll find that we can make good choices for our lives. Our 20s have been rightfully named the Decade of Decision. from From the moment we graduate high school, we’re thrown… Continue reading

It’s Not about You; It’s about Me: Who You’re Really Competing Against

Three different citrus fruits

How can I have confidence before God when others seem to be doing so much better than I am? As mortals with plenty of weaknesses, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to others. We compare our looks, our social life, our number of followers on social media. We sometimes… Continue reading