A sister missionary learns that just because God was blessing someone else doesn’t mean he was not blessing her.
In “Why Was I Not Being Blessed?”, featured in the September 2015 Ensign, Becky Young Fawcett discusses a concern facing many new missionaries—and many of the rest of us—today.
When she was called to the Thailand Bangkok Mission, Fawcett struggled to learn the Thai language during her time at the Missionary Training Center (MTC). Despite her hard work, she felt she was falling behind the other members of her class.
She knew God had asked her to serve in Thailand and that she needed to learn the language, but she felt frustrated as she fell further behind other missionaries. Had God forgotten about her? What had she done wrong?
However, when Fawcett received some sage advice from a family member, her attitude changed. Someone sent her the following thought: “Just because God is smiling on someone else doesn’t mean he is frowning on you.” She realized God had not forgotten her. He wasn’t blessing others instead of her. She had simply failed to see the blessings she already had. As she began to look outward, she discovered more about herself. “I had been so focused on comparing myself with the rest of my district,” she says, “that I failed to see how Heavenly Father had helped me.”
Once she stopped comparing her progress to that of the other missionaries, she began to see how much the Lord really had blessed her. This lesson helped her not only through a difficult time in the MTC but also with other challenges throughout her mission.
It may not always be obvious, but the Lord is consistently there to bless and lift us in our righteous desires. Our role is to ask for and look for those blessings. They are always there, as long as we are willing to receive them.
Read Becky Young Fawcett’s article “Why Was I Not Being Blessed?”
Source: Ensign
—Camden Hardy-Harrison, Mormon Insights
Find more insights:
Watch a short video, “Need for Greatest Generation of Missionaries,” by Elder M. Russell Ballard.
Read or watch Elder Russell M. Nelson’s talk “Ask the Missionaries! They Can Help You!”
Watch or read Elder Dallin H. Oaks’s talk “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go.”
Photo of girl by Martin Miranda.