Sometimes we feel like we’re the only ones who’ve faced our particular challenges. Luckily, we can look to examples of wise, strong, and courageous women who have overcome enormous challenges themselves.
Photo by Zun Zun
When I was younger, the women in my ward guided, served, and loved me with astounding strength and wisdom. As a result, I always saw them as superheroes who lived perfect lives with perfect grace and ease. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my ward as an adult and I realized that these women with seemingly perfect lives had been facing serious and difficult challenges in their own lives as they were helping me with mine.
Sometimes when we’re suffering, we feel like nobody understands what we’re going through. We might look at those around us and think that their lives are somehow more carefree than ours or that they’re handling life better than we are. In short, we feel alone.
However, we are not alone. In the inspirational video “Just Like You,” the women of the Relief Society general board emphasize that they’ve faced problems similar to the ones that we face. They point out that these ten women have experienced divorce, death, infertility, financial problems, chronic illness, mental illness, and a host of other difficulties. While they appear to be perpetually happy women, they’ve had difficult and complex life experiences that have allowed them to understand the situations of others. They have been where we are now.
I’m grateful for the love and example of the women in my life who have faced their trials and helped me face mine. When we feel like we are alone in our suffering, we can turn to and learn from the ordinary wonder women in our lives who have grown in their adversity and who love, pray, and fight for us every day.
Watch the Relief Society general board’s video “Just Like You.”
Source: Gospel Media
—Emma Chapman, Mormon Insights
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Find more insights
To learn more about the examples of women, read “A Summer with Great-Aunt Rose,” by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
To discover how we can use our experiences to help others, read “The Family Is of God,” by Carole M. Stephens.