Constant Struggle

I always hear that life is a constant battle in deciding who you want to be, what kind of person you are, a fight of moral courage.  I think this war is fought and won by choosing to make the hard decisions, the right decisions.  Being willing to sacrifice that which is easy for that which is of most worth... being willing to give up that which can give you pleasure and momentary happiness for that which brings lasting joy.  I feel like the only way to do that is to trust in yourself and let go of your fear.  But we all have fear and we can never be completely free from it.  I feel like instead we must learn to overcome it.  When we hear from the words of a book that we as people must choose to either act or be acted upon, I think what it means is that we either must choose for ourselves, acting on and with our own free will and choice, or be moved by fear instead of our will.

We all have our own fears just like we all have our own strengths.  I sometimes fear that I am unworthy, not good enough, strong enough, and that I won't be happy.  I am afraid that because of those things that I could lose the ones I love.  But I think that as we all learn to overcome those kinds of fears we can gain an unique perspective and form of moral courage that if we are able to harness and understand it, we can be strong.  To be able to face life without letting fear control us and our actions would be in a way to have a form of self-mastery and self-control.  In the end, by facing those fears and realizing that we really could never be worthy of the blessings we have in life but only through the grace of God and the Atonement are we able to become strong enough.  It is through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that families can be made eternal, that you can be with your loved ones forever and even death cannot break the bonds that keep you together.

I am not typically such a black and white individual but when it comes to the battles that rage within the chambers of our own hearts and souls, choosing between right and wrong, there is always a choice.  There is always opposition in all things.  I didn't really know where this post was going to go tonight, more of expressing a variety of different thoughts I have been having rather than anything else.  But what I am trying to say is that in the end, we cannot always choose what happens in life but we can decide how we will react to it, whether that is the choice to do something or whether we choose to restrain ourselves and do nothing for a time.  We can choose to be happy.  We can choose to forget the past.  We can choose to love who we are.  We can make the choice to become better.  It will never be easy but did we really expect it to be?  Life is hard, but do not forget that it is also short.  Enjoy it and realize that in all reality... life is good.