Overwhelmed?

Overwhelmed?

Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed?  I sure have.

Demands press down on us.  We have responsibilities and pressures.  There are things that must be done, and we are not sure how to do them.  In addition, we don’t think there is time to do it all.

We are overwhelmed.

What do we need in a situation like that?

Principle:  Our feelings tell us what we need.

Surprisingly enough,we don’t need a solution to a problem, or more energy, or a magical person to come along and help us get it all done.

We need courage.

COURAGE:  mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

Elder Henry B. Eyring said this:

The Lord promised love for others and courage to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery when the tasks ahead of them could have seemed overwhelming. The Lord said that needed courage would come from their faith in Him as their rock:

“Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

“Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

Principle:  Our feelings tell us what we need.

Many times when we feel overwhelmed, we need courage.  Our tasks seem daunting.  We don’t know how to proceed.  We are confused, and we don’t think we have the energy to needed to be successful.  

Don't Overlook God's Role

We hear a lot about the “law of attraction” in terms of emotional health and well-being today.

The “law of attraction” has come to mean that what we focus on, expands.  What we think about, visualize with clarity, and focus on, is “drawn” into our experience.  It’s attracted to us.  The idea is our thoughts and feelings matter, and that they can attract what we want, or repel things from us.

The problem with the “law of attraction” as taught today is that it’s often misconstrued, and can very easily become a “philosophy of man.”

Sure, parts of the idea are true.  Our thoughts and feelings do matter.  What we focus on does matter.  Yet the danger is that if we overlook the Source of the law, or the Power behind the law, we will completely miss the mark, and worse, we will be distracted from what really matters.

The law of attraction is, in other words, incomplete at best, and misleading and dangerous at worst.

Helaman, in the Book of Mormon, actually warns us of the dangers of this type of philosophy.  He says:

“And thus we can see (in other words -- look to find the lesson ) how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.” (Helaman 12:1)

Helaman is referring to what is happening to his people, the Nephites.  The people had been experiencing a time of great prosperity and peace, but lately they had been having problems with the Lamanites.  There were murders, and a great band of robbers was becoming a problem  Helaman tells the people that this is because they are forgetting their God, and that their prosperity came because of His blessings -- and their obedience to His commandments.

Helaman continues:

“Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks, and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One - yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.” (Helaman 12:2)

Don’t we see this today?  To me, the law of attraction symbolizes the hardening of hearts, and the forgetting of the Lord our God.  The law of attraction as taught today does not talk about God.  It does not delineate the proper place of God in the affairs of man.

Yes, what I think about is important.  God wants us to have faith.  He wants us to be positive, and to believe.  But where do our blessings ultimately come from?  Do we just “attract” those blessings and the riches of prosperity to us, or do they come from God?  Is it important to acknowledge His hand in all things?  

The true danger of trusting in the law of attraction as “the law” is that it literally leaves out God.  If we trust only in that  law, we cannot see our true relationship to Him.  We may even come to believe that our success, our blessings, come because of OUR own ability, and that we do not even need God.  After all, if we can attract whatever we need, would we need God?  Taken to its extreme, that’s the logical progression of that path.

I believe that the law of attraction is a dangerous philosophy, and of man.  Instead, why don’t we focus on God’s laws, stated in scriptures?  Why don’t we think in terms of the Law of the Harvest?  

In the Law of the Harvest, we think of the way nature works.  First, we have soil.  The type of soil matters to the plant.  Then we have the seeds.  We get to choose what seeds to plant, but we have no power to make the seed.  The seed has life within itself, and we cannot make that.  That comes from the power of God.  So we choose what to plant, and we do the planting.  That is a lot like life.  We choose what to focus on, what to think, and what types of actions we want to plant in our life -- in our own “soil” or conditions of the heart.  Then we have to nurture those seeds.  We don’t doubt that they will grow, because we know God simply provides the seeds with the ability to grow. And they DO grow.

We see that God provides that, and we thank Him.  When the seeds grow enough, we are able to harvest the fruit -- again, acknowledging that it’s through God’s blessings that we have that fruit.  Yes, we did work in the garden, but we are not in charge of the law, nor how it works.

That’s the correct law, and it’s the correct way to think.  Leaving out God is dangerous.  Let’s not do that.  We don’t attract what we want in and of ourselves, due to our own effort alone.  

Moroni 10:7 reminds us:

“.....wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men…..”

I am grateful for the might, majesty, power, and love of God.

Trials refine our emotions. Then blessings come.

From the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 103, verse 12:  “For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing.”

                                            

                                           
This is an important scripture, and it applies to emotional health in several ways.

First, there is tribulation.  That's a fact.  Life is not easy, and it's not meant to be easy.  In the gospel plan we are taught that it's necessary to have opposites, and that we learn and grow as we experience the opposites.  

It's not wrong to experience tribulation.  It's part of the plan.  It wouldn't be called tribulation if it wasn't hard, and it is natural for us to struggle and to become emotionally involved in that struggle.  Sometimes we think we're bad because we are having a hard time.  NO.

However, this scripture gives us comfort in tribulation.  We know that blessings come after we are tried.  That can give us the strength to look for our source of blessings - the Savior and Heavenly Father, and allow us to continue in faith through the "enduring" process.

This is a very different philosophy than one we are taught in the humanistic Law of Attraction.  The Law of Attraction says that we attract what we want as we focus on  those things.  Yes, to an extent.  But when we forget that blessings come after tribulation, we may not realize that tribulation is part of the law and the process.  The Law of Attraction seems to say that if we can just get in harmony with the  vibration of what we want, we won't experience the pain.  That is false, and leads us away from the understanding that in tribulation, we rely on God, plead for grace, and endure in God's timing.