Let His Love Fill the Need

Matthew 11

 28 ¶^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest.

 29 Take my ^ayoke upon you, and ^blearn of me; for I am ^cmeek and^dlowly in ^eheart: and ye shall find ^frest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is ^aeasy, and my burden is light.

I believe within each us there is a need.  A need that can be filled with different ideas, feelings, and thoughts.  The way we fill this need shows where we put our trust.  This is our motivation to change. This is how we work to meet our individual goals, whatever they may be.

For most of my life I know that I have used guilt, negative thoughts, shame, and constant remembrance of everything that is wrong with me to motivate me to change.  Has this worked?  Honestly, yes sometimes it has.  There have been times I have motivated myself to go without food or run faster by telling myself how fat I am.  There are times where I have been nicer to my brother by telling myself what a horrible sister I am and how I have ruined his life.  There are times where I have spent more time trying to be smarter by telling myself I was stupid and lazy.  But have these "motivating" thoughts made a lasting positive change in my behaviors?  NO!

So I have started thinking I should let go of all that crap.  Scary right?  What will be my motivation to become better if I'm not always telling myself how much I suck at life?  How will I ever lose weight if I don't remember how fat, ugly, lazy, pathetic, and worthless I am?  How will I become a better sister, daughter, and friend if I don't remember how prideful and selfish I am?  And if I did let go of these thoughts I might go wild!!!! Without telling myself these things I might eat every cake, cookie, ice cream treat in the valley! Oh the pounds!  I might yell and scream at every person in my family for the rest of my days! This is really scary for me and very hard to think of letting all those thoughts and feelings go. It is something I have held onto.  It has been my "hope" for change.  It is deep inside of me.  Pulling it out seems not only hard and scary but also seems like it could be a painful process.

I think this is where faith comes in.  I have to make that step into the dark.  I have to let go of all that crap trusting that the Savior's love and power will be enough to help me reach my goals and motivate me to change.  I have to trust that the difficulty in doing this and any pain will be for my good and provide me with an opportunity to grow.

When the spaces within us are filled with shame, self-hate, and guilt there is no room for our Savior's love or really any kind of love. We are rejecting one of the greatest gifts available to us because of the Atonement; and that is peace, joy, and hope.

I know that the Savior's love will fill the deepest voids within the human heart and soul.  All we must do is allow it.  Let the love in by letting go of the hate.

I have personal experience with this and it is a beautiful thing!  So light and free and happy.  I truly believe the number one motivator for change (righteous desire for change) is LOVE!  This is something that takes practice.  But every time I think "Look to Christ" and let go of the hate he truly does lift me up to more than I could ever be trying to change in my own way.  He knows best.  I love Him, I am coming to know Him. I am learning to define myself through Christ.  I am good and can do good because of Him.

And again I repeat the scripture-

Matthew 11

 28 ¶^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest.

 29 Take my ^ayoke upon you, and ^blearn of me; for I am ^cmeek and^dlowly in ^eheart: and ye shall find ^frest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is ^aeasy, and my burden is light.