Rise Up

This week, I sat and listened to an amazing woman speak.   I can’t share everything I learned here, but basically Judy Brummer is a white woman born in South Africa who was raised by a Methodist mother and three black women who worked in her home.  She learned to speak Xhosa, the clicking language, from her “black moms.”  She learned to read and write that language in college.  The Mormon missionaries came to her door one day, and she listened to their message.  She was baptized and later helped translate the Book of Mormon into Xhosa.  She was told in a blessing that she was born where she was by the mother she had for a reason.  Throughout her life, she was placed in circumstances to bless her own life and the lives of others.  As I listened to her story, I recognized that this is a woman who knows her purpose in life and who does not just let life happen.  What in the world would it be like if we were to just sit around waiting for life to happen to us? 

I also received a nugget of wisdom from one of my clients.  I had given her an assignment to write some positive statements about food, what we call food affirmations.  Of the hundreds of times giving this assignment, this was the first that someone used scripture references as food affirmations.  One really stood out to me. 

“Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men.” (1 Nephi 18:2)

She told me how she feels strongly that what she is learning will help her break free from her addiction.  She explained how the eating disorder teaches her after the manner of men, and what she is learning in treatment teaches her the manner of the Lord.  Then it occurred to me that everything in our lives should be focused on doing things the Lord’s way.  This is not to say that we have to pray about every single decision made such as what shirt to put on in the morning, but it is important to figure out what we are to do and to trust in God’s plan and timing.

Both Judy and my client have taught me a lot this week and have reminded me to work on rising to my potential.  As Jackie Robinson said, “Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.”