Weak Things Made Strong

"If we have the desire to play the game of life well, if we keep trying

 and practising, we have to endure to the end.

We have to be determined to overcome our faults and stay in

there trying to score regardless of the handicap.

In 1960 the Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia.

 There on the winner’s platform stood a beautiful, tall, blond American girl.

She was being given a gold medal.

The boys whistled and said, ‘There’s a girl who has everything.’

“Tears ran down her cheeks as she took the medal.

 Most people thought she was just touched by the victory ceremony.

The thing most of the audience did not know was the story of her determination.

At the age of five she had polio.

When the disease left her body, she couldn’t use her arms or legs.

Her parents took her to a swimming pool where they hoped the water

would help her hold her arms up as she tried to learn to use them again.

When she could lift her arm out of the water with her own power, she cried for joy.

 Then her goal was to swim the width of the pool, then the length, then several lengths.

She kept on trying until she won the gold medal for the

butterfly stroke in the Olympics at Melbourne, Australia.

This is one of the most difficult of all strokes.

What if Shelley Mann had got discouraged? What if she had not learned [to endure]?”

(Norma Ashton, “Be a ‘Most Valuable Player,’” Improvement Era, Sept. 1965, p. 787).

What wonderful knowledge and help the gospel brings.

We are so lucky to have the standards we do.

How hard the last few months of my life would have been without a knowledge of eternity.

When I was a girl

I never thought I would EVER have a child like Bradley.

I never had EVER had bad health myself.

The only people I knew who died were Grandparents.

And then when we almost experienced the worst thing a Mother could go through,

my testimony was the first place I went.

I did not doubt.

I knew God loved me.

I still do.

He did not leave me to struggle alone in this world.

His arms have been around me through out this whole ordeal.

AND I AM SO LUCKY THAT SOMEONE TAUGHT ME TO RECOGNIZE THAT.

And I don't know what any ones future holds, but I know that the

gospel will make whatever is in each of our future's easier.

I cannot sing a sacrament hymn without remembering those days in the NICU

when I felt alone, and sad.

And then feeling the whispering's of the spirit comforting me.

Telling me that it was okay.

And I would never, EVER trade the last few months for any other temporal challenge.

I REALLY DO FEEL BLESSED TO HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS!

And I consider myself lucky!

Lucky to have THESE challenges.

Someone told me that I would start to love this challenge and I really am starting to love it :)
I REALLY AM!