Because of Our Faith

Elder Hugo Martinez spoke about self-reliance in the most recent general conference. He said this: “Self-reliance is defined as ‘the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and family.’ Striving to be self-reliant is part of our work along the covenant path that leads us back to Heavenly Father and to His Son, Jesus Christ. It will strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and joyfully bind us to Him through the covenants and ordinances of salvation and exaltation. Self-reliance is a doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not a program. It is a process that lasts a lifetime, not an event.” I like how he connected self-reliance with our faith in Jesus Christ. From a worldly perspective, self-reliance would mean that we can do everything on our own and care for ourselves without the help of others. From a gospel perspective, though, self-reliance is really a reliance upon the Lord above all else. When we are self-reliant we do all that we can to care for ourselves and families but ultimately put our trust in Him, not in ourselves. As we bind ourselves to Him, we become less dependent on the world and more dependent on He who is the author and finisher of our faith.

As we strive to care for our own physical, mental, and spiritual needs, we look to Him who “will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion.” It is instructive that when Captain Moroni spoke with Zerahemnah, he attributed the Nephite success in their battle to their faith and not their own physical preparations and skill: “But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ.” Zerahemnah countered, as the world always will, that the Lord had nothing to do with it: “We do not believe that it is God that has delivered us into your hands; but we believe that it is your cunning that has preserved you from our swords. Behold, it is your breastplates and your shields that have preserved you” (Alma 44:3-4, 9). But Moroni knew better; yes, they had been “self-reliant” in preparing for the battle in a way that gave them a significant advantage over the Lamanites who had little armor, but he still knew that the Lord was their true shield and source of protection. As we strive for self-reliance temporally, we must remember that it is our faith in Christ that will provide us the greatest reservoir of help for the future.

Yesterday my four-year-old found a pair of scissors, went into his room alone, and proceed to cut his hair in what was the opposite of a mohawk: he took out a large chunk of hair in the middle of his head. When I asked him why he had done that, he said, “Because I thought cutting it would make it even more handsome!” Elder Martinez encouraged us to help our children especially to become more self-reliant, but I don’t think that’s quite what he meant! I do hope that I can help this child and all my children to learn the basic skills they need to care for themselves in this world—while letting others cut their hair—but most importantly I hope that I can help them see that it is the Savior to whom we should look to for support and approval. They don’t need to go to drastic measure to look better in front of the world; we just need to look to God for His approval and love while He helps us fulfill our eternal destinies.