No One Can Take Your Place

Once a year I re-read three books by Sheri Dew. One is called "No One Can Take Your Place". I just picked it back up last week. I love this book. It is so simple but so deep in the idea of that you CANNOT be replaced in this world/life.

Within just a few pages she makes this statement -
"None of us come to this earth to GAIN our worth; we brought it with us."

How often have we thought of all the things we must do to worthy for the blessings from our Father in Heaven? Or what must we do now to be worthy of this or that? The reality is we had our worth when we left our Heavenly Parents and came to this earth. But how many of us have to be reminded of that. I know there are days that I don't feel my full worth. But those are the days that Satan must be working on me a little harder. Because negative thoughts are NOT EVER from our Father in Heaven.

I will give you a personal example of how easy this can happen:
I am trying to apply and get registered for school. It has not been an easy process even with my husband working at the school. Anyway, as I was going through this process I started questioning why I was even trying to do this right now in my life. It is not like I have a plan for a specific degree. I started talking down to myself about my lack of education and abilities. How can I possibly do this when I can't even keep my house picked up with the 5 kids running around here. Maybe I should perfect what I already have going on instead of attempting something else that I will probably not be that great at anyway. It was getting pretty bad.

Then this thought came to mind - what about your business? What about the kids you have? What about the marriage you have? So Looked at each of those things and these positive things came to mind. (I do not share these as boastful or prideful in anyway).
Business - No one taught me how to run a swimsuit business. No one showed me how to go from point A to point B and so on to see a drawing come to life into a real swimsuit. I did not go to school for this knowledge - I have taught myself and researched and learned along the way. I have taken sketches of an idea into a company entering its 6th year and now have styles for the whole family. Are we where we need to be make a financial difference yet in our lives - no. But we are still growing - while doing it all myself. You cannot accomplish something like this if you are not smart and motivated.
Kids - I have GREAT kids. Now most of that is just their sweet Spirits they have. But I had the thought that as their mother I have a little to do with that and I should be very pleased to have kids as good as they are.
Marriage - I have a WONDERFUL Marriage. Just like my kids are not perfect - my marriage is not either ---- but I think it is as perfect as can be this side of heaven. We are best friends. We both have common sense - are good about keeping each other in check when need be when we get upset about some issue or injustice. We truly enjoy being together. We do not hang out with other couples for enjoyment. We do not go out with the "girls" or "guys". Any free time is with each other with our kids. And that suits us both really well. There have been many activities we both would have liked to be a part of but they would have taken us away form our family time or together time - and that is not worth it to us. I love the fact that we can go from motorcycle riding to having a deep discussion about a gospel principle.

So the point is this - after all the negative that is so easy for us to repeat to ourselves, sometimes it is good to allow ourselves to have a moment to focus on the positive and be a little prideful (in a good way) - to remind ourselves we are truly sons and daughters of a Father in Heaven that loves us. That our worth was instilled in us before we ever stepped foot on this earth - and that Satan is the one that wants to keep us from living up to our potential.

Hope you can stop for just a moment today and allow those positive things about yourself come to mind. Allow it to make you feel warm inside and hold your chin up a little higher today.