Good Quote

I know...I know.... I'm going all serious on you. Don't worry--the Thanksgiving post and all the usual silliness is coming. I know you're anxious. But for now, the awesome D'Nell posted this quote on her blog like two years ago or something. But I still think about it all the time. You know it's a good quote when you think about it that long.... So here you go!

"Our Father in Heaven needs us as we are, as we are growing to become. He has intentionally made us different from one another so that even with our imperfections we can fulfill His purposes. My greatest misery comes when I feel I have to fit what others are doing, or what I think others expect of me. I am most happy when I am comfortable being me and trying to do what my Father in Heaven and I expect me to be. For many years I tried to measure the oft times quiet, reflective, thoughtful Pat Holland against the robust, bubbly, talkative, and energetic Jeff Holland and others with like qualities. I have learned through several fatiguing failures that you can't have joy in being bubbly if you are not a bubbly person...I have given up seeing myself as a flawed person because my energy level is lower than Jeff's, and I don't talk as much as he does. Nor as fast.
Giving this up has freed me to embrace and rejoice in my own manner and personality in the measure of my creation...Somewhere, somehow the Lord blipped the message onto my screen that my personality was created to fit precisely the mission and talents He gave me...The moment I indulge in imitation of my neighbor, I feel fractured and fatigued and find myself forever swimming upstream. When we frustrate God's plan for us, we deprive this world and God's kingdom of our unique contributions, and a serious schism settles in our soul. God never gave us any task beyond our ability to accomplish it. We just have to be willing to do it our own way. We will always have enough resources for being who we are and what we become." (Patricia Holland, LDS Women's Treasury: Insights and Inspiration for Today's Woman P. 104)

Good, huh? It's not an excuse not to work on things and try to become better. But it's a good reminder that I don't necessarily need to be more like other people. There are just some personality traits I have not been blessed with. But there are others that I have been blessed with and for a purpose. They are needed too. We don't need to compare ourselves to other people...we only need to do the best we can with what we have been given!! Love it! Yet another thing like this one (that was posted here--haha still makes me laugh) that I should probably read each and every day! :)

Thanks D'Nell!! (Two years late! :)