Be yourself

Today Nancy and Joleen invited Cindi, Tammy and me to have breakfast. Tammy had to leave town today to get her baby checked at Primary Children's Medical Center to figure out why the baby is not growing or gaining weight so we all are praying for her.  We all had a nice visit with one another and found out some things about each other. Toward the end Nancy shared some words from sister Holland on how to be yourself that I love so this is what she quoted about her personality.
 

PERSONALITY:” 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 l 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 of me. For many years I tried to measure the oft times quit, reflective, 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. It is a contradiction of terms. I have given up seeing myself as a flawed person because my energy level is lowered than Jeff’s, and I don’t talk as much as he does, nor as fast. Given this up has freed me to embrace and rejoice in my own manner and personality in the measure of my creation. Ironically, that has allowed me to admire and enjoy Jeff’s ebullience even more. Somewhere, somehow the Lord blipped the message unto my screen’ that my personality was created to fit the mission and talents he gave me. For example, the calmer talent of playing the piano reveals much about the real Pat Holland. I would never have learned to play the piano if I hadn’t enjoyed the long hours of solitude required for its development. The same principle applies to my love of writing, reading and meditation, and especially teaching and talking with children. Miraculously, I have found that I have untold abundant sources of energy to be myself. But the moment I indulge in imitation of my neighbor, I feel fractures and fatigue and find myself forever swimming upstream. When we frustrate God’s plan for us, We deprive the world of God’s kingdom of our unique contributions, and a serious schisms 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 can become”. Pat Holland, LDS Women’s Treasury: Insights and inspiration for Today’s Woman, 104) I love  this because it makes me realize more and more that I need to love myself the way I am. Not to say, this is how I am and can't do anything about it, but to embrace the fact that it's ok to be me.