What God knows

My husband had invited over some people for dinner who are working with the Self Reliance program of the Church and later in the evening they went to the airport to pick up Elder Gay and Elder Mike Murray. When my husband walked in the door after he had taken them to the Hotel I could sense there was something wrong. He had some wrappers in his had from the Primary kids who had left the car dirty and couldn't believe he had just found that garbage in the back seat where the Elders sat. The only one time the car is ever dirty is when  he had to pick them up. He felt so embarrassed and visibly upset. I told him to chill and not get so worked up over some little thing like that. He knows he is a neat and clean person, the Lord also knows he is clean so who cares what others might think. I want to share this post about this very same subject expressing exactly how I feel.


" I learned long ago that if we try to judge ourselves by what others think, we will inevitably find ourselves constantly disappointed and sad, because it is literally impossible to please everyone.  Not only that, but you have to realize that other people will never have all the facts of every detail of your life because they are not the ones walking in your shoes, so it would literally be impossible for them to judge you fairly.  Sure, there are tons of people who live to pass judgment on other people.  Many people even thrive on it.  Perhaps that is because it is so much easier to find perceived flaws in other people then it is to face one’s own flaws.  But you simply cannot live your life by what other people are going to say or think.

I was so grateful for the day that I finally came to recognize that there is only one person in life that I need to please, and that is God.  He is the only one who has all the facts.  He is the only one who understands everything perfectly.  He is the only one who can judge us fairly and justly.  The moment in my life when I finally got this fact it was like having the biggest weight ever lifted off my shoulders.  It was like suddenly I could push all the noise of other people who had their own ulterior motives for passing judgment aside and focus on just pleasing that one person.  It was the most empowered I think I have ever felt in my life.  Suddenly I had a situation I could control completely, because I knew and understood what God expected from me, and I, and I alone, could know for surety if I was living up to His expectations.   It no longer mattered what anyone else thought or felt or said.  It only mattered how I could feel in regards to my understanding of God’s expectations.

Block out the noise and the gossip and the negativity of the world and focus on just being the best person that you know how to be.  Even if you don’t believe in God and instead you believe in the concept of a higher power or the universe or whatever…focus only on living up to that standard and no one else’s.  You can spend your entire energy trying to be what someone else tells you that you should be only to have them tell you that you are not enough.  If you let that be your determination of your own self-worth you are giving your most important asset to another imperfect human being…don’t ever do that…let the determination of your self-worth be based on pleasing that one person and that one person alone that doesn’t just think, He knows" Amy

I love her thoughts on this very subject and I try every day to think more in terms of what God knows of me rather than what people might think of me. What I want to remember about this Sunday is that we invited a family to eat with us who had their son in the Hospital and I volunteered to watched their daughters while they went to see their son in the hospital and Daniel went to pick up the brethren at the airport. I also made the most delicious quesadilla Salvadoran dish and Daniel made his famous frejuada, a Brazilian dish to die for.