Marginally Less Weak

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27). Compared to God, we are all one big walking weakness. Our greatest strength is so wholly inadequate when compared to the Lord’s that from God’s perspective there is just so very little difference from our strongest and our weakest attributes. It’s like, 0.01% is technically ten times bigger than 0.001% but no one would ever say that 0.01% is that big of a deal. If we are then in all of our attributes from our most developed to our least altogether frail and puny when compared to God’s might, then our weaknesses begin to take on a new meaning. We’re not mostly strong and cursed with one or two weaknesses and if we could just correct these one or two weaknesses then we’d basically be on the same level as God Himself. No, we’re mostly weak, but God can point out to us the areas which He believes are going to be the most effective to be improved. Having weakness is the norm for a being who is weak, but humbling ourselves before God and seeking His grace and guidance can lead us to being marginally less weak. Our weaknesses that we are aware of should not shame us. We should be excited that God has highlighted some area of our life that He is confident that with a little effort and faith on our part can quickly and dramatically improve. We were never meant to face this world solely on our own power, and would quickly be ground into dust if we tried. And since our own strengths are always going to be wholly inadequate when compared with the Lord’s might, we had much better focus on the weaknesses the Lord reveals to us as the best opportunities for personal development - not in the hopes that we will no longer need the Lord’s grace and strength in our lives, but so that little by little, line upon line, weakness upon weakness, we slowly improve in this life.