knowing who we are

Every day when I wake up I look forward to one singular event, my shower. I love the shower! I will put off taking a shower until the afternoon if it means I can't take a long one in the morning. I love it because its my thinking place. The thoughts I most often think about are my dreams, family and various church topics. I often give myself an uplifting sermon all in my head in the shower.Most of my most clear inspiration comes right there in those moments in the shower with the warm water hitting my face and arms. Today was one of those days that I thought about those I love and many of the people I am surrounded by. some of them are struggling and I think it can be contributed to one key issue in life, that of "who are we?"

Now this is a funny thing to talk about really. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints, we are taught from the time we can understand words that we are children of our Heavenly Father, with earthly parents here on earth, as such, we are divine spirits and have a divine destiny to return to our father above. This knowledge should effect every part of our lives, the way we dress, the way we treat others, the way we parent our children, the way we treat our spouses and most importantly the way we treat our self. Yet so many of us struggle on a day to day basis. I know for me I struggle with every thing from doing the laundry to giving a talk in church- when I temporarily forget who I am. In the moments when I am most strong, when spiders aren't so scary and singing for an audience seems as easy as eating chocolate cake, well those are the moments I have sure knowledge of who I am and where exactly I am going. I must admit knowing who I am is something I have been blessed with most of my adult life. As a child I struggled to feel good about my self and then one day a new vision of myself was presented to me, that of a daughter of a king, most of the time I don't forget it. As a parent watching my own five year old going through this same self doubt, it's been painful and hard, thankfully I know how to help her ( at least some of the time) and feel reassured knowing that at some point she will discover her true value too.

So this brings me back to my thought process in the shower this morning. why do so many struggle to know who they are. In the end I don't think its a matter NOT knowing who we are. I think every one deep down believes they are more then just here on this earth doing their best in life. I think really its all about KNOWING. When we believe something, it comes with some, even if its a tiny tiny bit, of uncertainty or maybe doubt. knowing is some thing we have no doubt of, can't even question it. How do we come to KNOW who we are so that we can feel the peace, happiness and confidence that comes with the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father? In the end this knowledge can only come by drawing near to our Heavenly Father and with time we learn. Sometimes we might forget and have to re-learn, but there is no knowledge that brings more joy and peace then that of knowing who we are and where we have come from.

I think this is the major problem facing our time. If we all acted we are more like the sons and daughters we are, then perhaps we would watch what we say more carefully, we might try harder to be kind to every one especially our children, and for sure it would give us courage to go and conquer the world with the talents and gifts our father has given us. ALL of us have potential to do anything, I think its our own self doubt that only stands in the way, myself included. So I suppose the challenge really is how to get the message out and help those around me feel what I know about them. That they are amazing just because of who we each are, children of God.