Dependence, a weakness

While standing at the kitchen sick I was pondering what story to tell you tonight. My thoughts turned to cleaning my house. Not really anything most people want to remember. However, maintaining a cleaner home is my goal for the year. 

Mission story:

A clean home wasn't really a huge prioriaty growing up. We had chores. Most of us got out of doing the dishes when mom said she would do them if we would cook. (It's always funner making the mess.) Have you ever heard, "Nothing cleans a house like company"? If we new someone was coming over, we cleaned. We also did a good clean before leaving town for a few days. I also remember washing the ceiling a number of times.

Sister Tanner, our mission President's wife, always had about a half hour of so during Zone Conference. About halfway into the mission she talked about keeping our apartments clean. It wasn't until then that I made the connection. I remembered liking the feeling of having a clean room. In D&C 132:8 the Lord says "...my house is a house of order..." It is also recorded in various places and phrasings "...no unclean thing can dwell with God..." So I realized, at 25, the reason my clean room felt so much better was because it was easier for the Spirit of God to be there.

I cannot say I mastered the cleanliness trait. I tend to migrate to cleaner offices when I need a different place to think at work.

Moving on...I started with the thought about developing my cleaning habits. Then my thoughts went to Ether 12:27 " ... I will make weak things strong unto you..."

This thought usually leading my mind back to sitting in my Major Professor's office. In accordance with NCLB I needed a subject area endorsement on my Special Education Certificate. She suggested Reading. Inside I laughed. Then came  " ... I will make weak things strong unto you..." 

While in elementary school I received Special Ed. services with a reading disability. In fact my IQ- achievement discrepancy was 25 points. It only need to be 15 for mee to qualify. (yep, Mee, the Reading Specialist who hates to read.)

Mind jumping back to  " ... I will make weak things strong unto you..." "...There is only one weakness." That was all she had a chance to say. It wasn't the point of the lesson. I was curious.

Ether 12:27

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

She was right. I had always read it as "...I will show unto them their weaknesses..." Don't take this to mean you only have one flaw. The Lord did also tell Moroni "...I will make weak things become strong unto you."

So, what is this weakness? The answer I got, and felt to share via my not so world famous blog, dependence. It drives mee nuts. I work with so many students who feel they need to be coddled every step of the way. They often won't even try to do things by themselves. Oh, and those girls ( I am sure there are guys too) who always need to be in a relationship. Drive mee batty.

Yet, through our imperfect, mortal, probationary state we are dependent on Christ. There is no way home without Him. There is no peace without Him. There is no life without Him. It is through this humble and dependent state with Christ we are strong. With God, all things are possible.