I ♥ my Sponsor!

It took a little time for me to find her, but I am so grateful for my wonderful sponsor. There have been moments where the Lord has led the two of us to the exact same thing and as we share them, I know that I am blessed to be working with her and that she is listening to the promptings of the Spirit as she helps me. That is an amazing kind of person to have on your team! As far as I am concerned, she is a ministering angel in the flesh.

I ♥ my sponsor!

Today I was working on one of the assignments she had given me and my heart is so full. She asked me to read "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Presidnet Uchtdorf from last October's General Conference.

This was a fantastic talk! I felt prompted to have the print version in front of me to annotate while I listened to the video of President Uchtdorf speaking. I've marked it up a lot because there were so many wonderful parts of this talk. One of my favorites was:

No matter how bleak the chapter of our lives may look today, because of the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we may hope and be assured that the ending of the book of our lives will exceed our grandest expectations.

Because of the prompting to listen while I made my notes, I found that there was a sentence that President Uchtdorf spoke that was not in the printed version.

I recall that several years ago there was a change in procedures that requires the speakers in General Conference provide a written copy of their talks in advance. This means that the missing sentence was a pure addition from a prompting of the Spirit and that makes it all the more sweet to my soul.

President Uchtdorf said:

If only we could glimpse for a moment what the Lord has in store for us, not only in the next life but in this one as well, our hope would be unshakable and despair could never overcome us.

​I am holding on to this thought. It helps to put things into perspective. Plus, I am now even more excited to hear what is shared during this October's General Conference. I was already looking forward to this weekend after the fabulous talks shared during the General Relief Society meeting last Saturday. I was especially grateful for Sister Reeve's talk, which spoke directly to my heart and I hope that it also provided hope for all the other tender wives out there ... especially those who have not yet found the support they need.

I am grateful for the rich resources available to us:
Healing Through Christ workbook 
Hope and Healing forum
Support group
Blogs
Addo

Heavenly Father provides all that we need and I am glad that he guided me to find these resources so that my heart can heal and I can work my own recovery. I am just beginning to really understand the importance of letting my addicted loved ones find their own recovery when they are ready and willing to work for it.

I am grateful to be learning how to interact with them in a way that demonstrates love and forgiveness even while trust does not yet exist. That means I do not harm them and it helps to heal me.

There was a time that I really wanted revenge and to make them suffer for the hurt in my heart. But, it wasn't doing me any good. If they need to be punished, it isn't up to me. And haven't we all suffered enough anyway? It's not what I want for me. It's not what I want for them. I choose to be true to who I am ... and that means becoming more like the Savior and developing unshakable hope.

If only we could glimpse for a moment what the Lord has in store for us, not only in the next life but in this one as well, our hope would be unshakable and despair could never overcome us.