Overcoming rather than being overcome

I've noticed lately how many times in my life I have limited my capacities. There are many times when I would refuse to be open minded. Point is I found out that I would stop my growth as a person and as a daughter of God when I would do so. I wanted to not date anymore so I could stop feeling hurt and other emotions associated with dating. After one talk in General Conference I knew that I needed to start dating. The second I made this decision peace came. I can keep moving towards my goals in life in the meantime while I wait for a normal date. I know now that by not dating I cannot become like my Heavenly Father because in order to become like Him I need to have a family of my own. One of the beginning steps to this is dating.

Let me put my perspective on this using an analogy. Think of life as one big hike up a mountain. We are given some basic instructions about how to stay safe, where to go, and broad knowledge of how to get there. We are let loose to find a way to get up the mountain. Along the way we get bits and pieces of information about what to do, which path to take, and what to avoid. Imagine you were just given a small direction of a specific turn to take. You look at it and the trail seems impossible to go up. You stop. You'll say something like, "I'm not going up that way, it scares me." Maybe you've even said, "I've had bad experiences before with paths like this. I've learned my lesson." Maybe you even said, "No." You refuse to go any further up the mountain. This is just like life. In the pre-existence we were given some knowledge and basic instructions and given the opportunity to become like our Heavenly Father. We start the trail. Sometimes we are given directions and told to go this way or that way. What if we look up the mountain and say, "I'm not going up that way, it scares me" or "I've had bad experiences before with paths like this. I've learned my lesson" or even "no." What happens then? We stop. We no longer gain anything but stay where we are. My friend Braden has a wonderful philosophy which goes along quite well with this. He said, "if you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten." I think it is important to be open minded about things that the Lord says, regardless of what has happened or what could happen or anything else for that matter.

I have been trying very hard to keep an open mind about what the Savior wants me to do in my life. Sometimes I want to say I can't. I know that for every I can't He is telling me I can.