I AM OVERWHELMED!

It's a haunting verse, right? There are a million things to do perfectly...

I had only been a missionary for a few months. I was training a brand new missionary, we were working with so many important people, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Almost everything was out of my control. So the things I DID have control over had to be...you guessed it, PERFECT. 

I tried so hard, I think I almost died! Finally after a few months of unlimitted stress, anxiety, and perfectionism, I just couldn't take it anymore. I talked to our mission president: the man with ALL the answers. And he helped me understand what being "perfect" really means.

"Sister Jensen! You don't have to be perfect, you have to be whole."

I flipped to the index of my scriptures and looked up the word perfect:

• Thou shalt be perfect WITH the Lord... (Deut. 18:13)
• Let your heart therefore be perfect WITH the Lord... (1 Kings 8:61)
• ...that we may present every man perfect IN  Christ. (Col. 1:28)
• By His grace that you may be perfect... (Moroni 10:32)
• ...Just men made perfect THROUGH  Jesus... (D&C 76:69) 

So what I learned is that there is no such thing as being perfect all by myself. I am perfect WITH and THROUGH and IN Jesus Christ.

From then on I realized that my happiness doesn't depend on accomplishing everything perfectly, it depends on accomplishing everything with the Lord. And that's a whole lot easier to do! So I began to pray in a different way. Instead of asking for success I asked for the love. Instead of asking for help to accomplish something, I asked that He would be with me while I did my best. Instead of asking for a home run, I asked that He would give me the courage to step up to the plate, swing with everything I had, and most importantly, I began to ask for courage to fail.