Weaknesses and Strengths

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Either 12:27

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon.  So often I feel like I can't do all of the things my friends can and that I am not talented.  This scripture makes me feel so much better about myself. In my mission prep class, my teacher told us a story about weakness.  There was a man who had a giant rock in his yard.  He wanted to get rid of it, but it was too big for him to move.  He prayed to God for help and God told him that if he would work every day at moving the rock, he would be able to succeed.  Every morning the man would get up, push the rock all day long, and when evening came he would go to bed. This cycle lasted for months.  One day the man said to God "God, I've been pushing this rock all day every day and it hasn't moved at all.  Why do I have to keep pushing? It's clearly too heavy for me." With that, God pointed out to the man all the muscles he had formed from pushing the rock all day. While the trial was too great for him to accomplish, it had made him strong and he was now a better person because of what he went through.  I know that God gives us trials not because he wants to punish us, but because with trials he can shape us to become the people he wants us to be.