What to Remember When You Don't Feel Like You're "Enough"

The blossoms were in full bloom. I could see them through the window, their fragrance passing through the back door that had been propped open, allowing a gentle breeze to fill the room.  We sat in the family room talking—me, Meg, and Meg’s best friend, Sam. The girls were older now. Married. Sam held her own little one on her lap. We were talking about Jesus, but mostly about His grace. 

Life looked different for each of us. Meg was taking 21 credits in college that semester; she was newly married and trying to balance her classes and homework with making a home and marriage. Sam’s days were spent at hair school, and her afternoons and evenings were filled with caring for her husband and new baby daughter. They were both happy, but I could tell they were stretched thin—both of them doing their best in the places where they were. I could remember those days. The moments when you felt like you weren’t enough for everything that had been placed in front of you. I grinned a little, as the truth dawned on me. I was two decades older than they were, my kids were gone, my college days were over, and I still felt like I wasn’t enough for everything that had been placed in front of me. And maybe we never are enough. 

It’s why we were talking about grace. How His grace is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9). How that grace can make the difference up. We wondered if it was possible for someone to live in grace daily. We wondered what that would look like.

“I just don’t understand it,” Sam said, Meg nodding her head in agreement, “I feel like you have to DO something in order to experience grace.”

I knew what she was talking about. It was the scripture in 2 Nephi 25:23, “By grace we are saved, after all we can do.” I nodded my understanding.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said with question in her eyes, in her heart.  She was intent. “I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to figure out what I am supposed to DO.”

I looked at these two girls who didn’t have time in their schedules to DO anything more than they were already doing. I could feel their worry about inadequacy; I had felt that same weight many times myself. And I knew exactly what they were asking. What more would they need to do in order to qualify for grace? It is a question I had asked many times myself. A question that had sent me time after time back into the scriptures because I could think of several scripture stories where the person didn’t DO anything, and yet somehow they still received grace.

I told the girls that. “Can you think of stories from the scriptures where a person received Grace without having to DO something?” I asked.

We thought of the woman thrown at the feet of the Savior in the temple courtyard. She had been caught in the very act. What was her “all she could do?” There in the middle of the courtyard the Lord extended grace in the form of forgiveness. Grace where she was.

We thought of Saul on the road to Damascus with a letter in hand to bind the saints, the man breathing out threats and slaughter, intent on persecuting the Church. He, too, had been caught in the very act. What was his “all you can do?” The Lord saw Saul as a chosen vessel and grace was extended. Grace where he was. 

We thought of the father who brought his son to the Lord saying, “If thou canst do anything,” he pled with the Savior, “have compassion on us, and help us.” Jesus said unto him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). I read the scripture and I notice the same thing every time, the Savior asked one thing of the father, there was only one requirement for the healing to take place, believe. And yet, even that simple request was more than the father was capable of. “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Still, the Savior extended grace.  Grace to make the difference up.

Creating the list made something very clear—it wasn’t just one or two people who experienced the grace of the Lord in a very personal way—the more we talked, the more witnesses we found. Each story contained a witness that the Lord will meet you where you are, as you are.  And maybe the only thing we have to “do” to accept grace is receive it.

Maybe you feel stretched thin, just doing your best in the place where you are, maybe you feel like you aren’t enough for everything that has been placed in front of you. Maybe today you looked at your life and you didn’t even know where to start, and in that moment you realized all of the things you will never be able to accomplish if left to your own means. 

Oh, dear friend, if that’s where you are, then sit down for a minute, take a deep breath, and let me remind you of an important truth—you haven’t been left to your own means.

Believe that He hears every prayer that you pray.

Believe that His Spirit is guiding your path.

Believe that you are already enough.

He will send grace where you are.