becoming.

"who am i?  what defines me?"
last week i was talking with derek about new year goals and what kind of focus we wanted.  we came to the conclusion of "what am i going to do this next year to find out who i really am?"
when i was in high school i thought i knew what defined me: choir girl, tennis team, my '92 honda accord, and the friends i hung out with.  as i went off to college i quickly realized that none of this came with me.  no one knew this girl that i thought i "was".  suddenly i felt at a loss.  "who am i?"  i began doing some thinking about who i really was.
soon enough my thoughts determined that it would be the choices i make, how i treat others and how i acted that would define me.
soon after getting married i got major anxiety.  this became a huge struggle in my life.  many times i though my anxiety defined me.  but i came to realize that it's what i've become because of my anxiety that defines me.  it's the charity and long suffering for my fellow men.  it's learning how to really pray and have faith.  how to rely on God's plan.
so what do these stories have to do with anything?
over our lives we will change time and time again, until we begin to se Christ within us.  this new year i hope one of our first goals will be to come to know the savior.
president uchtdorf said, "recall with me how Jesus Christ instructed His Apostles, clearly and directly, at the beginning of His mortal ministry, 'come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men' [matt. 4:19].  individually, we need to first 'follow Him', and as we do this, the Savior will bless us beyond our own capacity to become what He wants us to become."
we have to make the changes we need to become people of Christ.  to start to see Him within us.
he goes on to say, "to follow Christ is to become more like HIm.  it is to learn from His character.  as spirit children of our Heavenly Father, we do have the potential to incorporate christlike attributes into our life and character.  to follow Him is to apply correct principles and then witness for ourselves the blessing that follow.  this process is very complex and very simple at the same time.  ancient and modern prophets described it with three words:  "keep the commandments - nothing more, nothing less."
in the book of john, 13:14-15, 17 it says, "if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.  for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.  if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
we find for ourselves the happiness of following His example.  i read a book by sheri dew once that said, "charity was not what the Savior did, but who the Savior was."  as we become more like Him these qualities we become apart of us too.
president uchtdorf then says, "developing christlike attributes in our lives is not an easy task, especially when we move away from generalities and abstractions and begin to deal with real life.  the test comes in practicing what we proclaim.  the reality check comes when christlike attributes need to become visible in our lives - as husband or wife, as father or mother, as son or daughter, in our friendships, in our employment, in our business, and in our recreation.  we can recognize our growth, as can those around us, as we gradually increase our capacity to act in holiness before Him."
so what can we do when the going gets tough?  study Christ, seek after His attributes.  read the scriptures.  come to know the Savior.
"Christlike attributes are gifts from God.  they cannot be developed without His help.  in seeking to become more like Him, we need to reevaluate our lives regularly and rely, through the path of true repentance, upon the merits of Jesus Christ and the blessings of His atonement."
as we become like Him, we will emulate Him from within us.  He will change our every action and desire.  He will work within us to help us become like Him, even as He is perfect.
as this new year starts let us remember to become.  to come to know the Savior and by so doing become the person He knows we can be.  He truly walks with us every step of the way.
He is what defines us.

to read all of president uchtdorfs talk, click here.

[this post comes from a talk given at church on Sunday.]