Sister Michelle D. Craig, First Counselor of the Young Women’s General Presidency, said in the November 2018 General Women session of General Conference:
“….When I was in elementary school, we walked home on a paved trail that wound back and forth up the side of a hill. There was another trail, unpaved, called “the boys trail.” The boys’ trail was a path in the dirt that went strait up the hill. It was shorter but much steeper. As a young girl I knew I could walk up any trail the boys could. More important, I knew I was living in the latter days and that I would need to do hard things, as did the pioneers—and I wanted to be prepared. So every now and then I would lag behind my group of friends on the paved trail, remove my shoes, and walk barefoot on the boys’ trail. I was trying to toughen up my feet.
As a young primary girl, that is what I thought I could do to prepare. Now I know differently! Rather than walking barefoot up mountain trails, I know I can prepare my feet to walk on the covenant path by responding to invitations of the Holy Ghost. For the Lord, through His prophet, is calling each of us to live and care in a “higher and holier way” and to take a step higher.1
Those prophetic calls to action, coupled with our innate sense that we can do and be more, sometimes create within us what Elder Neal A. Maxwell called “divine discontent.”2 Divine discontent comes when we compare “What we are [to] what we have the power to become.”3 Each of us, if we are honest, feels a gap between where and who we are, and where and who we want to become. We yearn for greater personal capacity. We have these feelings because we are daughters and sons of God, born with the Light of Christ yet living in a fallen world. These feelings are God given and create an urgency to act.
We should welcome feelings of divine discontent that call us to a higher way, while recognizing and avoiding Satan’s counterfeit—paralyzing discouragement. This is a precious space into which Satan is all to eager to jump. We can choose to walk the higher path that leads us to seek for God and His peace and grace, or we can listen to Satan, who bombards us with messages that we will never be enough: rich enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, anything enough. Our discontent can become divine—or destructive.
Act in Faith — One way to tell divine discontent from Satan’s counterfeit is that divine discontent will lead us to faithful action. Divine discontent is not an invitation to stay in our comfort zone, nor will it lead us to despair. I have learned that when I wallow in thoughts of everything I am not, I do not progress and I find it much more difficult to feel and follow the Spirit.4
For Sister Michelle D. Craig’s complete talk go to… ‘Divine Discontent’. (November 2018 Ensign p.52-55)
Notes:
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Russell M. Nelson, in Tad Walch, “‘The Lord’s Message Is for Everyone’: President Nelson Talks about Global Tour,” Deseret News, Apr. 12, 2018, deseretnews.com.
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Neal A. Maxwell, “Becoming a Disciple,” Ensign, June 1996, 18.
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Neal A. Maxwell, “Becoming a Disciple,” 16; emphasis added.
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“Discouragement will weaken your faith. If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit” (“What Is My Purpose as a Missionary?” Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service, rev. ed. [2018], lds.org/manual/missionary).
