Week Twelve

“Are We Not All Beggars?” is a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that we had the opportunity to read through this week. I have heard this talk before but it hasn’t had the same impact on me as it did this week. While listening and reading through the talk I thought to myself that it is amazing that we all start at different stages in our lives and how we can “fall” off of the humble path and completely forget that EVERYONE is a beggar. We may not beg for food, or money, but we beg for forgiveness when we wrong someone. We beg for the opportunity to make things right with someone that we love dearly and have had regrettable words said. Elder Holland’s talk really struck me because I seem to hold a lot of pride in myself thinking that I’m not a “beggar” when in reality I am a huge “beggar”. I feel that I am constantly “begging” someone for forgiveness and mending fences because I have said something dumb.

But not only was Elder Holland’s talk insightful, I also found that Elder Gay’s talk/video was extremely enlightening. I sometimes feel that I am a very “middle” person. I’m not poor and I’m not rich. I feel that I sit in the lower end of the middle “class”. With that being said, I have felt like I don’t push myself hard enough to fulfill my dreams. Elder Gay mentioned that him and his wife started their own businesses while they were in school because they needed a way to work through school and provide for themselves. To me, they started from the very bottom. Since then, they worked to build up something great! But staying humble while doing so only helped them. They became more accountable with their money and learned to invest, save, and spend it wisely.

With both of these great talks that I was able to read and watch I find that it is extremely important in my life to stay humble and learn to be accountable with my money. Not be afraid of pursuing my dreams but being willing and able to jump at the opportunity. Some will be wins and some will be fails, but not fearing the failure will help me become more successful in the long run.