Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Ascending Together - Complete, Don't Compete

My favorite part of Sister Burton's talk is when she talks about how men and women were made to complement each other and complete each other, rather than competing with each other:
In a chapter about families, the Church handbook contains this statement: “The nature of male and female spirits is such that they complete each other.” Please note that it does not say “compete with each other” but “complete each other”! We are here to help, lift, and rejoice with each other as we try to become our very best selves. Sister Barbara B. Smith wisely taught, “There is so much more of happiness to be had when we can rejoice in another’s successes and not just in our own.” When we seek to “complete” rather than “compete,” it is so much easier to cheer each other on!
In our society and in human nature, there is a tendency toward pride and competition. Pride says that if there is a winner, there must be a loser. Some people pit men against women, claiming that men are "better" than women, or that women are just as good (if not better) than men at everything. In reality, men and women were meant to work together, not against each other. In fact, that's the only way any of us "become our very best selves."

Like the two angels from yesterday, none of us can succeed on our own. We all need help from each other, or at least the Savior, to meet our potential in mortality, and we will each eventually need an eternal companion in order to reach our eternal potential. Then, rather than tearing each other down, we should all be trying to lift each other up. If we do, we can truly ascend together all the way up to the Celestial Kingdom.

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