Becoming a Champion

I am going to do the impossible right here, right now. I am going to quote a General Authority and Katy Perry in the same blog post. Please don't strike me down!

So I am kind of obsessed with this song right now:

 

"You held me down, but I got up.

Already brushing off the dust

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder gonna shake the ground.

You held me down, but I got up

Get ready 'cause I've had enough

I see it all, I see it now.

 

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire

Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar.

Louder, louder than a lion

Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar."

 

I have opened up recently about my struggles with depression. If you haven't read my story, you can go to that post HERE. But anyway, it is a very real thing for me. Some days are better than others. Last week was incredibly bad. Every time I heard this song, I would turn my radio up as loud as I could and just belt it out. I would sing to convince myself that I was done with what was pulling me down. I didn't want to give in to it. I wanted to pull through this darkness that was holding me back. It has been incredibly difficult.

 

While dealing with the fun adventures of the last few weeks, I was listening to a conference talk by President Uchtdorf a lot. It is called "You Can Do It Now!" If you want to read it, then click on the link HERE.

 

So as I was reading this, several parts stood out to me. This one stood out to me in particular:

"No one likes to fail. And we particularly don't like it when others-especially those we love-see us fail. We all want to be respected and esteemed. We want to be champions. But we mortals do not become champions without effort and discipline or without making mistakes...Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward."

So we can become champions. We can beat what is bringing us down. It won't be easy, but we need to continue to get up. (Please tell me you are seeing the parallels between the talk and the song!!) We are champions. I truly believe it. We go through this life with all of our own struggles. While my struggle is depression, others struggle with other issues. It can be anything from a falling testimony or same-gender attraction or pornography. We all have issues! We all fail at some time or another. Not to be a downer or anything, but it is true. Life just happens.

Again though even with our trials- we are becoming champions. This is a lesson I have been learning- especially this last week. We don't have to be perfect to be a champion. We are being molded into these champions. A diamond is just a chunk of coal that is made priceless under pressure. The pressures of life may bring us down. But we can become champions each day that we look our problems in the face and say "I am not going to let you control me". We can rise up, dust ourselves off, and roar in the face of adversity. We are not doing it alone. The ultimate champion, Jesus Christ, is there for us. He is able to help lift us up and dust us off. He has been there before. Really He is what makes us into the champions that we can become. I do know that as we put our trust in God and rely on the atonement, we can come off triumphant. We are champions.

Come what may and love it!