How to be Incredible

“Our women [and men] are not incredible because they have managed to avoid the difficulties of life – quite the opposite. They are incredible because of the way they face the trials of life.”

-Elder Quentin L. Cook

When I first came upon this quote, I didn’t feel very incredible. I was struggling with depression, and I felt worthless and unloved (neither of which were actually true, although at the time those feelings were very real). It was hard for me to feel the Spirit, even though I was doing everything I was supposed to and nothing that I wasn’t. I felt like even Heavenly Father didn’t love me – I couldn’t understand why he would.

But then I read this quote. It didn’t make everything better; it didn’t even bring the Spirit to the extent that I was used to feeling it – although it was still enough to make me cry. But for the first time in several months, I understand something fundamental about my trial: My depression did not define me. It did not make me a horrible person, nor did it make me weak or detestable. My depression made me human, and that was all.

Things still didn’t get better for several months after that. Most days the insight I gained from this quote still didn’t register in my heart. But I still look on that experience as evidence of God’s love for me, that I could read this message and, for the first time in a long time, feel a portion of his love for me at a time when I desperately needed that reassurance. 

And this quote still has meaning to my life now. I may not always be strong, but I have always been brave. I don’t give up, even though I’ve been tempted to many times. No matter what happens, I keep going. I keep reading my scriptures and going to church. I keep looking for answers, I keep praying, and always, always I “keep on keeping on.”

The message for you, dear readers, is that your trials don’t define you. They don’t make you weak. The most incredible people are those who have gone through the hardest trials – just think about all the people whom you consider truly incredible. It’s not what’s happened to them in life that’s made them incredible; it’s how they’ve dealt with it. And how are you supposed to deal with trials? (This is your cue for the Primary answers): Pray, read your scriptures, go to church, serve others (while keeping in mind Mosiah 4:27), but most of all, keep going no matter what. One day at a time, however much you can do. That is all Heavenly Father has ever asked of you.

And that, dear readers, is what will make you incredible.