Yes, we all love Jeffery R. Holland, and when he speaks, it's as if he's speaking just to us, but I wonder if he would agree that maybe one of the reasons why has a great deal to do with his incredible wife, Patricia.
There's something special about a mother who knows, a mother who cares, and a love that is unlike any other I know. In the Feb 27, 1982 BYU Devotional Patricia Holland shared a message that stuck with me about broken things.
I've only broken two bones in my lifetime, but it's enough to know that it hurts! I don't like breaking my bones! I do my best to avoid pain, but it is common to all of us (some more than others) to get bumps, bruises, and breaks. Broken bones will eventually heal, but some things in life that are broken, never seem to heal, and may not go away.
Do you know someone with a broken spirit, a broken mind, or a broken relationship? Sometimes it came about because of choices we made, and sometimes as a result of the choices of another, and there was nothing we could do to prevent it. Whatever the reason, it's broken, it hurts, and we desperately want it to heal and be whole like it was before the damage was done.
I know that God can heal us, and make things better than it was before, but what if He has a different design for us? What if God wants to use the broken pieces of our life to make something even more beautiful and incredible than what we think it 'should' look like?
Two years ago I finally climbed up Lone Peak (Utah). It has some of the most beautiful granite-like rock I've seen in the Wasatch Mountains, or anywhere. The rock is broken up into pieces of all shapes and sizes, with squared off rough edges.
I've realized that these amazing mountains are made up of broken up rock. It's not one solid seamless mass. It's a collection of broken things, fit together in unique ways to create something magnificent.
So maybe we too often pray for something to be 'fixed' when really, God can make much more out of something broken than he can out of something solid, seamless, and unchangeable. Maybe I should be praying more for God to teach me how to use broken things to serve him, rather than try to hide it away and pretend that it's all perfectly fused together.
Maybe God, who knows a whole lot more about us than we do, instead of using a single solid rock, intends to make an awe-inspiring mountain out of all the broken things of our lives. So, rather than telling God what he should do to fix things, try asking Him to come into your life in a way that He can do something even better.