Remember the movie Finding Nemo? One of my favorite characters is Dory. Somewhat because she's just the funny one in the movie, but also because of what she teaches Nemo's father Marlin and each of us. Dory and Marlin go through obstacle after obstacle together, but Dory, being the ignorant yet optimistic fish that she is, would sing a song I know you all can quote, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim."
Dory and Marlin never would have made it through the huge swarm of jellyfish if they didn't keep swimming. They never would have met crush and squirt and got directions if they didn't keep swimming. And last of all, they never would have found Nemo again if they didn't keep swimming.
No matter what trials we each go through we must keep swimming in order to see the blessing waiting for us. I know that to be true as I keep reminding myself time and time again to "just keep swimming"
Now do you remember the part of the movie where Crush tells everyone to get an exit buddy while in the EAC? Just like dory immediately latches on to Marlin, Christ wants to be our exit buddy. If we put our trust in Him, similar to how Marlin had to trust Dory, we can have Him by our side in all our life's journeys. He alone is the one to help take us out of our misery and pain and start back on the path towards eternal life. He can teach us our true potential of who we are and what we may become.
There are times when I start becoming forgetful and relaxed in my habit of everyday prayers and scripture studies. Everyone agrees our every day lives of work, friends, school, family, etc can all make it easy to become distracted and easily forget our focus on the Savior. But what I've come to realize is that the moment you feel like you shouldn't or you have no desire to pray or read your scriptures that's when you truly need it the most. We need to overcome our pride and simply try. That's all the Lord is asking.The Lord doesn't care so much about where you are on the ladder of spirituality and progression but more importantly what matters to Him is what direction you're going. His arms are always extended and ready to bear us up and take us in.
D&C 88:63 "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Or Rev. 3:20)
Whenever I think about Christ's Atonement and the sacrifice He made, I scarce can take it in. I'm forever grateful that on the cross he willingly took my burden. He bled and died to take away all my sin.
So I know that as we just keep swimming day by day learning and trying to be better, the Lord will accept our efforts and we'll feel the spirit in our life confirm that our efforts are enough.
