Question
Dear Gramps,
I have been struggling to trust God after finding out I can’t serve a mission due to mental health issues. I felt so strongly prepared, but then found out I cannot serve. How can I trust God has a plan for me? How can I trust in the promptings I get and his plan in all things again?
Breanna
Answer
Breanna,
There are many ways to serve the Lord and our fellow man without serving a full-time mission. Any and all callings you receive from your Bishop or Stake President are such opportunities.
More to your question, trusting God is a personal challenge for us all. Every day our trust in God is challenged in as many ways as Satan can devise. I can understand the difficulties you are facing, and for good reason. You spent time and effort preparing for a mission, only to be told that you couldn’t go.
First of all, understanding God is essential to our faith in Him. The more we know about who He is, what kind of being He is, and what He feels for us as His children, the better we can learn to trust Him in all His decisions for us. For my part, I know God is a loving, caring, wise, and patient being. I know God would never do something to us to deliberately hurt us, or to deliberately deny us blessings.
In my life, every time it seemed that God was taking blessings from me, it later turned out that He had far better, and more powerful blessings in store for me. In other words, He showed me that sometimes we miss out on something good in order to receive something better a little further down the road.
Serving a mission is truly a great calling, and tremendous blessings are had by those who serve faithfully. The spirit of missionary work is a great blessing in itself, as you are prepared to share the gospel with every honest seeker of truth. That alone is a gift you can share with others for the rest of your life.
Back to your situation specifically, you now have other powerful opportunities in front of you. Going to college and gaining a degree, or starting a family by being sealed in the temple are just two of them. God has a plan for you, Breanna. I promise you that He does. He can see what will strengthen you and what will best prepare you for returning to His presence when that time comes.
Trust in Him that He knows what He’s doing, especially when you don’t agree with what it looks like He’s doing. God will never harm you. He will never put you in danger. These things are allowed to happen to us, but even then He’s always watching to make sure we have a way to get through it. If you have a Patriarchal Blessing, I encourage you to pull it out and read through it prayerfully.
Another thing I know about God is that He is always willing to tell us what He’s doing. All we need to do is ask. Keep praying to God, and ask for guidance and direction. He’ll let you know what is going on. The best way to maintain trust in God through difficult times is to humble ourselves and let Him lead us. It takes great faith and humility to be led by God throughout our lives, but I promise the blessings He has in store for you will more than make up for the missed opportunities that are challenging your faith right now.
Gramps
