Become Who You are

I read a great talk last night from a CES devotional given in 2012 by the French Brother who is in the presiding Bishopric.  Gerald C......?

He had a wonderful talk about finding our own happiness.  Do read it if you get a chance, it's on http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/ces-devotionals/2013/01?lang=eng.  go to 2012.  Anyway, I have cut and pasted a part that I really liked. I hope you enjoy it.

"This phrase “become who you are” is attributed to Pindar, one of the most celebrated Greek poets.⁴ It sounds like a paradox. How can I become who I already am?

There is a film called Age of Reason. This film tells the story of Marguerite, a prosperous banker who leads a hectic life filled with travels and conferences in the four corners of the earth. Even though she is married, she says she doesn’t have time to have a child.

The day she turns 40, she receives a mysterious letter which says: “Dear me, today I am seven years old and I am writing you this letter to help you remember the promises that I made at the age of reason, and also so that you remember who I want to become.” Marguerite suddenly understands that the author of the letter is none other than herself when she was seven years old. What follows are several pages on which the little girl describes in detail her life’s goals.

Marguerite realizes that the person she has become is nothing like what she wanted to be when she was a young girl. As she decides to reclaim the person that she envisioned as a child, her neatly planned and organized life is turned completely upside down. She reconciles with her family and determines to consecrate the rest of her life to serving people in need.⁵

My dear friends, if you were to now receive a letter from your past, what would it say? What would 

be contained in a letter you might have written to yourself on the day of your baptism when you were eight years old? I’ll even go back further. If it were possible for you to receive a letter from your pre-earth life, what would it say? What impact would such a letter from a forgotten but very real world have on you if you were to receive it today?

This letter might say something like: “Dear me, I am writing to you so you will remember who I want to become. I shouted for joy at the chance to go to earth. I know that life on earth is an essential passage to enable me to grow to my full potential and live forever with my Heavenly Father. I hope that you will remember that my greatest desire is to be a disciple of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I support His plan, and when I am on earth I want to help Him in His work of salvation. Please also remember that I want to be part of a family that will be together for all eternity.

 One of the great adventures of life is that of finding out who we really are, where we came from, and then living consistently in harmony with our identity and the purpose of our existence.

Brigham Young said: “The greatest lesson you can learn is to know yourselves. … You have to come here to learn this. … No being can thoroughly know himself, without understanding more or less of the things of God; neither can any being learn and understand the things of God without knowing himself: he must know himself, or he never can know God.”⁷

Recently, my daughters pointed out to me that an excellent allegory of this principle is found in the 

film The Lion King. Your generation grew up to the sounds and images of this movie. You probably remember the scene where Simba receives a visit from his father, Mufasa, the deceased king. After his father died, Simba fled far from the kingdom because he felt guilty about his father’s death. He wanted to escape his responsibility as heir to the throne.

His father appears to him and warns him: “You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of life.” Then this invitation is repeated several times: “Remember who you are. … Remember who you are.”

Simba, completely shaken by this experience, decides to accept his destiny. He confides in his friend, the shaman monkey, that it “looks like the winds are changing.”

The monkey replies, “Change is good.”

And Simba says: “But it’s not easy. I know what I have to do. But going back means I’ll have to face my past. I’ve been running from it for so long.”

“Where are you going?” the monkey asks him.

“I’m going back!” cries Simba.⁸

We can all take—or take back—our place in the circle of life. Become who you really are. Your happiness and ability to find balance in your life will occur as you find, recognize, and accept your true identity as a child of our Heavenly Father and then live in accordance with this knowledge.