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Transcript

I know many women, in my experience, who are extremely intelligent, beautiful women who are very, very capable. And then they perhaps marry someone with a sexual addiction or pornography addiction. They may have come into the marriage with courage and confidence, and well-educated, and in a few years have lost some of that confidence in themselves.

The basis of that is that we've put somebody else in our center. In that place, the answer is to have an intimate connection with our Father in Heaven and to put our Savior as our center. Our self-worth is critical to understand who--I'll just speak for myself. I must understand who I really am. I'm not just someone who's married to this guy. I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father, who loves me, and I want to express that love back to Him. And that connection with my Father in Heaven and with my Savior is my first priority. And when I make it my first priority, I will be safe. Many years ago now, my husband became ill, and he had help from doctors. But over time, it got worse and worse until I personally felt that he was dying, going to die. I suddenly felt abandoned by my Heavenly Father. I couldn't imagine how I was going to do this without my husband. I withdrew from Heavenly Father at that time, just a short period. It was probably a couple of weeks. And I couldn't pray; I couldn't do anything. And then fortunately, I came to the point where I realized I so needed my Heavenly Father, my Savior. And I knelt down and pled. And I had the sweetest experience of feeling the love of my Heavenly Father just flow over me, and I knew that He was there. That feeling of support and love and "Everything is going to be all right" returned. And I immediately went back to my scripture study and to the temple and doing those things that I knew that would continue to uphold and bless me. And I do know that many of our women and members experience hard things in their lives, times when they might want to withdraw. And it's probably somewhat of a natural feeling, but we need to remember that our Father is always there waiting. When these kind of trials come to us, it's easy to feel our testimonies at risk, to feel that--"Why would a loving Heavenly Father let this happen?" There are many things that we can do in any situation of trial. Pray with more sincerity and intensity, pull out the scriptures, and go to the temple. For those that may not have temple recommends, do whatever it takes to get back. Make sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to draw close to our Father in Heaven, because as soon as we begin to do that, we begin to feel that love and that light and that awareness from Him again.

How Can We See Ourselves as God Sees Us?

Description
A discussion and exercise to talk about the important relationship between individuals and their father in heaven.
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