Triumph

I have been blessed with a lot. But one blessing always seemed to escape my grasp—a sense of self-worth. I know it did not help that I constantly compared myself with other girls. Often I would contrast my greatest weakness with another’s greatest strength. I was up against half the population of the world, and I wasn’t winning.

One day it was a particularly hard battle. My opponents were those who succeeded marvelously in the areas where I felt I was failing miserably. I just couldn’t stand it any longer when I wandered away from the other students at school and sat down in a secluded hallway. I did everything in my power to fight the tears that trickled down my cheek.

Finally, I decided to pull out the Book of Mormon in my backpack. While reading I came across a scripture in 1 Nephi 19:9: “And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.” [1 Ne. 19:9]

The Spirit of the Holy Ghost came upon me with incredible force and filled my whole being with happiness. Never had a scripture meant more to me than that one did at the time. More tears trickled down my cheek.

I realized that I was not the only person to be rejected by others. Jesus Christ himself was viewed by the world with enmity and spite, yet still he triumphed. I left my secluded hallway with a determination that I could succeed in spite of how I was received by the world.