Covenants and Confidence

I recently had the opportunity to attend the temple.
Okay, it was yesterday.
It is only five minutes away.
Don't hate me.

Anyway, this  month seems to have had more than its share of moments when all my inadequacies have been typed in bold face, italicized., and underlined.    It is like life wants to make sure I don't miss the fact that I am pretty much pathetic.
Thank you, life.

Happily, life has also brought me really close to a temple and I can go there often.
Thank you, life.

Temples are places where you make covenants with God about life, about family, and about ourselves. You promise, and so does He.  I have always found it comforting that even though I am inadequate in a million ways, I have made covenants with the most powerful person in the universe.
Yesterday, as I was reviewing these promises we have made to one another, I felt something I had not felt for awhile.  I felt confident. With the help of God and with my desire to serve, I could help other people in a manner that would be acceptable to God.  What a good feeling.
Thank you, God.

A wise woman name Rosemary Wixom once said to a very large group of women,
 "As we strive to keep our covenants, our feelings of inadequacy and imperfection seem to fade while the ordinances and the covenants of the temple come alive."

The power that comes through temple covenants are real.
They make a difference and they matter.
But you know what?  A lot of of other things don't.

An interesting and powerful phrase followed me out of the temple yesterday.
"...and it doesn't matter."
I guess that, because I had been focusing on things that do matter-- that matter more than anything else in life, I was able to really see what does not matter.

I burned dinner.  Again. And it doesn't matter.
I can't fit into that dress.  And it doesn't matter.
I can't do countless things as well as anyone else on the planet. And it doesn't matter.  
I can do my best, which will be pathetic when compared to others,
and unacceptable to many of those around me.
  And it doesn't matter.  

I can do my best and my efforts can be accepted by God,
who will constantly be helping me to do better.

That matters.  
Thank you, God.