Building Self-Reliance in the Lord’s Way

Self-reliance is “the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and family” (General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 22.0, Gospel Library).

Much of your growth depends on your willingness to learn and take responsibility for your own progress.

Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, explained:

The Lord does not expect us to do more than we can do, but He does expect us to do what we can do, when we can do it. As President Nelson reminded us in our last general conference, “The Lord loves effort.”

… Being temporally prepared and self-reliant means “believing that through the grace, or enabling power, of Jesus Christ and our own effort, we are able to obtain all the spiritual and temporal necessities of life we require for ourselves and our families.” (“There Was Bread,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 43)

self-reliance, personal responsibility, effort

Topics and Questions in Gospel Library states:

The Savior invites us all to act, to stand independent, and to become as He is. He will help us. … His way includes learning and living the principles of self-reliance—”the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the necessities of life for self and family.” (Topic and Questions, “Self-Reliance,” Gospel Library)

Building self-reliance helps you become more like Jesus Christ. The following are some areas where you might increase your ability to be self-reliant:

• Gospel knowledge

• Current and future financial needs

• Education and employment

• Physical needs

• Emotional and social needs

Ponder the areas in your life in which the Lord would have you build your capabilities. Record thoughts and feelings that come to your mind and heart.

It can be easy to forget that Jesus Christ was once a young man. The New Testament contains a few chapters about His miraculous birth and many chapters about His adult life. We can, however, learn a little about how He spent His youth.

Read Luke 2:52. Mark the areas where the Savior grew and progressed as a young man.

Take a moment and reflect on the areas in which Jesus Christ grew and developed. In which areas do you feel like you could grow?

Other individuals in the scriptures were blessed through their efforts to build self-reliance to meet their spiritual and temporal needs.

Choose one of the following three scripture accounts. Read the passage, and next to the verse, note your answer to the accompanying question. You might tag all three passages as “self-reliance.”

• Moses 4:23–25; 5:1 (Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden)

  • How could God requiring Adam and Eve to work for their food have blessed them more than if God had caused the earth to spontaneously produce for them?

• Genesis 6:14–16 (Noah needing protection for his family from the coming flood)

  • How might expecting Noah to build the ark have blessed him more than if God had just miraculously provided it?

• Exodus 19:19–20 (Moses seeking to receive instructions from the Lord in the wilderness)

  • How might waiting for Moses to climb the mountain before giving him further revelation have blessed Moses?

Watch “Education for a Better Life” from time code 3:39 to 4:33. Elder Joseph W. Sitati teaches how to overcome feelings of inadequacy in our efforts to become more self-reliant.

4:56

Imagine you are a new missionary at the missionary training center. Your teacher introduces a new, important skill to your district, and one missionary says: “That sounds too hard! I can’t do that!” Write that missionary a short letter, sharing what you learned about the Savior’s power to help you be more self-reliant and how you might encourage them to learn the new skill. Use the following:

1. A description of what self-reliance is

2. Why building self-reliance is important to Heavenly Father in His plan for us

3. A personal or scriptural example of someone demonstrating self-reliance

4. One way you could encourage them to try the new missionary skill

Dig Deeper: Watch the video “All I Needed” (1:44) to see modern examples of individuals building self-reliance.

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