"When You Can't Do It Alone"

A couple of months ago my mother, sister and two sister -in -laws and I went to lunch at Crackers to celebrate all of our birthdays before Julie left for the mission. It was really fun to get together and just laugh and visit, I think I was gone around three or four hours. On the way home Julie asked if it was okay if we stopped at Deseret Book because she needed to pick up a gift for someone. While I was there I decided to purchase two books that had been recommended to me. My life has been so crazy with cleaning and remodeling the hall bathroom that I didn't have time to read. To tell you the truth, I was in such a mess I couldn't even find them. Well, the other day I found them in my "catch all" room so this morning I pulled one out and started reading it. It is about a newly called mission president who struggles with major emotional problems (anxiety, depression) while trying to run the mission.
Lennie (as we always called him growing up) and I were very close. We were the middle children. When my parents needed to leave town or my Mom was hospitalized, they would take Lennie and I to someone to watch and would take my older sister Mell and my baby brother Ben with them. I have to admit that being left behind has caused me some "bruising of my little spirit," but hopefully I can work through these issues in therapy. As I was reading this book called "When You Can't Do It Alone Take The Savior's Hand", by Brent L. Top, I couldn't help but feel an enormous amount of worry for the welfare of my brother. Someone asked me the other day if I was going to miss him. I can honestly say that since he was called to be a Bishop and then Stake President we never really saw much of him. He was just so busy working in his law practice and with church responsibilities that we only saw him on special occasions. As I was reading about this mission presidents experience it reminded me of my own trials and my concern for my brother and I began to cry.
In the first chapter he talks about the stress of being a mission president. He says, "instead of experiencing the joy the Lord has promised to those in His service, I felt bogged down, overburdened, and burned-out." He felt like he was playing a game of Whack-a-Mole where you whack down one problem and immediately two more pop up. I'm only in the second chapter and I know I will never be on a mission, but we all have our trials and hardships to endure. I know we can't do it alone. He says that when he had his breakdown his wife just kept telling him to "focus on Christ." I recommend this book to anyone who is going through a trial that they can't handle on their own, which is pretty much all of us. All I can do is pray for help and "Take the Savior's Hand."