Within the last ten years, an idea called the Bullet Journal increased in popularity (for more information about it, see https://bulletjournal.com/). Thanks to this new organizational method, half of my immediate family members bought the dotted journals, and they coaxed me into using bullet journals also. As I reviewed the last few months in this year's bullet journal to discover which goals I still hadn't completed, my eyes traveled over the calendar for March. March 20th showed: "The world shuts down." Social media sites display the statistics for the number of days, deaths, illnesses, and so forth for COVID-19, but in March, the situation became personal. March was when many businesses shut down to prevent the spreading of the virus; I, as well as millions of others, lost our jobs. As a result, I also lost my health insurance. Earlier in the year, I booked a hotel and plane ticket to travel to New Orleans in May, but the hotel canceled on me, and the exponential increase in cases of the virus forced me to cancel the plane ticket as well. Church meetings were suspended. I could no longer visit my grandparents, parents, or siblings.
The pandemic had taken almost everything away from me. Yet, I am not alone in these experiences; Others face the same circumstances, though in different ways.
This morning I read a talk by Dallin H. Oaks called The Great Plan, and in it, he shared a part of a scripture that talks about how Jesus Christ would know "how to succor his people according to their infirmities." According to their infirmities. One of the definitions of "according to" is "depending on." That means that we receive specific help depending on our infirmity. It occurred to me that there are multiple infirmities, and each infirmity has its individual solution. This means that if I struggle with a physical infirmity, like arthritis, the care for it is unique compared to my physical infirmity of having tremors. A mental weakness, such as depression, needs an entirely different form of care.
Yes, I lost my job, and it was a career that I had worked in since graduating high school, but I have had time to develop my skills and build a portfolio that will open paths for me if I wish to take them. Traveling is not an immediate need; it can happen later. We live in a day of technology, which allows us to keep in contact with family members and friends, and to access positive, uplifting messages, including scriptures, online.
Struggling is a universal principle that none of us can avoid, especially during this unfortunate time, but while that phrase, "according to their infirmities," signifies there are a myriad of infirmities, it also provides hope that every struggle has a solution.
