The Beauty of being Broken

"Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
 And I will try to fix you."
-Coldplay

Recently I learned about Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with liquid that is mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Imagine that: taking some broken pottery and fixing it so that it is not exactly the same, but it looks more impressive than it did before. 

Similarly, I know that the Lord works this way with us. He is willing to take us no matter how broken we are. He sees beauty and growth in one who is broken.

The Lord uses hard times to shape us. As hard as my life has been, I am grateful for these trials which have refined me.

“For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”             (1 Nephi 20:10)

I’ve mentioned before that I have experienced the downward spiral of being both socially anxious and depressed. I felt anxious around people and sought isolation, but the isolation made me depressed. With that in mind, something that was brought to my attention this week was the following idea: Isolation is the opposite of God’s plan for us. All He wants is for us to achieve salvation and eternal life with our families. The only thing you will take with you into the afterlife is your relationships. 

Many times I have felt broken when it comes to relationships. There have been times where I felt like I didn’t have anyone to turn to, because I could only focus on negative experiences I had in the past, or I was too worried about what people would think of me. But Heavenly Father put me in positions where I had to associate with other people. While I served Him by serving others, God “repaired” my perception of others. I was able to discover that people do, in fact, like to be around me. A friend of mine sincerely praised my fantastic ability at making friends, which was shocking to me since it was something I never considered to be a strength of mine. Others have told me that I am easy to get along with, which was again another shock. God had told me in my patriarchal blessing* (which I received as a teenager years before) that I would have many friends, but I never believed that statement until He sent these friends of mine to tell me straight-up.

God is so anxious to fix you. By following His commandments I have been made a better person, and I’m experiencing a life that is so much more amazing than I would have dreamed of years ago. He has taken my broken pieces and made a masterpiece.

Consider these words of an old Protestant hymn:

Have Thine own way, Lord!/Have Thine own way!/Thou art the Potter;/I am the clay.

Mould me and make me/After Thy will,/While I am waiting,/Yielded and still.

(“Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” The Cokesbury Worship Hymnal, no. 72.)

*As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a patriarchal blessing is a blessing given to you which I would describe as personal scripture. It tells each of us personalized guidelines, promises, and our declaration of lineage in the House of Israel.