I had physical therapy the other day. My physical therapist,
Elise, had to do some work on me that was very painful. She told me it would
hurt and that I’d probably feel bruised, and might even have bruises from it.
Both turned out to be correct. I trusted her enough to know that she wouldn’t
put me through pain that wasn’t necessary in order for me to heal in the long
run. Right after she did the therapy she was taping me up in order to engage
different muscles to work. Knowing how much pain my arm was in at that point,
from what she had just done, she had me rest my arm on her shoulder to take the
burden off of me from holding it up while she did the taping. After I put it on
her shoulder she said to let it relax not just set it there. I said I didn’t
want to put the pressure on her. I did relax it a bit but she still sensed I was
holding back and said “give it all to me – I can take it”.
As I’ve thought about that over the past couple of days I’ve
thought about how the Atonement works and that Jesus is always right there
waiting for us to give him our burdens. He is truly saying “give it all to me –
I can take it”. Like my physical therapist, we have to have trust that the
Savior is really allowing us to go through certain things in order for us to
learn and to heal. He would not want us to suffer needlessly. He can also sense
when we’re not giving him all of our burdens. I wasn’t even consciously holding
back when I rested my arm on Elise. I wonder how many times I’m not consciously
holding back on the Savior too. He always knows. Sometimes it’s hard to let go
of our “burdens” as we think we should be able to hold ourselves up. But if we
can learn to truly give our burdens up to the Lord they can become lighter. You
may still be a little sore and bruised but the burdens will seem light.
