Each of us is a child of God with a potential destiny of eternal life.” The key word here is potential. We all have potential, but potential by itself does not guarantee that we will become what God knows we can become. So how do we live up to that potential? How do we become the person Heavenly Father already knows we are capable of becoming?
I’ve seen people with incredible abilities, especially athletes. You watch a great basketball player and sometimes you’re excited just to see what they’re going to do next because you already know you’re probably going to see something you could never imagine doing yourself in your lifetime. The same thing happens with musicians or actors. Some musicians can make you feel exactly what they are feeling through their music, and some actors can communicate emotion through nothing more than their expression. You look at people like that and think, That is a gift. That is talent. Then these people have children, and those children have potential. The potential to become great, perhaps even greater than their parents. That potential is there because of what has been passed down to them, but having potential and actually developing it are two different things. There are still choices to make, discipline required, things to learn, habits to develop, and an environment that either helps that potential grow or allows it to remain unused.
Now think about who our Father is. We are children of a Celestial Father. We are children of God. If we believe that, then think about what that says about the potential that exists within each one of us. Peter was an ordinary man, yet when the Savior invited him to come, Peter stepped out of a boat and walked on water toward Christ. Peter walked on water like Jesus did. For those few moments, he was doing something he probably never imagined himself capable of doing. But Christ knew Peter had the potential to do it. Peter simply had to have enough faith to take that first step out of the boat. Heavenly Father knows our potential in the same way. He knows what we can become long before we can see it ourselves. Maybe that is one of our biggest struggles. God sees what we can become while we are still looking only at who we are right now.
So why is it sometimes so difficult for us to see that potential in ourselves? I think much of it comes down to the choices we make every day. What we decide to do when we wake up. How we decide to start our day. What voices we listen to. What we watch and read. Where we spend our time. And especially who we decide to surround ourselves with. Those decisions may seem small when we make them, but over time they begin shaping the person we become. We can have tremendous potential, but if we continually surround ourselves with things or people that pull us away from the direction we want to go, eventually that influence begins to affect us. The opposite is also true.
Who we surround ourselves with can either help that potential grow or make it much easier for us to become stagnant. We can have faith, desire, and potential, but it is much harder to keep moving forward when the people closest to us are pulling in a completely different direction. The right support system matters. When we surround ourselves with people who share similar goals, values, faith, and an eternal perspective, they remind us of what we are trying to become. They encourage us when we are tired, challenge us when we begin becoming complacent, and sometimes see something in us that we have stopped seeing in ourselves. That does not mean everyone around us has to think exactly like we do, but the people we allow to have the greatest influence in our lives should help us grow rather than keep us comfortable in the same place. When we surround ourselves with people who are also trying to become better, strengthen their faith, and move closer to Heavenly Father, we can go farther together. Instead of becoming stagnant in life, we continue learning, stretching, growing, and reminding each other that there is still more potential within us to discover.
Maybe living up to our potential is not about suddenly becoming extraordinary. The potential is already there. It is about making the choices that allow what Heavenly Father placed within us to develop. Prayer, scripture study, the sacrament, the temple, and the people we choose to surround ourselves with may seem like simple things, but those choices shape us little by little. But it also takes faith, discipline, and a real desire to do these things and then follow through with them. We cannot become complacent simply because we know who we are or what our potential is. Potential has to be developed. It takes consistency. It takes getting up and doing those things again even when we do not immediately see the results.
And something begins to happen once we realize that we have that potential, take that first step, and then stay consistent. We begin to see it for ourselves. We start seeing changes in who we are, in the way we think, in the choices we make, and in what we believe is possible. Little by little, we begin to see ourselves from more of an eternal perspective instead of only seeing who we are today. And once we begin to catch even a glimpse of what Heavenly Father sees in us, it inspires us to continue. It makes us want to try harder, have more faith, become more disciplined, and see just how much more we are capable of becoming. The progress itself gives us a reason to keep moving forward.
When we choose to become more like our Heavenly Father, we are choosing to explore, develop, and create with the potential that already exists within us. We are choosing not to become stagnant. We are choosing to see how far faith, discipline, desire, consistency, and the right people around us can take us. Peter had to take that first step out of the boat before he discovered that he could walk on water. Maybe the same is true for us. Heavenly Father already sees our eternal potential. Our part is to take that first step, surround ourselves with people who help us keep moving forward, and stay consistent long enough that eventually we begin to see that potential too.
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