Ask for help. It's okay, I promise.

Some times I think of myself as something of a superhero. No, I don't don a cape and fight crime at night. I do like to serve in my ward, be a great friend to others, and generally an all around good guy. I think many times I unintentionally look to be impenetrable and without flaws.  (To strangers that is. My close friends and family don't have enough fingers to count my flaws. Ha ha.)  It's easy to get used to seeing myself as a hero.  Therefore, it's also easy for me to buy into false ideas about super heros.

For example, I don't always ask for help when I need to.  I'll pridefully convince myself that I got everything under control and no need to ask anyone for help.  I got it.  No sweat.  This pride problem of mine will show up everywhere from my education to my social life to even my finances.

After not working this much this past semester and focusing so much on school, I found myself broke.  Really broke.  The I-can't-afford-rent level of broke.  The reality of it hit me hard where I had to swallow my pride and ask for help.

So I did.

I went to the Bishop and he said he would help me with food first and if that wasn't enough would help me out with rent as well.  We filled out a form together with things I would typically need in a week.  He kept one carbon copy and I kept the other.  That next week I went to the Bishop's Storehouse.

The first thing that struck me about the Bishop's storehouse was the spirit I felt there.  It was small and had the very basics you would need for food and toiletries.  There were a lot of service missionaries there and one took me around to get everything on the form.  I realized that I was feeling a lot of shame for being poor.  It hadn't hit me until I arrived at the storehouse but then I felt it was okay for me to be where I was at.  Me being poor didn't change how my Father in Heaven felt about me and he wants to help me.

I'm really grateful for the Bishop's Storehouse.  For me, I see that our Heavenly Father truly cares for each and every one of us and our temporal needs.  There's no shame in asking for help from Him or from one of His servants.  For me, the blessing was not only in the temporal but the spiritual as well.  I have a stronger testimony now of the love my Heavenly Father has for me than I had before.

I hope more members and non-members alike take advantage of the blessings our Heavenly Father has for us.  He may ask us to let go of pride or shame but in return he gives us something beautiful.

-Stephen