Self-reliance

(From the Provident Living website)


Self-reliance is drawing upon our own resources to care for ourselves and our families before calling upon others for help. A person may be self-reliant and still not be fully self-sustaining. Having done all possible for self, he or she may still need additional resources. Many aged people and those with disabilities are self-reliant, but still need additional assistance. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and are dependent upon Him for all that we have. However, He will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, and He expects us to be self-reliant.

"Independence and self-reliance are critical keys to our spiritual growth. Whenever we get into a situation which threatens our self-reliance, we will find our freedom threatened as well. If we increase our dependence, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act" (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, June 1984, 5).

"Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also know service is what godhood is all about? Without self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak" (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, June 1984, 6).