I Believe You Need Help

There is a dice game that my husband, Charles, and I like to play during our meals. It involves rolling six dice and hoping to gain points with ones, fives, or sets of triples. Normally the game is played until one reaches five or ten thousand points, but seeing as we play it so often, we decided to keep a continuous score tally until someone reached one hundred thousand. Charles had reached the game-ending score, leaving me with one more chance to pass his score and win. It would take a miracle though, and my dice had not been rolling well.

In my family, we grew up serious competitors in this game. The dice had roll-outs where we rolled all the dice from a large bag, selecting the best ones to play with based on the results. When dice "misbehaved" we put them in timeout. We scolded our dice, taught them, whispered to them our desired rolls and strategies, and even tried to sabotage the other players' dice by telling them to roll bad numbers. Sometimes they listened. Most times they didn't. But that was an easy matter--we would just put them in timeout and get new ones that would "listen."

The game was down to one final role--one last chance to beat Charles. Talking to my dice, Charles said, "I believe in you," to which I responded, also in reference to my dice, "I believe you need help."

Afterward, we discussed that little exchange. Often we are apprehensive about asking for help. To do so can seem like admitting some deficiency or defeat. Are we not strong enough? Good enough? Smart enough?

I have been married a week today. It's wonderful, exciting, and slightly terrifying. There are a lot of adjustments and a lot of sacrifices. At times it can seem overwhelming. But I remember the exchange over the dice and am reminded that the most beautiful thing about marriage is you get to face everything together. I believe that I can do this. I believe that I need help. I believe in my sweet husband. I believe he needs help, too. And isn't a beautiful thing that we can help each other?

Sometimes though that isn't enough. At such times we call upon outside help--family, friends, our Savior. Not because we can't do it, not because we're weak, but rather because we believe in us.

And believing in us means we are willing to get help and work through challenges. We believe we need help because we believe in us. As my husband and I discussed this concept, he remarked quite insightfully, "You know, that sounds a lot like the Savior: I believe in you. I believe you need help."

We know we need the Savior's help, and we know He came to help us. We also know that His offer of grace, rather than belittling His belief in us, is a testament of his firm belief in who we can become. So next time you find yourself needing help, don't think of it as a defeat or a disgrace. Rather, think of it as an opportunity to exercise belief in yourself and in the change and progress you can and will make--with a little help ;).