Ether 12:27

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I never really understood the first sentence of this verse. I'd never really thought all that hard about it either, I just kind of read it and said, "Yup, I see my weaknesses all right."

But a few days ago I got thinking about it for one reason or another, and I decided it's just a statement of facts, almost like a warning: if you come closer to me it's not going to get any easier; in fact, it will get harder.

I've noticed that when I am the closest to my Heavenly Father, that is when I notice my weaknesses the most. I think the nearer we get to perfection, the more we realize we're not perfect. Kind of like that saying, "The more you know, the more you don't know."

And doesn't it seem like that a lot too? The harder we try, sometimes, the harder things get. Being more active and more charitable and more everything is not always associated with an abatement of trials. In fact, the harder we try the harder Satan tries too, and the more we realize we simply can't do it on our own ("it" = go to work, build up our family, fulfill our callings, and generally perform the duties required of all human beings in this thing called Life).

That would be super depressing if that were the conclusion: try harder and you'll realize how inadequate you are. But the rest of the verse deals with that very issue, so we don't have to worry.