Harry Potter and Life

So... another insight.  You ready?? 

So I'm reading harry potter 7 for the second time because I completely forgot about the contents of the book.  It has been really fun for me to have something to read after my long days at work and during my workouts at the gym.  So I'm reading tonight and I get this incredible insight.  Harry is always debating with himself about what to do on each incredible instance that he is faced with.  He either has to choose between what is good, and what is easy.  Now, naturally Harry sees instant gratification and 'answers' within the easy choice (the enticings of Voldemort).  Then we look at Dumbledor who always knows what harry must do, and guides him even while he is no longer physically present with him.  Hum... is this familiar? Interesting??? Harry therefore is the character everyone can relate to. He is us, and the characters surrounding him are (in my mind) like Heavenly Father and Satan and the people that Heavenly Father placed around us to help us, guide us, and protect us.  Like president Kimball used to say, "God sends angels to people on earth through others"... like our friends.  People who save us when we feel like all hope is lost.  Here in Harry Potter 7 is an example of this... 

   "The chain of the horcrux had tightened and was slowly constricting his windpipe. (aka, Satan and how he slowly gets at you... then 'snap' you're choking in sin.)... He was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely death's... choking and retching, soaking and colder than he had ever been in his life, he came to face down in the snow.  Somewhere close by, another person was panting and coughing and staggering around.  Hermione had come again, as she had come when the snake attacked... yet it did not sound like her... the place where the locket had cut tightly into his flesh was gone.  someone had cut him free... there before him stood Ron, fully dressed and drenched to the skin, his hair plastered to his face, the sword of gryffindor in one hand and the horcrux dangling from its broken chain in the other." 

O how much this simple paragraph from Harry Potter reminds me of my good friends and family.  They seem to know when I need them and they pull me out of a dilapidated state and into a better one.  Being there for me just to vent, or to hug, or to text, or to go to the gym with or whatever.  Each one of you has saved me.  As it says in D&C 121:9 'thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands'.  My friends... I do stand by you in whatever you do and will love you no matter what challenges and trials you face.  Feelings of loneliness and despair are feelings I'm very familiar with, and that Jesus Christ's atonement can help you overcome.  

I take for granted all the amazing things I am privy to in my life. I tend to focus mostly on my flaws, and concentrate on how to better myself, thinking that if I can just do this or that, maybe more happiness will come to me.  But this is not how we become happy.  We need to submerge ourselves in the work, and surround ourselves with good people.  We can not let our individual Satan lockets hobble and hang around our necks until eventually they grab hold of us and take over our lives. 

I guess the main theme of this is that I LOVE the strength and steadiness and always loving hands of my father in heaven, Jesus Christ, my good friends and my beautiful family.  I am so so lucky.  :) 

  

P.S. Please don't get offended by the comparisons I made.  I don't think this was J.K. Rowling's intention, but just an insight I gained tonight as i was pondering (yet again) my life. :)