These words haunt me:
“Sis. Morgan, I wish I had a perfect family like you.”
On this Sunday when my friend turned to me and spoke that sentence, I was floored.
In that moment, I felt a great sense of shame. I realized that in my unwillingness to be open and vulnerable, I had allowed others, including this sweet woman, to think that my life and family were perfect. Not only that, but my actions (though unintentional) had contributed to her feeling that she was alone in her struggles.
We have a loneliness epidemic in our country. A 2023 study found that 60% of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonely. That means that the majority of your ward members, neighbors and family members currently feel a lack of connection.
Quite simply, they feel alone.
How much of this is because you are afraid to let your real self show?
This is the question I asked myself those many years ago. With that something miraculous began to occur:
I found that by letting down my guard, the number of people I count as friends grew.
I began to see that by sharing more and hiding less, I could create connection, and decrease loneliness in those around me.
Most of all I found that there was freedom in being real, and power in fostering inclusion and banishing isolation.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught:
“In a world that is increasingly disconnected, we must reach out to those who are struggling in loneliness”.
We have a loneliness problem, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
It starts by being open. It starts by letting others see you-the good AND the bad, the easy AND the difficult.
It starts by being REAL.
Kristyn Morgan 