Sunday, October 16, 2016

Waiting Again

I keep coming back to this, don’t I? But that’s ok. Sometimes we have to learn things two or three times for it to sink in. That often happens with me and patience, I guess.

As I was reading in Mosiah something stuck out to me. King Limhi and his people we desirous to be baptized in Mosiah 21, but weren’t able to because the Priesthood authority wasn’t present at the time. So, they decided to “[wait] upon the Spirit of the Lord.” I love how they put themselves in the Lord’s hands. It made me realize that, yes, there are important things that the Lord wants us to do...but He’s perfectly fine letting us wait just a little so we can grow before arriving.

While they waited, however, “all [their] study” was dedicated to their freedom.

So, there is something that we need to do while we’re waiting. The waiting is necessary, but so are one or two things for the waiting to end.

One of those things is of course righteousness. With Alma’s people in a similar situation a few chapters later, the Lord reminds them of the covenant He’d made with them and that as they kept their side He would free them from bondage.

The second thing we need to do for the waiting to end is study how we’re going to get out, as Limhi’s people did. If we’re missing either one, nothing will happen. If we do both that doesn’t mean things will get better tomorrow or next week, but they will get better.

A final insight I gathered on patience while reading this part of Mosiah: if we do things right, we can actually enjoy the wait. Alma and his people, in Mosiah 24, “did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”

So not everything’s bad when we’re waiting. We just need to do the right things and not only will the waiting end eventually, we’ll be able to find joy until it does.

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