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.

Requirements for Revelation

I suppose this has to do a lot with last week’s entry. An essential part of making choices is seeking revelation. Although we need to learn to make choices on our own, the Lord does want us to include Him in the process. After all, we’re not supposed to do “any thing” until we first ask the Lord to help us with it (2 Nephi 32:9). That doesn’t mean that we will get an answer, but I was reminded of the importance of seeking revelation and the work that needs to come first as I read in Enos this morning. I was struck by verses 3 and 4 and how to apply them in a different way than I had before.

3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.

4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

I suppose I’d always applied Enos’s desires specifically to the process of gaining a testimony, but who’s to say that our soul shouldn’t hunger to know other things, as well? Revelation requires work, and if a decision is important enough (or even if it isn’t!) we should be ready to cry all day and all night to receive an answer. We can cite D&C 9 in relation to this:

7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

Enos had the right desires. I wonder if he did end up applying this process to receive other bits of revelation in his life. Reading this was a good reminder to me to maybe try a little harder when it comes to getting revelation, and the importance of approaching the Lord with my needs.

Choices

It’s not always easy to make choices. We all experience some anxiety trying to figure out what’s best for our life. There are very few clear-cut answers and a lot of gray space. I often feel a lot of anxiety when trying to make even the simplest of decisions. I suppose I’m very conscious of the fact that our time here on Earth is limited and that we have an eventual goal of reaching perfection in the next life. As Lehi says in 2 Nephi 2:

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

See what I mean? The choices are eternal life or eternal death in the end. Plenty to get stressed out over.

So how do we choose what to do? What part does personal revelation play in all of this? How can we make sure we’re choosing the right? One piece of counsel comes from President Monson:

Most of you are familiar with Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You will remember that she comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. As she contemplates which way to turn, she is confronted by the Cheshire Cat, of whom Alice asks, “Which path shall I follow?”

The cat answers, “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.”1

Unlike Alice, we know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life leads to our destination in the next life.

...As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day—whether to make this choice or that choice—if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice.

And the beauty of it all is that we’re here to learn by making mistakes and then doing better next time. So, even if we mess up, we can be assured that Christ’s Atonement can fix whatever we’ve done wrong. The important thing is to choose, and to try!

Mosiah 7:33

As I read my scriptures this week, I was reminded of a very important concept that King Limhi teaches his people in Mosiah 7:

33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

There are times when all of us are entangled in this problem or that sin. Sometimes we don’t know how we’ll get out or make things right again. King Limhi’s advice shows us how - but it’s not always easy to follow.

I understand that I need to turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, but that’s a difficult process. It means giving up a lot. We can’t just have half purpose or even three quarters purpose, but full purpose. That requires us to do things that we probably wouldn’t rather do. Serve others, study the scriptures more diligently, go to the temple. We have to be ready to listen to the Spirit’s promptings and do what God would have us do, even (or especially) when it’s not what we want to do.

But what’s the payoff? We so often forget about who we’re supposed to be or what’s awaiting us if we endure to the end. Once we put things in that perspective, everything else becomes pretty unimportant. I love how Paul phrases it in Romans 8:

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Always remember that we’re to be joint-heirs with Christ! Then you’ll make the decisions you need to make and turn unto God with full purpose of heart.

Waiting

It’s pretty darn hard to do that! It’s odd how we want to relax when things are hectic, then when things calm down we get bored and wish something would happen. It’s hard to balance those two ends of the spectrum. We’re keenly aware that we need to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” and that our time in this life is limited. I suppose I feel like I should be experiencing a kind of spiritual high all the time as a confirmation that I'm doing it right. But the reality is that crazy, life-changing things don’t happen every day. Or do they?

As Elder Maxwell once said, “Moments are the molecules that make up eternity!” So what we do in every moment does have an impact on who and what we will become. This is extremely important as we think about what the Book of Mormon teaches us about agency. In the end, there are only two choices - to follow Christ or not. That’s something we can choose in every moment. We choose by the way we speak and think, the way we treat people, the challenges we take on, and choosing to pick ourselves back up and try again when things don’t go our way. As Lehi says in 2 Nephi 2:

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

It’s a decision we make in every moment. And I love this scripture in 2 Nephi 10 connection with the above:

23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.

Cheer up and stay faithful! Make those little decisions every day and you’ll make the eternity you want to live.

Remembering to Remember

This week in my Book of Mormon reading I got to Jarom. I was looking at verses 11 and 12 and thinking about a pattern that we often see in the Book of Mormon.

11 Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.

12 And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance.

We often struggle to remember, it seems, and it’s something I’m certainly worried about. It isn’t easy to remember God and Christ. In some ways I do miss the mission because it was so much easier to remember when that’s all I had to think about every day. I definitely don’t want to fall into the Nephites’ same mistakes here. We know what the consequences are like.

I was thinking about how we can remember Christ today, since we don’t have the law of Moses, and I made a very simple connection that I’m sure you’ve probably already made. The Sacrament is how we remember Christ every week! Although it’s hardly anything novel, making that connection was very meaningful to me. It took the Sacrament from a conceptual level to something that I can actually apply. Now I understand how we must prepare ourselves for the Sacrament every week. Now I understand how that helps us stay on the right path and, ultimately, get back to Heavenly Father’s presence.

A New Journey Begins

As part of an assignment for my Book of Mormon class I’m taking at BYU, I thought I’d keep updating this blog a bit. It feels really good to get these thoughts down “on paper,” and it’s even more fun having people read them.

Not even a week after being home from the mission, I’ve already had to make hard decisions about what to do and what not to do, and I’ve had to apply the very advice I actually put here on the blog. It’s not easy to be in the world but not of the world, and I was reminded this week about what really matters.

In the mission, everything fits neatly into its little box and there aren’t too many questions to be asked. Here, in the real world, decisions and sacrifices had to be made. Towards the end of my mission I made some goals about what I would and wouldn’t do after coming home, and without going into details, I’ve already had to make hard decisions.

I made those decisions by praying and reading the scriptures. I love to ask the Lord my question in prayer before studying and then studying until I find the answer. This week as part of the Book of Mormon class I read from 1 Nephi 1 to 1 Nephi 7 and I found a new personal meaning 1 Nephi 3:7.

As Nephi says, the Lord prepares a way for us to accomplish what He expects of us. What a lifesaver, honestly! I learned that again this week. There was a decision I had to make and knew I had to make...but I didn’t want to make it. The only thing that helped me to make it was relying on that idea. And, without going into specifics, it worked out! I didn’t know how it would, but it did.

It’s kind of funny thinking that I’ve had to learn such a basic lesson again, but I suppose that’s part of the process. That’s how we build character - Richard G. Scott said you don’t build character in moments of decision, rather, that’s where you employ it.

So the next time you have to make a decision, remember once again Nephi’s council...and make the right one!