3 Nephi 16-17

(June 1, 2015)

                I often forget that each of us are weak and we struggle to understand the words of the Lord.  Understanding what He stands ready to teach us requires patience on our part, study, pondering, and time.  I encounter something and I feel like I ought to learn the lesson in the first instance – when I don’t, I can easily become very frustrated with myself for being a failure.

                Ironically, it is these thoughts that threaten to make me a failure because I become fixated on my mistake and fail to ponder and learn the lessons that I am being taught.  So long as I am willing to give my will over to the Lord completely, the question of capacity to give my will over to the Lord completely is a matter of time and struggle and adversity and Grace.  It does not come all at once – but when the decision is made, and so long as it is held to, the Lord will magnify that sacrifice so that my will can be swallowed in His will.

                The other thought I had was in the actions of the Savior towards the people.  He had an agenda, and the agenda was likely very important.  After all, He was the risen Lord and His time was very precious.  But when He saw the desires of those around Him, He was filled with compassion on them and He stayed.

                We must never let an agenda dictate our actions.  We are put on this Earth to bless the lives of the children of God, and an agenda may help with that.  But the moment the agenda becomes more important than the person, the agenda becomes a tool of the Adversary rather than a tool of the Lord.