Testimony of Joseph Smith; Brief Explanation of the Plates

(July 3, 2014)

                At times I, like most everyone I suppose, gets frustrated with myself as I keep needing to be taught the same lessons over and over again.  I have a genuine desire to serve the Lord, but even basic things (such as meaningful and intense prayer) can slip through my mind for days at a time.  Circumstances and life, of course, show me the folly of my mistakes but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with these mistakes when I know that I could have learned this lessons far earlier and at much less cost.

                Reading through this today, though, I felt a measure of comfort.  Even the prophet, Joseph Smith, had to be told the same thing over and over again before he would understand and remember.  Moroni repeated the same words to him time and again – meaning, I suppose, that our failures of understanding are part and parcel of the human condition rather than a particular failure of me.  This doesn’t make me any more comfortable with this weakness or any less desirous to eliminate it, but it brings me a measure of peace that the path I am on is one that has been walked before and by better men than I.