The commandment to get blessings

Ether Chapter 3 is becoming one of my favorite chapters in scripture.  I cited it in a previous post on another topic.  Today, I was struck by verses two and three.

2 O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.
3 Behold, O Lord, thou hast smitten us because of our iniquity, and hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock.

I think these two verses are almost universally applicable to almost any situation we face in life.

In this life we are bound to go through trials (floods).  Like the Jaredites were commanded to take their ships across an unknown sea to an unknown land, so are we commanded to take our bodies into this unknown world that is full of strife and temptation.  In the world we will be weak.  Our nature is, well, natural--evil continually, as BOJ puts it.

Yet in that situation, we are commanded to pray for blessings.  The Lord wants to bless us, and commands us to "call upon" so we can receive the blessings he has in store for us.  Even as we suffer for iniquity, the Lord is with us, ready to ensure that we "shall not go forth across this raging deep in darkness."

We may feel unworthy at times to ask for the Lord's help and blessings because of our "weakness" and "iniquity."  But Jesus's favorite thing to do is forgive people.

I have gone through my hardest trials (so far) in the last year and was encompassed about by floods.  I felt to drown.  I prayed as BOJ does in these verses.  "O Lord, look upon me in pity and turn away thin anger."

"I don't deserve what I'm asking for.  I've been weak and unworthy.  But please do not suffer that I shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness."

The Lord stands ready to take whatever things we have and touch them to make them shine (v 4) and guide us through the trials we face.  The Lord wants to give us those blessings, and in fact has commanded us to pray for them and receive them.

Let's get to praying.

Like a child

When I was a teacher I taught the system of the body as part of science, and one part of that chapter was about the effects of chemicals and substances (drugs, alcohol) on the body's systems.  This was fourth grade, so the students all readily agreed that smoking, drinking, and drugs were very silly things to do, since they can really cause damage to your body, and who in the world would want to do that to themselves?

"You will," I told them.  "There will be a time, when you're teenagers, that the opinion of your friends is more important to you than what damage you might do to your body.  I just hope that when you're older and you have different people telling you to do different things, that you'll remember and pay more attention to those that really love you, like your parents and your teacher."  The kids all thought I was silly for thinking that they could be so easily swayed.

But they were, of course. The discovery by our own experience of what leads to sorrow and what leads to happiness is why we're here. We learn a lot by passing through sorrow, and teenage years are a time of vast, er, experience and learning.

Reading 3 Nephi 9 today, I saw two verses that stuck out.  "wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people" (v 2); and "Whoso arepenteth and cometh unto me bas a clittle child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God" (v 22).

I thought back to my teaching days.  As a little child (say, fourth grade) we are shocked at the idea that we'd make obviously wrong choices for the sake of popularity with those that don't have our own best interests at heart.  We'd be offended if the devil laughed in joy at our foolishness, and turn from such behavior back to the safety and security of our family.

That shock goes away as we get older, and the trick is to get it back.  To regain the attitude of a little child, one of offense at Satan's laughter at us, and returning to the safety and security of Him who loves us unconditionally.  Many people don't try to get it back, thinking that their own "independence" or something means they shouldn't listen to those they listened to as children.  Instead, they listen to and follow new influences, even when those people laugh and rejoice at our folly and failures.

Seen that way, being like a little child is actually much wiser.  We never give up our independence by following the advice of those that love us most, namely the Savior.  Rather, we're using that independence (agency) to get lasting happiness.

Judges, Nephites, weaknesses, and changes

The book of Judges reminds me of the parts (and aren't there just a ton of them?) of the Book of Mormon when the Nephites cycle through generations of righteousness and prosperity followed by pride, wickedness, and bondage.  The beginning chapters of Judges, especially, are tales of Israel worshiping false gods, falling into bondage, being rescued by those the Lord raised up for the purpose, praising God, and then repeating the cycle.

The cycle that spans generations for the Children of Israel and for the Nephites also plays out in the generations of our own church and more frequently in our own lives.  Our prophet and leaders consistently call us to repentance, warn us against the same sins over and over.  Much like Alma and other prophets of the Book of Mormon did in their day.

It got me to thinking.  God gives men weakness that they may be humble, through which humility weak things are made strong (Ether 12:27).  But a side effect of having such weaknesses is that men are, um, weak.  Sort of a natural consequence.  We are subject to the same sins over and over because we each have weaknesses that beset us, and while on the way to perfection through the atonement will regularly deal with temptation and frailty that is a necessary part of God's plan to humble us and qualify us for the blessings of the Atonement.

Alma calls the people of the Nephite cities and villages--members of the church--to "remembrance" in Alma 5. "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?" (v 6).

We have these scriptures so that we can "remember" the captivity of others and be driven to avoid the captivity of the devil in our own lives.  But isn't the case that in addition to fail to remember the lessons they learned, that we also fail to remember the consequences of our own weakness?  We suffer for our sins and rejoice in repentance, yet still make choices that lead to suffering.

It makes me very grateful for the Atonement and the entire Plan of Salvation.  I know that in order to be more like my Father I have to learn from my own experience.  I know that having weakness is part of that experience.  I also know that if I, over time, (too much time, I frustratingly think sometimes) can learn to be humble and overcome those weaknesses, that experience will be a great strength to me for the rest of my Eternal Life.

Delayed blessings

I finished The Book of Joshua today.  Joshua 24 has a scripture mastery scripture in it--one of the most famous in the Old Testament:  "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

But the part that struck me today was Joshua's recounting of the history of the people of Israel and their Exodus, and the ultimate fulfillment of the Lord's promises to them.  Israel waited a long time for these promises.  They's been promised since Abraham, also promised to Isaac, Jacob, and generations spanning decades, even centuries since he died.

Entering Jericho and the rest of Canaan happened centuries after the Lord's promise to Abraham and his posterity.

The Lord told Israel that one reason for the delay in the fulfillment of their promised land was their own wickedness.  But it's also possible to argue that the withholding of that promise wasn't so much a punishment as it was a withholding of the blessing until Israel was ready to receive it.  It gets back to an earlier post on the timing of the Lord.

Today Joshua confirmed to me the need to be patient and faithful.  The Lord honors his commitments and promises, though He sometimes withholds them for our benefit, even if we can't always understand, with our limited perspective, why.

Praying for others to change

I read Elder David A. Bednar's article from this month's Ensign today.  It is largely about the ability of the Atonement to empower an individual with strength to endure trials.  "As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:14)."

I realized when I read that that I have spent a fair amount of time asking the Lord to change other people to suite me, to make my situation easier.  I should have, all along, been praying for increased strength and love in such trials, or perhaps the courage to make difficult decisions on my own when such situations are harmful.  That's what I'll do from now on.

Sometime later, I'll have to think and write about the feeling that I'm being selfish when I focus my prayers primarily on me, which I'm suddenly worried about after writing this post.