Agency is again wonderful and yet very hard at the same time. The world is an example of that! There are positive things that take place when people choose well and there are terrible things that take place when people choose badly.
Often in our prayers we want results now. We want change now, either within ourselves or with someone else’s’ actions! In 1st Thessalonians it says we are to remember to continue “without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” This scripture talks about how love takes work, and hope involves patience.
A friend of mine was out walking with me not so long ago and we talked about the ability to wait upon the Lord. Our discussion proceeded in how it was easy to wait upon the Lord unless it was up close and personal. This is the time that our waiting becomes almost unbearable in some situations. For us to stand by and watch other’s actions or even experiencing the fallout of their actions; we need and expect to see change soon.
Speaking of patience, what would we do if the Lord said to us, “By the way I want it now! I have no more patience with your weaknesses! It shouldn’t take you so long.” I think we all know how we would feel about that. We are grateful that the Lord is patience with our weaknesses. We need him to be patient. We need to remember this when we see the need for change in others.
Some of that change involves us changing. Decisions we don’t want to make. Being paralyzed between what ifs! Yet, we have to change something just to keep going. The most important thing is what! We want change in others without necessarily changing ourselves.
A sister in the gospel was talking with me about a nightmare of a situation that had taken place in her home. Her husband had found another woman and one of her adult children was caught in a tough custody battle that was doing great damage to all. She said she could not believe that so many things could go wrong so quickly.
She told me that finally she turned to her scriptures and not in a casual way. She had always read her scriptures a little each night, but this time it was different. She read every day for an hour and sometimes longer. She went through the Old and New Testament. She then went back into the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. She read the Pearl of Great Price and then started back with the Old Testament.
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As she was telling me this story she began to have tears running down her cheeks and said, “I can sleep now! I can bear all of this! I can do this! Reading these scriptures with great intent has changed everything.” She went on to say, “How sad it is that it takes such hard events to send us to our knees and our scriptures. I’ve always read my scriptures and said my prayers, but this is different.”
There is a power within the word of God! We can wrap ourselves in it, wrap it around us, and become wrapped with the peaceful spirit of God. This is one of the ways that we can bear our burdens while we wait upon the arm of the Lord. His timeline is not ours. He is far more patient and long suffering than we can even begin to understand. Yet, we have to learn this process. Our God will teach us how.
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