Friday, October 21, 2005

Alma 7:23


"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."
Alma 7:23


Sometimes it is hard to relax and not try to be in control of everything. We try to work everything out in our minds, see the perfect solution (finding a gift-wrapped zillion dollars on my front porch is mine), and then pray for that. :)  Unfortunately, if I got a gift-wrapped zillion dollars, I probably wouldn't learn the things I am supposed to be learning right now... and that is true for many more realistic solutions as well.  Humility isn't something we can snap our fingers and learn, nor submissiveness, nor gentleness. Usually, to really learn those things, we have to have situations where it is really, really tough to be humble, to be submissive, to be gentle.  We might be those things readily in easier circumstances, but life is about learning things thoroughly, and we will *definitely* have situations where those things are hard, to see how deep the lesson goes.
I like the easy to be entreated part... it's a nicer way of telling us not to be stubborn... to be generous. We need to be patient and let the Lord do things according to his timetable, not ours... and giving thanks for what we do receive, even if it isn't what we had in mind. :)

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