After studying the same principles of the Gospel over and
over again for years, it is sometimes easy to get distracted from what is truly
important by a lack of interest in the basic,
seemingly ever-present doctrines that are the foundations of spiritual
safety. If you're like me, it's natural
to try to push the borders of your understanding into the unknown rather than
rehash something so familiar. There is
danger in doing that, however. The
danger is forgetfulness.
When we recognize the need to repent we can make
appropriate course corrections and move toward the Savior. If we forget our duty, however, the
commandments can slip away from us without our knowledge until by and by we
find ourselves in serious trouble. Focusing
on the old can seem frustrating at times, but it is the only path to true
safety.
True perspective is finding beauty in familiar and simple
things. Isn't it better to be happy with
what we have rather than to be constantly looking for something more? Normal may sound boring, but maybe we just
lack appreciation for something earth-shattering that is exceptionally readily
available to us. Normal, basic, Primary
truths with change a person's life more surely than the study of behavior will
change behavior.
There are many things that I do not understand, including
things that seem fundamental. It is
difficult to accept at times that, as a human, we live in a sea of imperfect
knowledge. But that is significantly
easier than what we try to do, which is profess certainty about things that we
don't know anything about. That is when it
is time to be quiet and to listen.
Sometimes a person accepts something to be true, not
because they really believe it, but because they want perfect certainty so bad
that they put their confidence into something they don't have complete evidence
for. They act as though they have a perfect
knowledge of something, even though perfect knowledge doesn't exist in this
world except for a few rare cases.
Accepting that there are limitations to what we know and understand is
not unbelief or faithlessness. It is
honesty. It is remembering that there
may be things that we think and feel that are off the mark. Real faith is trusting that God will help
us. It is not convincing ourselves that
we know the world nearly as well as He does.
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their
weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is
sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble
themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become
strong unto them" (Ether 12:27).
If we humble ourselves, repent, and come unto the Savior,
He will show us the weakness of our understanding of things. He gives us that limited capacity that we may
be humble. Truly His grace is sufficient
for us as we humbly acknowledge what Elder Holland once called our "very mortal, very
inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things" and have faith in
God.
In many ways we are
spiritually blind, acquiring our somewhat vague sense of direction from running
into a wall here or stumbling up a step there.
But how arrogant we would have to be to loudly proclaim a detailed floor
plan to those around us, loud enough to drown out the voice of the One person
in our entire civilization who has eyes to see!
Well did the Savior say, "If ye were blind,
ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see;
therefore your sin remaineth"
(John 9:41).
"Flower" by Sunny_mjx
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"Blindfold game 1" by Lee Carson
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