Ether 12:29-32

12:29-32 - Moroni gives us some pretty good insight about the grace of God and the Atonement helping us overcome our weaknesses. The Lord has just expounded to him the purpose of weaknesses and how we can be strengthened if we allow Him to help us, and at these words, this comforting teaching, Moroni “was comforted, and said: O Lord, thy righteous will be done, for I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith.” I gleaned a couple of really interesting points from this. The first one is recognizing that the Lord’s will is the way that will make us happy. Moroni’s exclamation that “thy righteous will be done” sounds like something a person would say as they were turning their lives over to be transformed by the Lord, kind of a throwing your hands up and saying “ok God, you take over, I’ll do what you say.” It’s also interesting to me that Moroni made that statement while being comforted with the knowledge that we can overcome weaknesses. I wonder if I was having this same conversation with the Lord, if my response would be “thy righteous will be done” as a comforted statement. Verses 23-28 ideologically sound comforting, but honestly, they sound like a lot of work, and it’s kind of exhausting to even think about being in the constant refining process, knowing that that refinement comes from intense self-evaluation and spiritual insight into your own personal shortcomings. It’s a constant back and forth of trying to improve, then falling back and repentance and trying again until eventually you master the concept. I mean, it’s totally worth it and amazing, but that’s only what I can say as I’ve looked back on the processes that I’ve already gone through, if that makes sense. In hindsight I can say “I’m so glad that the Lord helped me get over that hurdle, I’m so much happier now,” but when I began the process, I surely didn’t say “YAY! I get to spend the next several months (or years or a lifetime depending on what we’re talking about) in introspection and repentance and self-loathing as I try to fix this problem, with the Lord’s help.” That is probably the wrong attitude to have, instead of dreading the work that comes with refinement, I should look forward to the end product and my improved relationship with God, maybe it’s a change of outlook that can change “oh no! More trials” into “Yay! I’m comforted that the Lord will help me change this character defect.” Interesting concept, I wonder if my prayers are an example of that. The April 2009 general conference and June 2009 Ensign was specifically for me, I don’t think that I’ve ever encountered a more personalized, “specifically for Amy” content heavy issue as these one. One of the general conference talks about following the prophets had one of the statements that I thought didn’t really apply to the topic until I really stopped and thought about it, Elder Watson said, “I always liked to listen to President Ezra Taft Benson pray. His prayers were almost entirely in thankfulness instead of asking for blessings.” When I heard that I thought “how is that applicable to following the prophets?” But that night, I remembered those words and so I spent the vast majority of my prayer time being grateful for things. For instance, instead of “please help me be a better mother,” I said, “I’m grateful for the opportunity to bond with my children, to get to know them and to form stronger relationships with them.” And the next day I talked to my daughter about things we could do together that she would like, since her love language is Quality Time, it shifted my mindset from “if only God would make me a better mother,” to “I’m going to make these changes and the Lord will strengthen the bond.” It took me from a place of dependence and victimhood to that of initiate and powerhouse, so I guess, even though I was saying “I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this and that,” I was more trying to convince myself that I was grateful for that opportunity, instead of actually expressing heart felt gratitude. Hmmm…. now that’s interesting. Moroni took comfort in the fact that the Lord will help him overcome his weaknesses and I just look at the opportunity as an exhaustion, so maybe I need to change my attitude about this before I actually reap the rewards, which would only make sense. I need to change my attitude, that’s the lesson and that’s really interesting. The second point that Moroni makes is that this change only comes in the presence of faith, I have to not only believe that the Lord can change my heart, but I have to actually allow him the access to my heart to make the change. I believe that he can, but I also have to let him. The next few verses are kind of a mess for me because I struggle with the concept of faith moving mountains and hope being the key to heavenly mansions. I believe that many of us have the faith to move mountains but we also have to remember that it’s not only the belief that God can move the mountain but the spiritual intuitiveness to know that that is the Lord’s will. I remember as a child praying for a mountain to be moved to prove my faith and when it didn’t happen I believed that I didn’t actually have any faith, which wasn’t true, I believed deeply with all that I have, that God can do anything. What I failed to realized until later is that moving a mountain came with many consequences that the Lord didn’t want for us at that time. My mom used to tell us “if you have the faith of a mustard seed, then you can move mountains,” I assumed “mountain didn’t move, I have no faith.” But what would have been more accurate to say is “if you have the faith of a mustard seed, then the Lord can use you do his work, even if it means moving mountains.” That makes more sense to me than the first statement and I’m sure that it’s just my own personality that makes it that way. Looking at verses 30-32 in that light, it makes much more sense. The Brother of Jared was able to move the mountain because he had the confidence that he could do all that God commanded him to do, with His power. I guess to further illustrate the point, we would have to look at what the opposite of faith has to look like in this case. A lack of faith would have been either a refusal to even try such a foolish task as moving a mountain because physically it’s just not possible, or to try to move the mountain but within his heart not believing that it would happen, that God isn’t capable of doing it, or that God didn’t really even command it in the first place. It’s a very strong spiritual personal bond with God, both listening to what he tells you to do and then executing, believing that it’s possible. Verse 31 talks about the Lord showing himself to his disciples because of their faith in Him, but let’s look at it in the light of “God can do anything he desires.” If I prayed to see God, and he didn’t show up, does that mean that I don’t have faith? No, it means that it’s not yet time for me to see him, it’s not his will to be shown unto me, and therefore, if I have the faith that he can do all that is according to his will to do, then I also have to believe that when something I want doesn’t happen that it’s because it’s not his will for that thing to happen at that time. And here were come full circle. Verse 32 discusses the “mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope.” How does hope and the mansions prepared for us work together? I was just talking to a friend about this, and I was saying that if we think, in terms of our eternal existence, that this life is the best experience that we’ll ever have, then death is a tragedy, but if we can look at this life from the view point of this is probably the worst experience we’ll ever have to deal with in our existence as eternal beings, then death is a gift. Now because I still live within the confines of the veil, I don’t have a perfect knowledge of the next world, but if I can’t hope that the next world is better than this one, that there is justice and mercy and love and beauty and reunion in the next life, then I couldn’t live in this one. If this life is the best it’s ever going to get, then why follow commandments at all? Just to make this life the best experience possible? No, of course not, that doesn’t even make sense. Obedience is an eternal principle and has eternal consequences, I have to hope that the life I live here will only make my next life that much better, and it’s interesting that the same place that talks about “a more excellent hope” is the same place where it talks about “mansions of thy Father,” and “an inheritance.” In the October 1998 general conference talk entitled “Youth of the Noble Birthright” Elder L. Tom Perry taught, “Above all, we must live with hope… Live with hope that you can achieve and accomplish and develop the great gifts our Father in Heaven has given to you and one day, ‘receive an inheritance’ among the mansions of the Father.” Beautiful, the perfect tie in.