Meek and Lowly of Heart

I thought I would share a bit of my talk that I gave this past Sunday.  So many great thoughts to study and ponder.  I was asked to base my talk around a talk Elder Soares gave this past October at general conference entitled "Meek and Lowly of Heart" found here.  I also used a story from Elder Bednar's CES address given last march entitled "That we might not Shrink" found here (if you read nothing else scroll to the second section and read it!!!)

Here are a few of my favorite quotes/thoughts that I read:

- In the Bible dictionary it states “ Meekness is the quality of those who are “Godfearing, righteous, humble, teachable, and patient under suffering.”

 

- “Being meek does not mean weakness, but it does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control.” (Soares)

 

- “I believe, brothers and sisters, that only those who are humble are able to acknowledge and understand the Lord’s answers to their prayers. The humble are teachable, recognizing how dependent they are on God and desiring to be subject to His will.”  (Soares)

 

 

Below is a portion of the story told by Elder Bednar (click on the link to read the rest)

“ John is a worthy priesthood holder and served faithfully as a full-time missionary. After returning home from his mission, he dated and married a righteous and wonderful young woman, Heather. John was 23 and Heather was 20 on the day they were sealed together for time and for all eternity in the house of the Lord. Approximately three weeks after their temple marriage, John was diagnosed with bone cancer. the prognosis was not good.”

John was given a 30% chance of survival. He underwent months of chemotherapy which left him sicker then he had ever been in his whole life. But through it all they maintained faith that God would heal him. Several months later he underwent surgery to remove a tumor and two days following that Elder Bednar came to visit in the hospital.

He says “ We talked about the first time I met John in the mission field, about their marriage, about the cancer, and about the eternally important lessons we learn through the trials of mortality. As we concluded our time together, John asked if I would give him a priesthood blessing. I responded that I gladly would give such a blessing, but I first needed to ask some questions.

I then posed questions I had not planned to ask and had never previously considered: He then asked “[John,] do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?”

Elder Bednar continues, “I frankly was surprised by the questions I felt prompted to ask this particular couple. Frequently in the scriptures, the Savior or His servants exercised the spiritual gift of healing and perceived that an individual had the faith to be healed . But as John and Heather and I counseled together and wrestled with these questions, we increasingly understood that if God’s will were for this good young man to be healed, then that blessing could only be received if this valiant couple first had the faith not to be healed. In other words, John and Heather needed to overcome, through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “natural man” tendency in all of us to demand impatiently and insist incessantly on the blessings we want and believe we deserve”

Brothers and Sisters, can you think of times of trial in your life when you have impatiently demanded blessings of the Lord? Be it times of sickness, financial burden, loss of employment, struggles with a child, the list goes on etc.

Elder Bednar goes on to say, “ We recognized a principle that applies to every devoted disciple: strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting of His will and timing in our lives—even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted. Certainly, John and Heather would desire, yearn, and plead for healing with all of their might, mind, and strength. But more importantly, they would be “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [them], even as a child doth submit to his father” . Indeed, they would be willing to “offer [their] whole souls as an offering unto him” and humbly pray, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” The Savior was the supreme example of meekness when he humbly uttered those very words.

Many difficulities we face are not easy to resolve or accept. They may linger over months, years or even a life time requiring great patience. Often however, patience comes only as we struggle and meekly seek the Lord's help to understand and accept His will. (Liahona '95)

As the words to the familiar hymn, “More Holiness Give me”, states, “more meekness in trial”. Meekness truly is humbly submitting ourselves to God's will. God's promise to the humble is that He will lead them by the hand.

What greater promise and comfort can we have then that!