The Rock

The past couple days there has been a lot of discussion on "coming out" or as I think it can be more appropriately put "being honest" or telling others for those of us who struggle but desire to be faithful.

A friend of mine posted something that I think is often overlooked.

.....One close friend cautioned me from telling others because she feels that every time I tell someone I reinforce the label, realigning myself with it as part of my identity......

Elder Oaks gave awesome council to us about not using an adjective that defines our struggle to describe ourselves. I recently told a friend who was debating "telling" to remember that the only real label we should assume is His name. Everything else that we define ourselves by should glorify that.

Sometimes we struggle with things that if we don't succeed we feel we have failed. There is a story about a man that the Lord gave a commandment to try to move this rock.

He spent years and years trying but even with his best efforts never moved the rock even an inch. Satan got wind of this and went to the man and said, "why don't you give up. You haven't moved the rock." Still the man didn't give up.

The man died having failed in his mind. He went to the Lord and asked "Why did you ask me to do something you knew couldn't be done?"

The Lord responded that He never ask him "to move" the rock just to "try."

"Look at yourself, look how your efforts have made you strong, my son you have been faithful and obedient in your efforts and that's what I asked you to do. Now I will move the rock."

I also know that God loves us and wants us to be happy, but I also know that love comes from bending our will to his. This may be our greatest challenge in life. Whatever our struggles are. God greatest blessings come in His time and we have to sometimes endure pain. We can't be guilty of asking God to bless us right now and not be willing to wait on His time. He will answer our prayers but in his own time. And that time is the time that is right for us. I have come to realize that. I learned that after I came to understand what "not my will but his will."

Pres Kimball said that if we look at life on Earth as the whole of existence then it is easy to lose hope. But when viewed in an eternal perspective, we see that these trials teach us. If God took all our trials from us we wouldn't have to live by faith and at the same time agency wouldn't be needed. Its only through our trials that we are able to use our agency to show God we love him enough to choose his will over our own.

Alma wished he could speak with the tongue of an angel but he realized he was just a man. So are we. We are blessed by our obedience and faithfulness and like in the story as long as we are willing to put the effort into moving the rock God promises to do the rest.