Problems

The Book of Mormon traces the history of God’s dealing with the descendants of the Israelites who migrated to the New World. Some chose to obey God—and called themselves Nephites. Some rejected the teachings of the prophets—and called themselves Lamanites. The Book of Mormon records their wars and contentions. Always the Lamanites were a threat to the Nephites.

This is an interesting quote I read this morning:

“No matter how wicked and ferocious and depraved the Lamanites might be (and they were that!), no matter how much they outnumbered the Nephites, darkly closing in on all sides, no matter how insidiously they spied and intrigued and infiltrated and hatched their diabolical plots and breathed their bloody threats and pushed their formidable preparations for all out war, they were not the Nephite problem. They were merely kept there to remind the Nephites of their real problem, which was to walk uprightly before the Lord.” – Hugh Nibley

It occurred to me that no matter the trials we are faced with: poverty, bad neighbors, corrupt government, unemployment, illness, death, whatever is around us. That’s not the problem. The problem is: will we walk uprightly before the Lord? These other things aren’t going to go away. Just like the Lamanites never went away. So we can’t say—this is a terrible problem, let’s get rid of it. Instead, when we have a problem confronting us, we should ask ourselves: Am I walking uprightly before the Lord? Am I being faithful and keeping the commandments the best I can?

If the answers to those questions are yes, then we can have full faith in the Lord. We can trust that He will bless us to be able to overcome our adversities. He will strengthen us so we can shoulder the burdens that we must carry. Even in the midst of war the Nephites had joy and comfort. So even in the midst of our difficulties, we too, can have joy and comfort and peace in our hearts if we are faithful.

The cool thing about this attitude is that when problems come, you don’t complain about the problem, you look to your spirituality and focus on that. THAT is something you CAN control. Then you trust the Lord to show you the way forward.