Saturday, July 9, 2011

Getting Answers to Questions, Big and Small

A friend of mine at work was talking to me about life and religion a few months ago. He said that life is very grey and there are few clear cut answers in difficult/complex decisions. And there are many of those kinds of decisions.

I thought about that for a while. At its face, I agreed. There are many complex decisions that affect many outcomes, and yet I have made many of those decisions relatively easily. I got married quickly and it turned out great. I went on a mission (decision to "give up" two years - actually it was a tremendous investment in so many ways) without any hesitancy. I changed jobs/industries pretty quickly. We've had kids young and its worked out very well. I realize that these are tremendous blessings and people who are better than me in every way haven't had the same outcomes necessarily, but I personally know a lot of people in the same situation. The Lord has some advice for those who are "ignorant" of what to do and need to find answers to questions:

D.C. 136: 32Let him that is aignorant blearn cwisdom by dhumbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eeyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear;

33For my aSpirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten thebhumble and contrite, and to the ccondemnation of the ungodly.

The explanation that some would give concerning my blessings would be, "but I can't see how you made those decisions", or like Laman and Lemuel, "God doesn't reveal such things to us" (1 Nephi 15), does not hold water. God helps us have eyes to see and ears to hear as we ask for his help to see and hear and understand.

I know God will help his children. I loves us all very much. (1 Nephi 11:17) However, we must come to him and call upon him in order to be enlightened. I am not great at doing this but hope to be and have certainly enjoyed the blessings of doing it at times.

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