So I wanted to share a revelation I got while speaking with a friend– Isn’t it interesting how sometimes we learn things right as we speak them? Almost as if they aren’t our words in the first place. I was sharing with this friend about how I had recently changed jobs and it wasn’t going so well. I missed the relationships and flexibility that my old job had and felt widely neglected by anyone at my new job. I took a breath and then spoke about an event from the Book of Mormon that completely changed my perspective and I have no doubt will have a profound influence on my life for years to come.
When I was pondering on changing my job I was pretty thorough in my examining of companies, groups within my current organization, and other opportunities. I am not one to go into big changes very willingly. It’s often after a lot of frustration and a look at other examples that I will begrudgingly start examining choices. Such was the case with my job. I really resisted the idea of change but as I was driving to work I had thought of a line that was given to me by a patriarch within my church. Without going into much detail I was promised that if I trusted in the lord I would have a pleasant and productive career. As that came to my memory I felt a distinct assurance that the Lord wanted me to take this risk and learn from it. I needed to trust Him.
With that thought as wind to my sail, I set off into the unknown. Almost immediately I felt as if I hit a rock. My new job was not at all what I imagined. I learned that for the first few months to possibly a year I would not have a desk and I wouldn’t meet any of my more permanent coworkers. As a very social person, this really weighed on me and my mental health began to decline. I started to wonder if I had made the wrong decision or misinterpreted the answer that I had received. I tried to trust in the answer that I got but when I’d have a bad day those doubts would begin to resurface.
As I was explaining this to my friend I remembered the story of Aaron and his brothers from the Book of Mormon. Aaron and his brothers had been doing some pretty terrible things. They were described as being the vilest of sinners. All of that changed however when they were visited by an angel that spoke with the voice of thunder commanding them to repent or be destroyed. They repented. They were so distraught over their past mistakes they could not bear the thought of anyone suffering because of their sins. It was that sore repentance that filled them with a love so strong that it formed a desire within them to share the good news of Jesus Christ with their people’s enemies, the Lamanites.
Before venturing off they prayed about this desire and the answer received was for them to go and they would convince many to repent. So they went and along the way Aaron and his brothers split up. Aaron and the few that went with him then hit a rock so to speak. They were thrown into jail and tortured after angering the locals. They lived in this condition for months. I wonder how they must have felt in that situation. I wonder if they ever doubted and thought, we must have got that wrong. We were promised success but here we are in prison being tortured, what fools we were.
Well as God’s grace would have it they were delivered from prison. Aaron’s brother Ammon, it turns out, had better success and his success had a domino effect that saw Aaron and those with him released. Afterward, Aaron had the opportunity to teach the king of the Lamanites and indeed convinced many of the truth.
This whole story got me thinking, how many times do we panic when we make these divinely inspired choices and things don’t go smoothly? We really ought to know that what God really wants for us is to grow and to become more like Jesus Christ. Well, we don’t do that by staying where we are. We progress by moving forward, taking risks, and learning from difficulties. So the next time you find yourself wondering if you made a mistake because things are difficult, remember Aaron. Trust in God and in time you will be delivered, and you will have grown in unexpected ways and learned to trust God and his love a little bit more.
God never leads us down the wrong path but that path sometimes comes with unexpected and very difficult challenges. Sometimes when we think we’ve hit a rock but over time we may find that, after closer examination, it turned out to be bread.
“…What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? …If ye then, being evil, know to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Matthew 7: 9 & 11
The Author Mommy 