Diligence Through our Trials

Diligence is the means by which anything worthwhile gets done. For example: I through my diligence will be able to complete this blog; and you, through your diligence, will finish reading it. Although I should probably be getting a lecture on this topic, instead of giving one, I felt like I should talk about diligence. Through faith and our diligence, we can accomplish those things which may seem impossible to us. Just as some tasks may seem insurmountable to us, Joseph Smith must have thought it impossible to finish the translation of the golden plates. "Yea, Cleave unto me with all your heart, that you may assist in bringing to light those things of which has been spoken - yea, the translation of my work; be patient until you shall accomplish it."[1] As Joseph Smith was translating the golden plates into the Book of Mormon he was bombarded with afflictions from the adversary. Satan did not want him to finish this translation and over and over attempted to thwart Gods work. Yet Joseph remained faithful through these trials and bore them patiently. Joseph Smith depended upon Heavenly Father to give him strength while he was doing the Lords work, and through his diligence he was able to overcome these trials and complete the translation. Our trials, however daunting they seem, can be overcome as well.

The first book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon reveals the story of Lehi, a prophet of God, who took his family into the wilderness, leaving all of his worldly possessions behind. This was done so that he and his family could obtain a new and promised land.[2] The Lord had commanded him to depart from Jerusalem because it was revealed to him that the great city was about to be destroyed. [3] And so, they left the comfort of their home and the life they had known to travel through the desert wilderness for years. While in the wilderness they had all types of afflictions such as thirst, hunger, fatigue, and even death. [4] At one point, even Lehi himself began to murmur against the Lord. [5] Heavenly Father was testing their faith to see if they would be diligent in their trials. It is through our trials that we become strong. "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."[6] Samurai swords are some of the finest, strongest blades on earth made from a strong metal called steel. It is through a refining process which allows iron to be refined into steel. The metal must be super heated multiple times to melt out impurities such as oxygen and to strengthen the carbon atoms. It is heated and hammered into shape, then cooled and reheated and hammered again. Many swords are lost in this refining process. This refining process continues until the iron is no longer iron, but is a harder, more flexible metal called steel. Heavenly Father sees the potential which we may become. He does not want us to be flimsy, weak, and brittle Iron sword; he wants us to be a harder more perfect steel sword. Sometimes we may lose sight of this and murmur or complain because of our trials. But the Lord knows what the end result can be if we humble ourselves and diligently endure these trials which were given to us to make us stronger.

Not only did Lehi and his family need to be diligent during their trials to the Promised Land, they also had to be diligent to get to their final destination. The journey took years to complete. At the last leg of their journey, before building a ship, they lived for a time in the land they called Bountiful. [7] Here they had fresh water and plenty of food. It would have been easy for them to decide to stay here instead of travelling for weeks or even months across the ocean. But Lehi and his son Nephi knew that this was not the Promised Land the Lord intended for them. They would again need to leave behind whatever they could not fit onto the boat to start again somewhere new. Before my husband and I came to Provo to go to school, we had a very comfortable life in our home town. We were going to college, had enough money to pay for our entire schooling, we were close to our family and our friends, and we both had secure jobs. Everything seemed great. But this was not the Promised Land which Heavenly Father intended us to have. Very similarly to Lehi's family leaving yet again, we too were asked to leave everything behind to attend Brigham Young University. This is our personal journey to the Promised Land. Hopefully this will be the last time that we will be asked to start over. Whether it is or is not, Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning [8] and will lead us to the promised that which he has in store for us if we are faithful and diligent.

Heavenly Father did not put us on the Earth so that he could spoon feed us everything that we need to know. He wants us to learn from and study the scriptures and the prophets. At times we may have a question that challenges our current belief and faith and may even cause us to doubt what we have learned already. Our Father in Heaven will not intercede every time this happens. If He did then we would never learn or grow; if we did not ever have to ask a question, and if all of our concerns were always answered instantaneously, how would we obtain the faculties which our Heavenly Father wants us to have so that we can be more like Him? "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened."[9] Sometimes the Lord wants us to study and search before we will find an answer. He will give us the answer eventually; occasionally we have to seek it diligently before that will happen.

At times when I am overwhelmed, by work and by school, it can be hard for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel; the light that in just a few years I will be done with college and will be moving on with the rest of my life. These college years just seem to stretch on forever and sometimes I feel like they will never end. When life's pressures are really burdening me, sometimes I think that maybe I should just stop going to school, life will be far less stressful without this extra weight. But I know that this is not what Heavenly Father would have me do. In Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews he counseled, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is before us."[10] This race of completing school will not be finished overnight. I need to run it with patience, to endure until the end through diligence and faithfulness. If I were to give up now everything I have done thus far would have been for nothing. If there is anybody anywhere with a trial that seems to never end, remember that eventually the race will be completed. But until it is we need to have faith that Heavenly Father is guiding us to be who he wants us to be. "If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation."[11] It is my prayer that we may all be diligent through our trials until we arrive home to the Promised Land. In Christ's sacred name,amen.

References
[1] D C 11:19
[2] 1 Nephi 16-22
[3] 1 Nephi 1: 4
[4] 1 Nephi 16:35
[5] 1 Nephi 16:20
[6] Isaiah 16:35
[7] 1 Nephi 17
[8] Abraham 2:8
[9] Matt 7:7
[10] Heb 12: 1
[11] D&C 6:13