No one expects a baby to walk on his first try. The baby first learns to roll over, one way, then the other. He then works on sitting up, his mother helps at first, but he needs to learn how to hold his head up on his own. After a few months, the baby explores his ability to crawl. He goes slow and a little awkward at first but soon he is unstoppable. The baby soon realizes that he is not able to move as fast as his mom or dad and wants to learn how to walk. He struggles with pulling himself up with the support of the chair and standing strong, but over time he gets it. Soon enough he is able to take little steps using the couch as a balance beam and his parents watch in awe as he keeps trying to improve. He ventures away from the couch, takes a few steps and lands on his little padded bottom. Over the course of a month or two he has learned to walk.
This is how we are in life: infants learning to walk. If the baby had just sat on the floor and didn’t work or put in the effort he would not have learned to walk, but he diligently worked and tried to walk, and he eventually achieved his goal. If we want something in this life it isn’t normally going to be handed to us on a silver platter. James E. Faust said, “Blessings sought through prayer sometimes require work, effort, and diligence on our part.”
The brother of Jared needed a way to have light in the boats they were commanded to build. He thought things through, weighed his options, had faith, and asked the Lord to touch the stones so that they would glow. In Ether 3:2 the brother of Jared explains that the Lord “has given [them] a commandment that [they] must call upon [him], that from [him they] may receive according to [their] desires.” The Lord rewarded the brother of Jared for his diligence and blessed him with what he needed after he called upon the Lord and did what was instructed.
The early saints of the church were commanded to travel thousands of miles to reach Zion. This was not easy but through their diligence they were blessed. They remembered the Lord through their trials and called on him for his strength and love, they received countless blessings for their sacrifice in securing the future of the church.
When we follow what the Lord commands of us, we too, will be blessed. The third verse of the hymn “Awake, Ye Saints, Awake!” is this:
With constant faith and fervent prayer
With deep humility and of soul, with steadfast
mind and heart, prepare to see th’eternal purpose roll,
to see th’eternal purpose roll.
In order to receive great blessings such as eternal purposes, we need to be steadfast and diligent in our faith and prayers.
In 1 Nephi chapter 15, Nephi and his brothers, Laman and Lemuel are frustrated because they did not receive the same revelation that Nephi had concerning Lehi’s vision. Nephi asks them in verse 8, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?” They reply, “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” The Lord did not want to withhold information and revelation to Laman and Lemuel, but they had not done that which was required to receive knowledge from the Lord. Nephi reminds them in verse 11, “If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.” The Lord instructs us to first diligently follow his commandments then ask in faith; he will then teach us what we need to know.
We can learn from the situation of Laman and Lemuel what to not do. Contrastingly, in the book of Enos, he records what he did to receive blessings: “And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites. And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith” (Enos 1:11-12). Enos was a great example of how to faithfully follow the Lord’s council.
One of the best examples of diligently seeking the Lord to receive answers to prayers is Joseph Smith. When he prayed in the sacred grove, he did not do so without first seeking direction from the scriptures and planning. The prayer he offered was not a casual one, but rather one earnest and full of faith. Because of one boy’s diligence the church was restored.
Shortly after the interaction between Nephi and his brothers, the Liahona was delivered to them. Nephi tells us that the Liahona worked “according to the faith and diligence with [they] gave unto it (1 Nephi 16:29).” Similar wording is found in my patriarchal blessing: that those blessings are “predicated upon [my] worthiness...righteousness... [and] desires…” In order to get to receive the blessings promised in that blessing, I must follow the straight and narrow path and press forward with diligence. Nephi and his family couldn’t be blaisé about reaching the Promised Land, but they had to be obedient in all things and trust in the Lord and in the direction they received. It is the same for us.
My favorite seminary teacher, my father, taught a lesson once about diligently following the will of the Lord. He demonstrated this idea by having one end of a table propped up, creating a nice slope. He got a little toy car and said that the car was us and the top of the table was eternal life, where we all wanted to go. Dad pushed the car slowly up the slope and said that as we choose the right and follow the commandments, we will progress and move up the hill of life. But, as soon as we think that we don’t need to heed the council of the Lord and suddenly become comfortable with where we are, we will slip up. He let go of the car and we watched it slide backward and fall off the track. He said something that has stuck with me ever since, “There is no such thing as stagnating in the gospel, we are either pushing forward or sliding backwards.”
In Alma 32 it talks about gaining a testimony as compared to gardening. In verse 41 it says, “But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.” One wouldn’t plant a seed and then never do anything again to it if they wanted a tree to grow from it. Our testimony and our faith cannot be left up to chance, but we must diligently follow the council the Lord has given us to strengthen ourselves and be worthy to return to him.
Diligence is key to gaining knowledge, faith, a testimony, and eventually, eternal life. In order to achieve and accomplish what we need to in this life we need to practice diligence and apply it into our lives. It’s critical to progress continually and push forward toward a higher level of excellence in our road to perfection.
Works Cited
BrainyQuote. 22 September 2008
"diligence." Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.. 24 Sep. 2008.
Faust, James E. “The Lifeline of Prayer.” Ensign. May 2002: 59.
Snow, Eliza R. “Awake, Ye Saints, Awake!” LDS Hymnal: 17.
The Book of Mormon – Translated by Joseph Smith.
4 comments:
I love the way that you create a catalog of "diligence" examples from the scriptures and from real life: a baby walking, Nephi, early saints, and so forth. It reminds me of the "faith" catalogs in Hebrews 11, and in Ether 12. What do you mean by saying that diligence takes a toll on us? And do you mean "council" or "counsel"? I think that you could polish this into a presentation for the Religious Studies student conference.
i like the incorporation of a hymn into your paper. It adds to the examples of how often we are told to be diligent that i often overlook.
i liked ur fathers explanation with the car that we are either striving forward or falling backwards. the things worth receiving requires dliligence. good job
I liked the analogy that your dad gave with the toy car and eternal life. I enjoyed your personal experiences as well as your testimony that was displayed through them. Thanks for your words.
Post a Comment