September Spiritual Thought

Mom said, "Use this for my blog letter. This is where my thoughts are these days." I think she's got some pretty good thoughts...

Be Still My Soul hymn #124

James E. Talmage wrote “The Parable of the Unwise Bee” which I now share with you.

A wild bee from the neighboring hills once flew into the [upper room in the tower of a large building where I spent many peaceful and busy hours with books and pen]; …at intervals during an hour or more I caught the pleasing hum of its flight.  The little creature realized that it was a prisoner, yet all its efforts to find the exit through the partly opened casement failed. When ready to close up the room and leave, I threw the window wide, and tried at first to guide and then to drive the bee to liberty and safety, knowing well that if left in the room it would die as other insects there entrapped had perished in the dry atmosphere of the enclosure. The more I tried to drive it out, the more determinedly did it oppose and resist my efforts. Its erstwhile peaceful hum developed into an angry roar; its darting flight became hostile and threatening.

Then it caught me off my guard and stung my hand---the hand that would have guided it to freedom. At last it alighted on a pendant attached to the ceiling, beyond my reach of help or injury. The sharp pain of its unkind sting aroused in me rather pity than anger. I knew the inevitable penalty of its mistaken opposition and defiance; and I had to leave the creature to its fate. Three days later I returned to the room and found the dried, lifeless body of the bee on the writing table. It had paid for its stubbornness with its life.

To the bee’s short-sightedness and selfish misunderstanding I was its foe, a persistent persecutor, a mortal enemy bent on its destruction; while in truth I was its friend, offering it ransom of the life it had put in forfeit through its own error, striving to redeem it, in spite of itself, from the prison-house of death and restore it to the outer air of liberty.

Are we so much wiser than the bee that no analogy lies between its unwise course and our lives? We are prone to contend, sometimes with vehemence and anger, against the adversity which after all may be the manifestation of superior wisdom and loving care, directed against our temporary comfort for our permanent blessing. In the tribulations and sufferings of mortality there is a divine ministry which only the godless soul can wholly fail to discern. To many the loss of wealth has been a boon, a providential means of leading or driving them from the confines of selfish indulgence to the sunshine and the open, where boundless opportunity waits on effort. Disappointment, sorrow, and affliction may be the expression of an all-wise Father’s kindness.

Consider the lesson of the unwise bee!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 2:5, 6) 

Faith in the Lord is trust in the Lord. We cannot have true faith in the Lord without also having complete trust in the Lord’s will and in the Lord’s timing. As a result, no matter how strong our faith is, it cannot produce a result contrary to His will. That’s important to remember when our prayers don’t seem to be answered in the way or at the time we desire. The exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is always subject to the order of heaven, to the goodness and will and wisdom and timing of the Lord.  Bette’s story illustrates this.

 

Find Her by Allan K. Burgess and Max H. Molgard

Bette had a dream about a little girl and was told in the dream to find her. She realized that this was not going to be easy, because she only saw the girl from the back. Bette recorded in her journal that she seemed to be about six or seven years old and had long, dark, wavy hair down to her waist.

Bette lived with her husband and family in Florida at the time. They already had four little children—ages six months, two, four, and five years old.  They decided to contact an adoption agency because they didn’t know any other way to find the little girl. After several months, they were accepted as worthy candidates to adopt a child.

They spent two years in Florida searching through hundreds of little faces in books of children waiting to be adopted. They didn’t feel that she was among any of them. They were then asked to transfer to San Diego, California for his job. They prayed about it and didn’t feel that it was the place their family belonged. They also turned down Mesa, Arizona, and asked for a transfer to Utah. They were told that there was only a one percent chance they would be able to move there.

They continued to pray for a move to Utah. When Bette’s husband received a call at work and was told they could transfer to Tooele, Utah, he accepted immediately. He just felt it was right for his family.

They called the adoption agency, thinking that their adoption records could be transferred to Utah. They were told that they would have to start the process of qualifying all over again. Bette was afraid that someday she would have to face Heavenly Father and tell him that she hadn’t found the child He told her about. But she didn’t really feel that He was giving her a lot of help.

Shortly after arriving in Utah, Bette discovered that she was expecting again; they decided that this would be the little girl that she had seen. September found them with a new son instead.

Then her life was filled with complications. A teenage nephew moved in with them, she was called to be the ward Young Women’s president, and a few weeks later developed a painful arthritic condition. She thought to herself that Heavenly Father would understand if she didn’t pursue finding the little girl for a while.

A few weeks later, her Young Women’s counselor called to say that a badly abused girl had been brought into the medical center the counselor worked in. She had been beaten with a two-by-four until most of her body was a seeping purple bruise. The counselor felt that she and her husband should become foster parents to the little girl. She couldn’t call her husband until that night about the girl because he was out of town for his job.

The counselor called Bette the following day a little confused and said that her husband had felt that with their other obligations they wouldn’t be able to spend the necessary time with a child that needed so much help.  The counselor couldn’t understand why she had felt so strongly about being a foster parent to the abused girl. Two days after Bette’s counselor had called, the still, small voice quit whispering and started shouting at her. The message was, “That is the little girl you’ve been looking for!”

Bette called her counselor for a description of the girl and was told that she had long, wavy, dark hair down to her waist and was about six or seven years old. Her friend said that she couldn’t tell Bette more, because she had only seen the girl from the back.

Bette called the local family services, who told her that the girl was in temporary custody and would be returned to her natural family within the month. Bette felt confused but somewhat relieved because of her other pressures.

When the girl’s situation changed and they needed someone to take her in a long-term placement situation, family services called Bette back. Because Bette worked part-time in the office next door to theirs and they had come to know her, they said they could skip the usual paper work and waiting period.

Leslie was placed in their home two days later. Family services told them that this was definitely a temporary placement and they also stressed that adoption was very unlikely.

Nevertheless, two and one-half years later Leslie was adopted by Bette and her husband and then sealed to her new family in the Salt Lake Temple.

Bette learned a great lesson from this experience. She thought Heavenly Father wasn’t helping to find Leslie, but He knew all along what had to happen.  He had to get the family transferred to Utah where Leslie was, and have Bette called as the ward Young Women’s president so she could call as her counselor the woman who worked at the medical clinic. He then had to help Bette become friends with the family services people so they would accept her as a foster mother on the spot. And He also had to guide everything that happened to allow Bette and her husband to adopt Leslie when family services said that would not happen. Now when Bette wonders if her prayers are being answered, she remembers this experience and trusts in the Lord’s loving care.

As in everything else, Jesus Christ gave us the perfect example of trust in our Father in Heaven.

In the premortal life He trusted His Father, saying, “Thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”  The scriptures teach us that throughout His youth, He went “about [His] Father’s business” and “waited upon the Lord for the time of his ministry to come.”  In Gethsemane, He trusted His Father, declaring, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Through the humiliation of a public trial and the agony of crucifixion, He trusted His Father, willing to be “wounded for our transgressions … [and] bruised for our iniquities.” He trusted and carried out our Heavenly Father’s plan. The Savior, who knows our Heavenly Father better than any of us, trusts Him completely and so we should, too.

 Tests and trials are given to all of us. When health fails, when a spouse dies, when financial hardship befalls a family, when children wander from the path, or when we pray sincerely and persistently for a righteous desire and our request is not yet granted, we may question. To trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.

It may help us to remember who our Father in Heaven is.  He is the great God of the universe, the father of us all, the most intelligent being, and the creator of all things.  Jesus said He did nothing except what He had seen His Father do. He knows all things, He sees all things, and He loves us perfectly.  It was He who presented the plan to create this beautiful earth, give us a mortal experience, and provide us with a savior so that we may someday not only have all that He has, but be all that He is.

We can trust Him.  We can trust His superior wisdom and loving care. We can trust Him enough to do what His Son has taught us to do to be happy in this life and in the world to come. I testify of this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.