The Key

Mosiah 3:19 has hit me in a way that it never has before. The verse reads as follows:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Could there be a better antidote for unrighteous pride? Could there be a better way to learn forgiveness and understanding? Could there be a better way to guage our own standing before God?

If we are indeed meek and submissive before the Lord, we will see His greatness and our own nothingness before Him. What follows is an entire paradigm shift. We stop looking at ourselves and comparing ourselves to others. We stop judging others unrighteously. We stop taking offense. We stop giving offense. We gain in patience and understanding and love. When full of those things, we become more Christ-like than we could in our "natural" state. We soften our hearts and humble ourselves before the Lord, rather than becoming a people that need to BE humbled. When our hearts are soft and we are willing and ready to learn and listen, we are also ready to heed the word of God. We become more in tune with His spirit. We are more able to understand His will for us.

It then follows that once we have been ready and willing to learn His will for us, we are also more able to submit ourselves to Him and accept His will. We are willing to bow our heads before Him and understand as Joseph Smith learned while in Liberty Jail that "...if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good." (D&C 121:7)

In my mind I picture again young Isaac looking up so trustingly at his father Abraham as he is preparing to sacrifice him on the altar- willing to submit to all things. We may not be tried in all things, but if we are willing to submit nonetheless, we will grow closer to God and our lives- both now and through the eternities- will be blessed. Let us look to God with that same trust and humility that Isaac had.