Week 12

I was sitting in the temple waiting room and I opened up the set of scriptures lying beside me. I flipped to somewhere in 2 Nephi chapter 28. As I was reading this chapter I happened upon the old scripture mastery verse: 2 Nephi 28:30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, ^aprecept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn ^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." Many times we are tempted to get upset with religion in general because we are a generation of people who want things instantaneously and sometimes answers to question will not come in this life but will be answered in the life to come or at the soonest they'll come line upon line rather than all at once. These frustrations are pretty normal every time we're impatiently waiting on an answer. It's easy to feel like God has neglected you and isn't really listening to your silent pleas for direction when you're not getting an answer, but I bear testimony that if you will continue to ask in faith, He will give you a personal witness that He is aware of you and will guide you in the direction you should go. He reveals things to us line upon line because if we received it all at once, we'd get too overwhelmed with the information or we don't treasure it as much as we should. By allowing us to ask for the guidance we so desperately need, we get the exact amount of information we can handle at the time until the full answer is finally revealed to us. I know that if we listen to the answer we receive and are patient to receive it, it will shape our lives for the better and be exactly what we need.


I had this same principle revealed to me while trying to decide which college I should attend. I kept going back and forth between Brigham Young University or Utah State. I made pros and cons lists, weighed the options in my mind, and finally decided to pray fervently about it. I was very frustrated because I wasn't receiving an answer and deadlines were fast approaching. About a week before I had to officially decide, I made up my mind: I would go to Utah State in the fall. I started to feel a little anxious about this decision and began praying that if I was supposed to go to BYU I would continue feeling anxious about Utah State but if I was supposed to go to Utah State then I would feel peace. I couldn't distinguish my anxiety about going to college from my anxiety about going to Utah State, but eventually I decided to change directions and instead imagine going to BYU in the fall. I still could feel the anxiety of college pressing in, but for whatever reason I got the slightest bit less anxiety about going to BYU and I could also feel myself beginning to get more excited about the prospect of going to college than I had before. The process of this decision can be described as line upon line because I don't think I would've stuck with BYU if I had decided to go there right from the beginning. I needed to first decide on the wrong college for me, slowly get filled with doubts, switch my decision, feel marginally better about it, and receive further validation once I started my schooling. I don't think going to Utah State would've been bad for me, but coming to BYU was just the better option more me. I'm very thankful for the role of personal revelation in my life. It reminds me that we're not traversing this crazy, confusing world by ourselves. The quiet promptings of the holy spirit are waiting to guide us through the maze of this life if we will but pause for a second and listen.