Ether 12:27-28," And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness."
Words like:
Blindness Surgery Disability Medication
Physical Therapy Charity Fund Unemployment
Social Security Adaptive Technology
Rehabilitation Infertility Medicaid
..Are Humbling.
- It's humbling to apply for social security, to be told that Joseph would be denied in the interview. Well he wasn't, which is also humbling.
- It's humbling to teach and be taught by children.
- It's humbling to apply for and file weekly unemployment claims.
- It's humbling to fill out forms for a hospital charity fund and to be approved.
- It's humbling to sit in a dirty government building to be interviewed for Medicaid, and to be denied 3 times.
- It's humbling to recieve and learn how to use adaptive technology for Joseph & to cry when I heard him read for the 1st time in months.
- It's humbling to apply for & use handicap parking.
- It's humbling to carry babies, it's even more humbling to lose those babies.
- It's humbling to listen to a doctor's diagnosis.
- It's humbling to accept help, you didn't ask for.
- It's humbling to have your life picked apart, examined, and spelled out for adoption paperwork.
- It's humbling to wait to be approved to be prospective adoptive parents.
- It's humbling to set adoption aside for the time being.
- It's humbling to watch your siblings make your parents grandparents, when you were expecting first.
- It's humbling when employment is lost.
- It's humbling to have church callings that challenge and intimidate us.
- It's humbling to learn Braille.
- It's humbling to do things you don't want to, but need to do.
While all these things humble us they are teaching us patience. In the April Conference Pres. Dieter F. Utchdorf said
" Patience- is the ability to put our desires on hold for a time- is a precious and rare virtue.
We want what we want, and we want it now.
Therefore, the very idea patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter. [...]
"Patience is not passive resignation, nor it is failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all we can- working, hoping and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring, it is enduring well!
"Everyone of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for answers to prayers.
We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and
so good to us that we can't possible imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer. [...]
"We must learn that in the Lord's plan, our understanding comes
'line upon line, precept upon precept' in short,
knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience.
"Patience is a godly attribute that can heal souls, unlock treasures of knowledge
and understanding, and transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels.
" Patience means accepting that which we cannot change and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being willing to 'submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father'. Ultimately, patience means being 'firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord' every hour of everyday, even when it is hard to do so".
That is what we are doing, or at least trying to do.
Doctrine and Covenants 104:82
"And inasmuch as ye are humble and faithful and call upon my name, behold, I will give you the victory."
