Consider Your Ways

Anxious thoughts plague us sometimes.  Worries, fears, and concerns are very real, and those anxious thoughts can be debilitating.  

What can we do about that?

The answer lies in a two-step process.  

First, “consider your ways.”  I love the scripture in Haggai, Chapter 1, beginning with verse 5.

5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7 ¶ Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

The Lord is telling Haggai to talk to the people and help them understand.  They had problems, and they wanted to find the answers they needed.  It’s interesting, that what The Lord told them was first, to stop, and to “consider their ways.”  Many times when I have a problem, what I want is this:

An immediate solution that will simply take away the problem.

The Lord rarely works that way.  We are supposed to grow and learn, and to have experiences.  So each new problem or difficult or challenge is an opportunity to grow, and to become more like our Savior.  That’s really the issue, as the Lord sees it.  How can He help us use this particular situation to become more like HIm?  How can He help us develop more confidence in Him, or more patience, or more ability to understand, or help us gain more strength?  That’s HIS goal.

Many times, though, I forget that eternal perspective, and what I simply want is to “be out” of the problem.  I don’t particularly want to be stronger, or more patient or kind.  I just want “out.”

Yet the Lord does not always give me what I think I want.  He gives me what will be best for me.

So - consider our ways.  That’s the first step.

The second step is to do this:

Combine anxiety with faith.

Jacob 1:5 says: For because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them.

Notice that Jacob says he combined anxiety with faith.  He did not combine anxiety with fear, doubt, discouragement, or anything else.  He combined it with faith.

We can use this two-step process to help us deal with our anxious fears and thoughts.

 

   

                                                                         

Process: 

Consider your ways.

Combine anxiety with faith.

Example:

Janet (yes, this is a personal example) was simply overwhelmed.   I had many concerns.  One of my  children was really struggling with some honesty issues, and they were serious concerns.  Another child had a health issue that was very concerning, and so far nothing had helped.  That was a tremendous problem.  There were other things too.   found that I was so anxious about these different things, that I couldn’t focus, and I couldn’t think of anything else.  I needed to be able to calm down so that I could even think rationally about the issues, but I knew the anxiety was getting worse instead of better.

So - follow the process.  As soon as I began to consider my ways, I felt more hope.  First, I could see that I simply had not taken the time to pray.  Because I had been up constantly during the night, when I  woke up, it was to a critical crisis with a child. I had not yet managed to find a time to take a quiet moment to pray.  

I actually remember that day very well, because in that moment, I understood something.  I understood that the Lord knew how tired I was, but that He still wanted me to understand that I needed to pray.  How else would I find solutions?  I also knew that He understood the problem fully, and He knew that this was a day I didn’t actually have the ability to leave my children for even 10 minutes to go say a prayer.  BUT - I also knew that he expected me to pray anyway.  I realized that I could say to him, “Heavenly Father, I am moving to help a child, and this is my prayer time -- as I’m moving.  Please be with me.  Please help me to be able to have my body feel calm, as I consecrate my actions to Thee.  Please help me to help this child, as Thou would minister to this child.  Please help me to feel that, and to be guided by Thy Spirit.”  I could have prayed while running to the rescue!

Considering my ways helped me to see what I needed to do immediately in order to start the process of receiving answers.

How do I expect to RECEIVE if I have not taken the time to be receptive?

I had not been doing that.  My thoughts were like this:  What will I do if this health problem gets worse in Child #1?  And……………...how will we deal with the honesty issues with this child #2 -- they WILL get worse, and worse, and soon this child will be in trouble with others, and I know he will not listen to me, and he just does not care about anything or anyone………………….

That’s not faith.  

Instead, I could combine my anxiety with faith and choose to think thoughts like these:  

I have faith that Heavenly Father will help us figure out the health issue.  Have we considered a priesthood blessing?  Have I been praying that the doctors would be inspired to know how to help?  Have I been praying to know what topics I could research or study that would help us figure this out?

I have faith that Heavenly Father can teach me how to help my child really understand honesty and its importance.  What scripture stories can I share with my child that will touch his heart and help him feel the Spirit?  How does Heavenly Father teach His children how to be honest in the scriptures?  How can I make my home a place where the Spirit can be felt?  What are the principles that Heavenly Father uses to discipline His children?  How can i show more love to my child, and yet teach him of the principle of honesty?  

And - (this is extremely important) --  how can I trust that Heavenly Father will help me, so that I can let my body relax, and be able to feel of His peace?

Anxiety combined with faith is powerful.  It changes us inside - and it changes us on a bodily level, helping us to relax.  Instead of disabling, it becomes EN-ABLING as a powerful force, that will help us use problems to create good, and to enrich life.

Consider your ways.  Combine anxiety with faith.  A simple, effective, powerful solution.

Maybe The Goal Is Not Efficiency

Efficiency makes sense.  If we’re efficient, we get things accomplished, and have more time to do other things!

One day, however, it dawned on me that “efficiency” as I understand it may not be “efficient” in terms of how the Lord defines the term  Since I am sure He would do things in the best way possible, I began to wonder what being efficient means to Heavenly Father, and to Jesus Christ.  

Could it be that “my” view of being efficient is actually a philosophy of man?  Could my view of “being efficient” actually lead me away from the Lord?

In my view, I’m try hard to be efficient.  I think that is how I am supposed to be, to improve myself, and to become “more.”  So I try to think of ways to do things better, and often get frustrated when I can’t seem to be as efficient as I would like to be.  I’m the one who is multi-tasking, and who gets impatient if others aren’t as quick to respond as I would like.  

Consider a few scriptural examples.  Lehi was commanded by the Lord to take his family and leave Jerusalem, and to go out into the wilderness.  Of course, Lehi immediately obeyed.  However, it wasn’t too long until the Lord told Lehi to have his sons return to Jerusalem and get the brass plates.  But again, Lehi told the sons, and they return  to Jerusalem and obtained the plates.  

Again, though, the Lord told Lehi to have his sons return to Jerusalem.  This time they were instructed to talk to Ishmael, and request that he and his family accompany them back into the wilderness, to journey with Nephi.  Yes, this happened.

Wait a minute, though.  This wasn’t exactly “efficient.”  Surely the Lord knew right from the start that Lehi’s family would be establishing a new civilization, and would need the brass plates.  Surely He knew that they would need to have Ishmael’s family travel with them.

Why not combine trips?

As a mom, I’m always thinking about combining trips with my errands.  For one thing, I don’t want to have to get my kids in and out of the car for a zillion trips to town.  It’s much easier to just do everything in one day.  It’s more efficient.  I can get more done that way.

The Cambridge Dictionary says that efficient means:  to work or operate in a way that gets the results you want without any waste.

Surely the Lord is efficient.

And surely, the Lord does not waste anything.

So - what is the definition of waste?

According to the dictionary again, waste, the verb, means this:  to use or expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose.  Synonyms include squander, fritter away, or throw away.

So apparently, the number of trips Lehi told his sons to make back to Jerusalem were purposeful.  In addition to getting the plates and Ishmael’s family, what could the purpose be?

It’s interesting that the dictionary’s 8th definition of the word waste tells us that waste (of the human body) means that it becomes progressively weaker and more fragile and frail, gradually becoming emaciated.

Could it be that the Lord wanted Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel to become strong?  Surely the trip through the wilderness would be physically hard, meaning that physically, they would gain strength.  But there is also emotional strength to be gained by heeding the commandments of God, and figuring out how to obey.

The lessons of Zion’s Camp seem to show us this same pattern.  Zion’s camp was a 900-mile journey led by Joseph Smith.  The Saints traveled from Kirtland, Ohio to Clay County, Missouri.

Their purpose was to regain the land they had lost when the Saints had been expelled by the mobs in Missouri.  

They did not achieve their purpose, nor their goal.  Zions camp was disbanded.

Efficient?  Hardly.

But wait.  The dictionary  said that being efficient means that you aim to get the results you want without any undue effort or waste.

Oh.  It’s about results.  Of course.  

Many times what I want is simply to check off the box that says, “Done.”

What I may need, though, is to realize that “done” may not be the goal.  The goal may be growth.  Maybe I need to develop a character trait. After all, patience is probably not going to be developed at the same time as I become “efficient.”  Maybe I need to change how I view different experiences.  Maybe I need to be more humble, and to ask God what He would have me do, and how fast He would have me run.

Elder David A. Bednar, an Apostle of the Lord, said this:

"As individuals and families, we too will be tested, sifted, and prepared as were the members of Zion’s Camp.  The scriptures and the teaching of the Brethren are replete with promises that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the making, honoring, and remembering of sacred covenants, and obedience to God’s commandments will strengthen us to prepare for, to face, to overcome, and to learn from the trials and tests of mortality."

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2017/07/on-the-lords-side-lessons-from-zions-camp?lang=eng&_r=1

So - when I get frustrated, and bemoan my lack of efficiency, maybe I would do well to ponder what the word “efficiency” means to the Lord.  Efficiency may mean that the purpose of something may be to gain faith, or to build resilience or trust in the Lord.  Efficiency may mean that I need to focus lesson “reaching the goal,” and focus on more on “who I am becoming” en route.  Maybe I need to give up my pre-conceived expectations that tell me I have to get things “done,” and focus instead on “accomplishing what the Lord would have me accomplish.”  Maybe it’s much more about the intent of my heart, and my desire to keep on the path that leads to Him, rather than efficiently trying to wish the path were shorter and less of a bother.

Maybe I can learn to be calm, and hence, more efficient in heart, regardless of how many times I have to backtrack, start over, pull myself up again, and regroup.  Maybe that is being more “efficient” than I thought.