Questions and Answers

As I sat in my Book of Mormon class I listened to my teacher speak and I became confused by something he said. We were reading in Mosiah, chapter 2, verse 34. In the middle of the verse he read, "render to Him all that you have and are" and, adding one of the twelve apostles words, "all that you have the potential to be". He concluded by saying that this made him very depressed to think about. I wondered, 'why would this cause him to be depressed?' I couldn't see anywhere in those words, what could have possibly brought about any sadness at all actually. So I went where I always go to when I have a question in need of answering: my knees. But one thing I've learnt from asking questions is that my answers don't always come in the most convenient ways.

A good amount of time had passed since I'd originally inquired of the Lord and it's safe to say that my question wasn't exactly on the forefront of my mind. A bit of advice: Don't ask a question without preparing yourself for the answer, especially when it comes from the Lord. I did just that, forgot about my question and when the time came for my answer, it was hard to receive it. All I could see was the trial that had been placed before me, not realizing that it was the answer to my prayer. Unfortunately, when I finally realized that this was His way of answering me, I had already taken the "long way around".

So why was my teacher caught up in such a sad state by this simple sentence? Because, ironically, he knew what it would take most of us in the classroom to go through trials similar to what I had just faced, in order to be able to "render all that we have and are and all that we have the potential to be". Now, there is just one thing I would like to add to his statement. After the depression and the heartache, and after I got a little taste of what it would take to render my whole self to the Lord, afterwards came an indescribable joy that made it worth it in the end. I learned that the harder things in life also have the potential of yielding the greatest rewards.