Patiently Enduring

I do not consider myself a very patient person, and that is probably putting it lightly if you ask my wife Lauri, but I like to think that there are just times when my spirit, which knows a different time context, is fighting against my mortality. The problem with being impatient is that we are unable to fully see what God would have us see, develop a relationship to its fullest, or become all that we can be. I want to be more patient so that God can reveal to me and in me all the beautiful things I know He would have me experience.

This was brought home forcefully to me during a recent trip to Yellowstone when Lauri and I celebrated our 33 rd anniversary and becoming “empty-nesters” at the same time, having just dropped our youngest son off at the airport to depart for the mission field. As we traveled through the national parks I marveled anew at the beautiful scenery and contemplated the power of patience in revealing great beauties there, and how it similarly can apply to our own lives. If you look in the “Guide to the Scriptures” you will find this insightful definition for patience: Calm endurance; the ability to endure affliction, insult, or injury without complaint or retaliation. The Doctrine of Christ is faith, repentance, baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and endurance. It is interesting to me that the first four seemingly come early in life or quickly as we enter the gospel path and help set our course in the right direction, but the last is something we must work at the rest of our lives with patience and hope that God will make something beautiful of the challenges and growth opportunities we struggle with.

Consider the lower falls in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. After thousands of years the relentless, pounding forces of the river have carved an amazing canyon with awe-inspiring views.

Then there are the remarkable geysers and hot springs, whose boiling waters over time have formed creations that are wondrous and beautiful. We had been to Yellowstone before, but I don’t remember seeing the Grand Prismatic hot pool and the colors that form from the bacteria and minerals that are part of it. Old faithful itself is majestic and the cascading travertine with brilliant amber colors at Mammoth Hot Springs is a treasure thousands of years in the making.

There were other reminders of patience that we observed in the parks including the Teton Mountain ranges which have sustained deep compressive and heat forces, as well as massive fires that laid waste to the park’s timber, only to see new young trees take root and regenerate into a beautiful forest cover. Waterfalls more than 100 feet in height that persistently cascade down the cliffs and bring sustaining life below.

Even though they may pound relentlessly like the rivers and waterfalls of the grand canyon or be searing-hot and laden with minerals like the geysers and hot springs, or destructive like fore fires that cause us to start anew, when we endure life’s trials, challenges, and difficulties patiently, God is able to make something very beautiful out of it.

With the perspective of time, I am now able to look back on my life, our marriage, and our family and see the beauties that life’s experiences have helped create and refine. That of a blended family that arose from the charred remains of broken marriages made possible by humble parents who chose to remain faithful despite the personal devastation. The growth and maturity that developed in our family as a result of caring for many years for my mother who suffered and ultimately passed away from Multiple Sclerosis. The love, trust, and friendship that has developed in our marriage through years of personal sacrifice to care for and provide the best way we know how for our children. I could cite many additional small, but relentless battles we have had to endure together, but now looking at our family, as imperfect as we still are with much beauty yet to expose, I can see similar and at least for me even greater splendors than the wonders of Yellowstone. I know that these things are possible because of God’s Plan and Christ’s Infinite Atonement in our lives, made possible by patiently enduring and never giving up faith and hope.

There have been opportunities to take “insult” and not be calm in the face of adversity, which threatens the peace and happiness of marriage and family. However, in the grand scheme of things I believe Lauri and I, and our family, have endured patiently and the result is something even more awesome than all of the amazing wonders and beauties of nature. The pandemic has been a great reminder of the importance and need for us to remain patient and hopeful and I pray that we might continue doing so, remembering that little by little the forces, heat, and pressure we might be feeling are part of God’s miraculous handiwork forging additional masterpieces that He has designed for us.

President Nelson

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