President Stout talked in the adult session of Stake Conference Saturday night about having faith like that of the Brother of Jared. As he retold this story from Ether 1-3, what I heard was a powerful "type" (or a story full of symbolic representation) of my experience as a parent and the exercise of faith in my efforts there. Stay with me....The story tells of the Brother of Jared and his extended family who pleaded with the Lord to spare them of language confounding at the time of the Tower of Babel. In order to honor that request the Lord provided a way for the family to leave and go to a land of refuge-- a promised land. To do so they needed boats. God told them, "...Go to work and build..." barges. And even though these men were not shipbuilders, they "did go to work...according to the instructions of the Lord", and they built vessels to take them across the oceans.
During the process of building, the Brother of Jared became concerned about some details of the float trip and worried about perishing: "O Lord, in them there is no light...", "whither shall we steer", and "...for in them we cannot breathe..." And while God was willing to solve two of the problems, (promising that He would be their navigation system "...I will bring you...", and teaching them to make a little hole on the top and bottom that could be stopped up or unstopped for air) He left the Brother of Jared to figure out the light issue on his own.
The Brother of Jared went to the tall, tall mountain Shelem and worked very hard on a solution to the dilemma of light. He moltened sixteen small stones out of rock. Then, he worked them until they were "white and clear" like "transparent glass". After all of the hard work, he prayed: "Oh, Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness."
And in answer to that prayer of faith, "...behold, the Lord stretched forth His hand and touched the stones one by one with His finger." The stones were made bright with God's light.
So, while President Stout was telling the story of the Brother of Jared, I heard the story of me. Here I am with this seemingly awesome responsibility of parenting these six boys, but I am not a shipbulder. I mean, I have never been a parent before. It is all uncharted territory for me. And like the Brother of Jared, it seems to require all of my physical, emotional and spiritual energies. How do I know what to do to build this family into a barge that can cross perilous waters? The story tells me to follow the instructions of the Lord (through scripture and His prophets).
There are times (a lot) when I see the inadequacies of my work (where's the light, the navigation system and the air?) Sometimes the Lord provides me wonderful answers and revelation, but most of the time I have to hike to Mount Shelem and get to work. Hard work. And creativity and resolve and consecration of the best of what I have. All of this work is the action part of faith. We need to be doers (James), planters (Alma 32), harvesters (D&C 4), and laborers (Jacob 5). But we also must remember that after all that we can do, it is by grace that we are saved. (2 Nephi 25:23)
It is our duty to present to God our best efforts, no matter how feeble they may seem, and then believe that He can touch them with His finger and make our sweat and toil shiny and bright and sea-worthy and sacred and enough. We must work and consecrate our time and energy to the development of our children and then symbolically present them to the Savior and pray, "I have done everything in my capacity, now please touch them and make them light." Faith is our personal action and obedience coupled with trust in the omniscience and omnipotence and perfect love of the Savior of the world. He can make shiny stones from our gathered rock.
We might ask why the Lord required that the Brother of Jared work so hard at the milling and purifying of those stones in advance of Christ's touch? An amazing answer was given in that Stake Conference meeting, "God wanted the Brother of Jared to participate in the miracle." Why must we work and labor? So that we feel part of the amazing results of God's great power and generosity. He can make our widow's mite bountiful.
I am going to see the work part of my mothering differently now-- it is a consecrated offering of faith in action so that I can approach the Lord with confidence that I have done all that I can do.
I am going to pray differently now-- "Please touch my efforts with Thy mercy and grace and power, and make them into bright light. Please finish my striving and industry, and work a heavenly miracle."
(Painting by Arnold Friberg)
