I
had some interesting thoughts as I read Ether 6 this morning. This is the chapter after the Savior has
touched the stones so the Jaredites might have light while crossing the ocean
to the Promised Land, AKA America. In
verse 2 it says “ . . . and he did put
forth the stones into the vessels which were prepared, one in each end thereof;
and behold, they did give light unto the vessels.”
In
Helaman 5:12 it says: And now, my sons, remember, remember that it
is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must
build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds,
yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the
gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built,
which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot
fall.”
A
stone is also a rock. We’ve been told
that all things testify of Christ, and if we have eyes to see, we can see the
Savior in any good thing. Consequently,
as I kept reading I noticed that v7 “. .
. no water . . . could hurt them”.
They were being tossed in the depths of the sea, with continual winds
driving them toward the Promised Land.
How did they handle this adversity?
I call it adversity. They were in
a tight space with only the food and water they brought with them for 344
days! To me, that is serious
adversity. Yet they did v9 “ .
. . sing praises unto the Lord. . . and (Jared) did thank and praise the Lord
all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the
Lord.”
This
is significant to me. I am beginning to
notice a trend in my own life that I can relate to this content in chapter
6. I’m under tremendous stress currently
as we are navigating ourselves as a family through some pretty troubled
waters. I have a daughter who has
finally decided after ten years to end a marriage where she was battered,
beaten and abused emotionally as well as physically. She has lost all self-confidence as well as
her testimony. Another daughter is with
her to help her with the legal process as well as care for her, which is
something we as her parents could not have done. She was the only member in our family who has
the skill set as well as the time. She
too, has lost her testimony. The miracle
in this whole event is that both girls have noticed the tender mercies of the
Lord in the experience and although they are not where we would prefer
spiritually, they have thanked the Lord for the tender mercies. I have thanked the Lord they could see them. In the middle of this drama, my mother fell
and broke her femur, which has put me in the role of caregiver a little more
than when she was independently living in her own condo. She is now in a rehab center requiring a lot
of attention from me handling the needs that the facility are not meeting. Amazingly, it is all getting done – maybe not
in as timely a manner as it should; but it is getting done.
So
what is happening to me personally? I’m
writing music - probably at a rate that exceeds anything I went through in the
early years of my composing music. It
just seems to come, and I find great comfort in writing. What am I writing? Arrangements to hymns that bring me
comfort. I too have felt to v9 “ . . . sing praises unto the Lord. . . and
thank and praise the Lord all the day long”.
Psalms 104:33 says “I will sing
unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my
being.” I feel music in my soul all
day long, and ideas come. This is how I
handle adversity. Am I seeing the light
spoken of in this chapter? I believe I
am. He is my light and salvation. There is no other explanation. There is no other option.
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