Mormon 9 – Enduring to the End

Since I’ve read the Book of Mormon many times, I know this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Moroni, but if I did think so, it would be a sobering book to end his writings on.  At this time he believes he’s done, or so it would seem.

What is his counsel to me? 

• To believe in Jesus Christ who is powerful to save me from my sins, my trials and tribulations.
• Believe that Christ created the earth and everything that is in it – including me. 
• Don’t deny Jesus Christ, or despise him or doubt him, but rather to come unto Christ and work out my own salvation with fear and trembling before him. V27
• Be wise. 
• Strip myself of uncleanness. 
• Ask in prayer for things that will help me accomplish what I came here to do – not to satisfy my own lusts.  Serve the true and living God. V28
• Be sincere and worthy of baptism. 
• Partake of the sacrament of Christ worthily. 
• Endure to the end.

This list is very similar to the list of things we were told to do this weekend in conference.  Enduring to the end is a big one.  This is especially pertinent if we have taken Christ’s name on us through baptism.  When we are keeping the covenants we have made and serving others, keeping on is the big thing.

I’m watching my mother struggle with old age and now a broken femur that is really testing her metal.  She is feeling pretty worthless and wondering why she’s still hanging around.  I can see the “enduring to the end” as a big deal in her life currently, and wonder how I would be handling a similar situation in my own life.  My day will come, no doubt. 

Most of the brethren who counseled “enduring to the end” are men in their 80’s as well.  One spoke of Pres. Grant praying for the courage to “endure to the end” at the end of his life.  Will I have the presence of mind to pray for strength to endure the trials?  Will I have the courage to do the things necessary to gain that strength?  Will I have the courage to let go and let God bear my burdens?  I think that’s a big one.  There are some things we cannot fix.  Letting go of them is a big step and probably very necessary. 

And so goes my life.  There are many things in my life currently over which I have no control.  Am I’m giving them to my Savior?  I believe I am.  I’m trying hard not to carry “stuff” that is not mine.  It is a mother’s desire to “fix” her children. But that is the Savior’s unique assignment.  I can only love them for who they are and trust that when they feel that love, they will desire more.  I’m incapable of giving the “more” love they will seek eventually.  Only the Savior can satisfy that need.  I trust in that one as I went through it myself.  The Savior’s love so exceeds any love we can experience in this life that anything I’m asked to do is worth feeling that love.  And that is what I pray for my children.