Waiting Waiting on the on the LordLord

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Disturbing Letter from Wal-Mart

Dear Mrs. Goodrum,Due to your husband’s increasingly disruptive behavior, we are forced

to ban both of you from our store for the time being. While this is an unusual step, our store manager has documented the following disturbing behaviors:

Aug 1st Went to service desk and tried to put a bag of M&M’s on layawayAug 4th Set all the alarm clocks in housewares to go off at 5 minute intervalsAug 6th Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers the s’mores would

be ready in an hourAug 10th When the manager asked him if he needed assistance, he started to cry and

asked, “Why can’t you just leave me alone!”Aug 11th While in the gun department, asked the clerk where the antidepressants were…Aug 13th Darted around the store suspiciously humming the theme from “Mission

Impossible”.Aug 20th Hid in the women’s clothing rack and when people were browsing, yelled “Pick Me!

Pick Me!”Aug 22nd When any announcement came over the loud speaker, he got into a fetal position

and yelled, “No, No, it’s the voices again!

Mrs. Goodrum, tell him football season has started again and to leave us alone. Please, please, please.

2 Nephi 6 (Isaiah)

And blessed are the Gentiles, they of whom the prophet has written… for the Lord God will fulfil his covenants which he has made unto his children; and for this cause the prophet has written these things.

Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord

shall lick up the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not

be ashamed. For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they

still wait for the coming of the Messiah.

QuestionWhat does it mean to ‘wait on the Lord’?

Or how can we tell we’re not doing avery good job of waiting?

Robert Millett

To wait on the Lord is closely related to having hope in the Lord. Waiting on and hoping in the Lord are scriptural

words that focus not on frail and faltering mortals but

rather on a sovereign and omni-loving God who

fulfills his promises to the people of promise in his own time.

Hope is more than worldly wishing. It is expectation, anticipation, assurance. We wait on the Lord because we have hope in him….

Thus, we wait on the Lord not in the sense that we sit and wring our hands and glance at our clocks periodically, but rather that we exercise patience in his providential hand, knowing full well, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Father of Lights will soon transform a darkened world…

I Will Fear No Evil, Deseret Book

Competing Events

Luke 2 And Joseph also went up

from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto

the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,

being great with child. (70 Miles, on foot, with a pregnant woman)

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

3 Nephi 1But there were some who began to say that the

time was past for the words to be fulfilled, which were spoken by Samuel, the Lamanite.

And it came to pass that they did make a great uproar throughout the land;

Now it came to pass that there was a day set apart by the unbelievers, that all those who believed in those traditions should be put to death except the sign should come to pass, which had been given by Samuel the prophet.

But behold, they did watch steadfastly for that day and that night and that day which should be as one day as if there were no night, that they might know that their faith had not been vain.

And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers.

President Eyring

You and I struggle to bring down the powers of heaven. You may not think about it much, but sometimes you do. You go along on your own and then, suddenly, that's not enough. Something dramatic may happen, like having a friend or family member who needs a blessing.

Or perhaps something dramatic doesn't happen; you realize that you've been teaching your class or visiting the people who have been assigned to your care with no visible effect. That may make you doubt yourself or the person who called you, or even whether you have the power to reach God.

To Draw Closer to God: A Collection of Discourses, 91.

One reason we sometimes do not ‘wait’ on Him very well

PunishmentWe broke it, we fix it

Less TrustMake up for it

Keeping the RulesBack in Good

Graces

Activates:His Love

The Atonement

In the “dog house!”

Sin:“Act of

Independence”

Laws of God

Consequences

Hartman Rector, Jr.

But repentance is granted unto man by the Lord. I am convinced that repentance is about 90 percent from the Lord and about 10 percent from man. Nephi goes still further and says, for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Ne. 25:23.)

However, man's part is the most urgent and vital part because it must be first, and full, and sincere. An ancient Hebrew writing declares, "There must be a stirring below before there is a stirring above." This means that repentance must begin with us, with mortals.

Many times we say we are waiting on the Lord, when as a matter of fact, the Lord is waiting on us.

Conference Report, April 1970, 141

One Mom’s Story

As a young child my life was secure and happy in a home centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pain of

the death of my mother when I was seven years old was cushioned by the love of my family. I graduated from BYU, married in the temple, supported my husband through graduate studies, held Church callings, and had five beautiful children. I was blessed with a wonderful and secure life. I had multiple opportunities to serve.

Then came the test of the depths of my faith. Twelve years ago I found myself a single mother. I felt shock that anything could so disrupt our family, disbelief that divorce could happen to the "perfect family," fear of the future, and anger. I held my sobbing children in my arms at night, trying to comfort their broken hearts. One of my little daughters carefully hid in her room a white envelope filled with tiny pieces of a photograph of her mother and father, shredded by the hands of a heartbroken child.

After 23 years of marriage and five children, after 14 months of litigation and thousands of dollars in legal fees, I found myself in a Kansas courtroom going through what was abhorrent to me. I was alone in that courtroom. I thought of another who was alone: he who said, "I have . . . trodden the wine-press alone" (D&C 76:107). There are some things that must be done alone.

I was determined that although the adversary had destroyed a marriage, he would not destroy our family. On the wall of our home hung an inscription of the stirring commitment of Old Testament Joshua: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15). I drew my children close in an intimate circle of love. We read scriptures on my big bed, my children like a litter of puppies sprawled across and around each other and me in a casual, happy atmosphere. Our family was strengthened by pillows of faith that cushioned and softened the blows of life with flexibility and resiliency.

(See Lynn Clark Scott, "A Time to Heal," Ensign, April 1989, pp. 56 63.)