Jacob the Prophet

Yesterday, I was in the Provo City Center Temple for an endowment session with two of my daughters. I had a name for the proxy ordinance from my family genealogy - the husband of my second cousin, twice removed, who was born in 1896 in Italy. 

I arrived an hour early so I could spend some time reading in The Book of Mormon. I began reading in Jacob 1. He was given the gold plates by his older brother, Nephi, to continue writing his account. I read:

"Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness.

"Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfil the commandment of my brother Nephi." (Jacob 1:7-8).

This sincere prophet leader was anxious to fulfill his duty. He described how difficult it was to write on the gold plates, and he repeated the injunction of his brother, Nephi, to record and retain only those things that were precious and spirit-filled. He was to leave the historical aspects aside. "These plates" always referred to the small plates of Nephi, while "those plates" referred to the large plates of Nephi that contained the history. He preserved many plain and precious truths for us.

I was always impressed with Jacob, so much so that I named one of our sons Jacob, and I often referred to this faithful son as "Jacob the Prophet." He has proven worthy of that moniker in every way.

I pondered that phrase cited above, "bear the shame of the world," and would offer these thoughts for your consideration. It was easy to contemplate in those quiet confines of the temple chapel, and I recalled a passage from Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith. If we would have the fellowship of our Savior Jesus Christ, we must be willing to endure humiliation, to “lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor, and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also-counting all things but fifth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Lectures on Faith 6:5).

The man of faith must learn to walk with confidence amidst the shouts of scorn from those in the “great and spacious building” (1 Nephi 8:26). When people trust in the Lord their gaze is not diverted from the Savior, for they know full well that the “sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed [to] us.” (Romans 8:18; see also 1 Nephi 8:33; 2 Nephi 9:18.)

I am no longer embedded in the things of the world as I once was. It's easier for me to think loftier thoughts these days. And this thought has persisted through the night and into today. What are we willing to give up for the "excellency" of the knowledge of Jesus Christ? There is an exchange posited here. We are informed by Jacob that we can't have it both ways. Either we love Christ or we love the ways and the praise of the world. It is an "either-or" proposition. That's a hard doctrine, but one, when embraced and lived, brings peace and solace to the soul.

There was a time in my life when I had to choose that choice. I walked away from a compromising position and decided I would pursue my long-desired ambition to teach released-time Seminary (religious training) to high school students. I had three simple goals upon returning from my mission to Great Britain in 1969: 1) Be a tour guide on Temple Square; 2) teach Seminary; and 3) sing in the Tabernacle Choir. I had already achieved number one, and now, I thought somewhat naively, it was time to pursue number two.

I was accepted for my student teaching at Brighton High School, then I was offered a full-time contract for the next school year. When they put the paper work in front of me, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was a paltry sum of money that would not be possible to support our growing family. I had to turn it down. I found other employment, and that choice has proven to be efficacious in every way. The third goal was never realized, singing in the Tabernacle Choir.

My point in sharing that story is when we eschew the luring enticing of the world's demands and choose Christ instead, we are sustained, blessed and magnified in ways we never would have imagined. Some things just make no sense on paper. Pragmatism often wins out when pitted against spiritual goals. Remember that when given the choice (and all of you surely will be) choosing Christ and His kingdom here on earth above all other considerations will serve you well in the long run. Take it from one who is now at the end of the "long" run through mortality, there is peace.

Here's the irony of it all - I have now been asked to teach remote Institute at this late stage. The compensation? None. The satisfaction? Immense. We learned a lot through the imposed vaccines and quarantines associated with COVID-19 as we have now passed the four-year anniversary of that worldwide pandemic, and one of those realities was that we could gather remotely via technology. I will now have that opportunity to scratch that itch that was not possible so long ago.

So, lesson learned. Take the long view, be patient, and all things will work together for your good and hopefully for the blessing of those you serve. 

Thanksgiving Journal, Day 2

 We have had a wonderful Sabbath day thus far. We attended our weekly sacrament meeting, and we are grateful for the kind and careful steps our bishopric is making during the COVID-19 pandemic to make the chapel a safe haven where all may come to worship together without fear of spreading the virus that is altering nearly everything we do these days. We are thankful for two speakers in our meeting today who offered comments and a review of Elder Matthew S. Holland's talk at the recent October 2020 General Conference. He entitled it "The Exquisite Gift of the Son."

We are thankful for the young men of the Aaronic Priesthood in our ward who administer the emblems of the Lord's agonizing atoning sacrifice for each of us. The bread and the water, simple symbols that are universal reminders of the Savior's body and His blood, allow us to bind our souls to Him, to remember Him, to covenant to keep His commandments, and to always have His spirit to attend us. 

We were thankful for a season this summer to have authorization to administer the sacrament in our home, and we enjoyed having the Pahnkes, our brother and sister from California, joining us in our home sacrament service. But now we have thankfully been able to return to the ward building to be served by our young men, who are masked, wear protective latex gloves, and making everyone feel loved as they serve us. There is power in worshipping at home, but there is also power in gathering at the ward building for the fellowship of our ward members from a safe distance. 

I give thanks that we live in a day when we can worship freely in the land of America, where religious freedom abounds. Except for those freedoms we enjoy here in America, the gospel never could have flourished and we would be unable to go into foreign lands and teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the blessing of the Constitution of the United States and for the Bill of Rights that offers the privilege of worshipping who, where and what we choose. I give thanks for the Constitutional right to choose.

I am thankful for my family members, most of whom are feeling somewhat disenfranchised this upcoming holiday season because of the counsel to avoid gathering too many people. That suggestion, of course, puts a damper on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner plans for everyone. I am thankful that we can still be offering our gratitude even with reduced numbers around the table. We love getting together with our family whenever we can, but this year we give thanks that we are so anxious to be together even though the restrictions make it more difficult. Count it a blessing, as we do, that our families desire to be together. How sad would it be if they were indifferent and didn't care to be together? I am grateful they love one another.

Traditionally, one of our favorite holiday events has been getting together to make our gingerbread houses the day after Thanksgiving. We are still doing it, but gathering in much smaller groups to remain safer. We are grateful for Grandma Patsy, who makes the gingerbread houses - this year around 40 - for all who want to come and put them together. There is definitely more candy involved than Halloween, and how grateful we all are for the continuation of the sugar fest into November and December.  

I express my thanks for the peace and tranquility of Pine Valley. The long dry summer and autumn is finally transitioning into winter. The snow is a welcome respite from the heat and the drought that often dominates the desert climate where we live. We are richly blessed with all four seasons. The water we drink in summer comes largely from the skies above in the form of the winter snow. I am grateful for the "greatest snow on Earth."

I give thanks for electricity, for propane, for a boiler, for a water pump that pumps fresh spring water into our home on tap. I am grateful for warm showers and baths, for firewood to burn in our free-standing stove in one section of the house, and for warm baseboards fed by the boiler that heat the whole house. These creature comforts, though we all seem to take them for granted, are better than the castles of old Europe that lacked even the barest of these necessities in years gone by. I am grateful that I live better than the crown heads of Europe used to live.

I am grateful for transportation to get me wherever I wish to travel when and if it is possible. Cars and trucks that work, airplanes that fly, trains and buses are readily available to us. We aren't that many years removed from horses and buggies.

I am grateful today for Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in the October 2020 General Conference. We reviewed it in our Zoom priesthood meeting this morning. It is entitled "Waiting on the Lord," and Elder Holland emphasizes that we are not always privy to the timetable of the Lord. We often petition the Lord for blessings, and sometimes in the cases of chronic illness or physical pain those pleas seem to go unanswered for many years. I give thanks for the assurances that our prayers are always answered. 

"I offer you my apostolic promise that [your prayers] are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. . .

"He administers that calendar to every one of us individually. For every infirm man healed instantly as he waits to enter the Pool of Bethesda (see John 5:2-9), someone else will spend 40 years in the desert waiting to enter the promised land. (See Numbers 32:13; Deuteronomy 2:7; Joshua 5:6)."

Patience, Not Anger, Eventually Wins Out

 About thirty-one years ago we added a large two-story addition to our original cabin structure in Pine Valley. It was late in November when we commenced construction, and getting the addition framed up and closed in before winter was our primary concern. 

We contacted the power company (then Utah Power & Light, now Rocky Mountain Power) to move the buried primary power cable running through the valley, and waited a week after three failed attempts at getting a response from them. Each day the temperature dropped, and the footing and foundation contractor told me he would have to move ahead, or cancel and wait until next spring. He was getting worried about pouring the cement in the winter months because of falling temperatures. 

After no response from the power company, except for shallow promises, "We'll get right on that," we decided to move ahead with a work around solution. The cement contractor fashioned a PVC collar to fit around the two-inch power cable where it would go through the two foundation walls and allow the power cable to run through our crawl space in the new addition. Problem solved, or so we thought.

Construction proceeded, we did in fact get the structure finished and closed in before the winter's fury descended upon us, and for those thirty-one years we have lived with that power cable in our crawl space. These are the things one does when you live where we live.

Fast forward thirty-one years. Despite several additional attempts to get the attention of the power company over the years, nothing was ever done until last week. We heard a knock at the door, and opened to greet a crew chief from Rocky Mountain Power who let us know they were on our property to inspect where the main power line was so that additional work around us could be accomplished. Blue stakes had marked the existing line with red paint and little red flags, and the crew chief was simply asking if the markings that showed the line running under our addition could possibly be accurate. I assured him they were, then he asked, "Could we go down in the crawl space and take some pictures of the line?" 

He took the pictures back to the office, and his parting words were, "I can't believe the power company has left this situation unaddressed for thirty-plus years. I don't know if we can get to it right away but certainly by next spring we'll move that line out around your home to the east, cut the existing cable and remove it from under your home." 

Imagine my surprise when I awoke the next day to find trucks, track hoes, dump trucks, and a large crew of men from the power company's subcontractor who were ready to go to work on rerouting the line. We walked the ground and agreed on the new trench location for the cable, and they explained they would bury the conduit in the ground that day and a crew from Rocky Mountain Power would follow up the first of this week and pull new cable and install a new terminal transformer box on our north property line. The speed, efficiency and accuracy with which they worked was impressive.

Turned out, when he got back to the office with the pictures, it was concluded quickly by the crew chief's boss, Mitch, that this was a project that leaped to the top of the list of priorities. He was good friends with two of our sons, Jake and Rich, who had lived in Mitch's neighborhood over in Heber City, and they had played together on the same Church basketball team and won a regional tournament together. He said to me when we met, "You've raised two great sons there, who have become great men. When I learned this was your home and the home where they had been raised, I was determined to make this happen sooner rather than later." It is good be the father of great sons, I thought to myself once again.

Last night, Mitch and his crew from Rocky Mountain Power arrived around 6:30 p.m., and confirmed they were there to pull the new cable through the buried conduit and make the new connections. They worked on it for about four hours, and we were only without power for about five minutes while they made the connections at both ends of the new cable in the junction boxes. When Mitch came up from the crawl space with the cable neatly coiled up in his hands, he said, "Well, promise kept after thirty-one years - we've taken out that 7200-volt power line from under your house and moved it safely away from you and your family."

The point of my telling this story is simple. Sometimes life presents us with experiences where we have choices. We can either huff and puff and threaten to blow down someone's house, or we can choose to be patient and civil, waiting for future events to unfold as they always will when truth rises to the top as cream rises in a bucket of fresh milk. And no, I will not be suing Rocky Mountain Power any time soon, and no, sitting on that 7200-volt power line for 31 years did not cause my brain tumor.

In this political election season in America, let us all be patient with one another and our politicians. Let us not be pouters or rioters. Let us, instead, be civil and patient with each other. America is the land where God chose to set the events in motion that would be hundreds of years unfolding in the ongoing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Israel is being gathered from the four corners of Earth's expanse, and that work will take some time to complete. Be patient. "Let God Prevail," as President Russell M. Nelson has reminded us recently.

And just like the power company that fulfilled all its promises some thirty-one years later, God will yet fulfill all His promises too. (See Doctrine & Covenants 1:37). America will not fail in this political season, just as it has not failed in prior election seasons. Sometimes it just takes a little while to fulfill the promises the way we had hoped.

Faith in God's Timing

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, "Faith in God includes faith in His timing."

Our newest grand-daughter, Vivienne, has been the latest object of our family faith in recent weeks. Her mother and father, Heidi and Jake, are exercising extraordinary faith in God's timing right now. Heidi, in her candid expressions on their blog will admit waiting in faith upon the timing of God just flat out "sucks" sometimes. Vivi is now at 31 weeks and making slow but steady progress. We celebrate every new day with her and we continue to pray for good timing.

So it is for all of us, if we are as honest as Heidi. So much of the rhythms of our lives seem to contradict what we would choose for ourselves. Life could be so much more convenient if things unfolded the way we intended on our own terms. But many things happen to disrupt our flow.

Think about what life would be like if we lived a third-world country where we were under constant threat of death by decapitation at the hands of some random radical terrorist. I can't imagine living under those conditions, yet many do, and certainly they would choose something different if they could.

We live in a day when assaults on freedom of religion abound. When the living Apostles raise a warning voice, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland did this week, and when legislatures craft new legislation designed to make any and all forms of bigotry against religion illegal, we know the Constitution's guarantees for freedom of religion are being eroded.

There are those who live lengthy lives into their nineties, and their quality of life slowly erodes until the end. Day by day their ability to do even the simplest tasks is compromised. Their faith in God is challenged as they wonder aloud, "How much longer, Lord?"

Observing the wickedness of these last days, many ask how much longer the Lord can delay His Second Coming. Is there something in the timing of the Lord that needs to be corrected, we wonder?

The marvelous atonement of Christ covers all these contingencies. This month's lessons for the youth in Sunday School are devoted to the topic of the atonement. It is hard for young people, and even adults, to realize, accept and believe there is nothing His suffering did not contemplate. Sometimes, we feel our suffering is somehow warranted because we know our lives are less than perfect and we reason our suffering must be the just desserts the universe is meting out to us for our dereliction. It is so sad for me to witness people who deny the power of Christ to heal "even this" in their lives, but I understand their doubts. The sure antidote is living long enough to develop the faith in His timing.

Until we are confronted with the realities of evil in our lives and think about having to rely upon the merits of Christ's perfection, seldom does our faith in His timing come into effect. What if our relatives who strayed from the path in mortality really can accept the gospel, seek the ordinances, and have the chance to put themselves on an equal footing with others who were faithful?

We heard yet another testimony from a visiting Area Seventy, Elder Lynn Summerhays at a recent stake conference, that faithful parents can exercise sufficient faith in the Lord's timing that their children will someday return to them. Parents cannot compromise the moral agency of their wayward children by compelling their observance of gospel principles, but they can influence their children through their own faithful and consistent choices. Where else, Elder Summerhays asked, will they go? They will go home to their faithful parents and the warmth of the fire of their faith when every other option expires. Is that not an example of having faith not only in the atonement, but also in the timing of the atonement? I believe that is what Elder Maxwell was telling us.

As I think about Heidi and Jake, I believe I understand the longing of their hearts when it comes to better timing. They would have chosen a full-term pregnancy without any complications at delivery, and a swift exit from the hospital with a healthy baby in arms and a one-time journey home to begin raising their little third-born daughter.

When it comes to me, I would have chosen a successful completion to my working life with enough retirement money to choose something more useful, perhaps, than extending my working life as I take the long ride into the sunset. Timing was everything, and the timing of a world-wide economic meltdown was very inconvenient.

Sometimes callings to serve in the Church seem to come at a time that is anything but convenient. I have often been amazed to see the demands put upon young couples who are establishing themselves in careers, working diligently in the Church and answering the demands of all their children that seem all-consuming.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

The timing in all these circumstances routinely requires super faith, it seems. I loved President Gordon B. Hinckley's infectious optimism:

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.
It all works out. Don’t worry.
I say that to myself every morning.
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God,
and move forward with faith
and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers.

From the funeral program for Marjorie Pay Hinckley, April 10, 2004; see also “Latter-day Counsel,” Ensign, October 2000, 73.

"Grandfather, Don't Shove Me!"

Every family has a few beloved stories about themselves that get enshrined in the family pantheon of memories. Today's post highlights one such story from our family. As most who read these pages will know, my maternal grandfather was President Harold B. Lee.

My mother preserved this insight among her writings to give the backdrop for the story that follows:

President Harold B. Lee

While I was serving as the chorister in our ward Relief Society when our first two sons were about two and a half and four years of age, I had arranged with Mother to come and tend my little boys while I attended a Friday afternoon stake leadership meeting. [This was circa 1951 - imagine how poorly attended a stake leadership meeting on a Friday afternoon would be today]. Mother called early that morning, however, to say that she had awakened with a bad cold and wouldn't be able to come. She felt badly to disappoint me but I assured her I could arrange with our pianist to excuse me and to bring me the information that would be given at the meeting. Sometime mid-morning, the phone rang again. This time it was my father, calling from his office in the Quorum of the Twelve. He said, "Dear, you plan to go to your meeting and I'll come tend the boys." I was appalled at such an idea and strongly protested. But he persisted and asked, teasingly, "Don't you think I'd be an acceptable babysitter? "Of course," I replied, "but-well-I just couldn't have you do that! I'd feel like I was thwarting the work of the Lord to have you leave your important work at the office just to come and tend my babies!" His reply was sobering and taught me important lessons: "Why, my dear, who is to say which is the most important work of the Lord - to stay at my desk at the Church Office Building, or to tend two choice little grandsons while their mommy goes to her Relief Society meeting?" He came; I went to my meeting, and two little boys were blessed that day by the full attention of a loving, devoted grandfather.

Indeed, our whole lives we have been blessed by grandparents we knew and loved on both sides of the family. The story to which I made reference earlier is this one:

On June 11, 1953, [Elder Lee] took "Skipper" (David), age five, and "Hal" (Harold Lee), age four, to attend the Mutual Improvement Association Dance Festival in the University of Utah stadium. His official diary entry stated that "they were tired boys, but seemingly very happy."

David, Grandfather Lee, Hal

The inside story, however, was a contest of wills from which this General Authority grandfather learned a lesson he often used in his sermons. As the long evening wore on, it became obvious that four-year-old Hal was not able to sit still that long, nor have his interest sustained in the panorama going on some distance away on the stadium floor. Grandfather Lee, not wishing to disturb his General Authority friends who surrounded him, tried in vain to quietly direct him to sit still as Hal taxed his patience by running up and down the aisle. Finally, in exasperation he caught the restless youngster with a firm grasp, sat him down very hard on his own lap, and held him tightly. A second later he felt the impact of a little doubled-up fist against his cheek, accompanied by Hal's indignant response, audible to all, "Grandfather, don't shove me!"

Embarrassed and realizing too late his mistake in handling the matter, he relaxed his hold on his young grandson, and reassuringly and lovingly cuddled him in his arms. It was not long until Hal submitted to the warmth and security of Grandfather's arms and drifted off into a contented sleep.

The title of Elder Lee's next sermon to Primary leaders? "Love-Don't Shove!" (L. Brent Goates, Harold B. Lee: Prophet & Seer, 314-15).

* * *

Sometimes in life the "contest of wills" is an unrestrained force to test us and threatens to destroy every relationship. As parents of children who have a tendency to stray from the path, our immediate reaction is to "shove" not love. We are invested in the outcomes of the decisions our children make. We sometimes recoil in horror when we observe their rowdy behavior when it does not comport with the careful life lessons we have sought to imbue in them. To uphold our reputations as Church leaders and neighbors in the eyes of others becomes first and foremost. 

Next time you're tempted as a parent to "shove" one of your children into a certain acceptable path of behavior, think again and remember the moral lesson here - love, don't shove!

Too often we succumb to the tendency to use the heavy whip hand and beat those around us into submission. We know the way, they don't, crack the whip. Resist using the whip. Instead, slowly recoil it in your hand, set it down and do what is hardest to do when confronted with a defiant child - try loving them instead. Relax your grip. Risk failure for a season. Look to the long-term day of the harvest, just as our Father in Heaven does with each of us.

"And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt, he called up his servants, and said unto them: Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning. And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard." (Jacob 5:75, emphasis mine).

Why is it so difficult to resist the natural man in such extremities? It's usually because our pride is invested first in the outcomes. Set aside your pride. Take the long view. Stop focusing on the offensive abhorrent behavior and look a little deeper into their soul. What is it you can discover about the underlying reasons for the outward behavior? Often what is needed is a little more cuddling instead of thirty-nine lashes in your flogging of them.

Most children understand and already know when they have done wrong. Their inner spirit knows. Trust that the Spirit will guide them unerringly. Teach them, instead of flogging them, how to recognize the still, small voice that speaks to them. You don't need to shove them into righteousness. Trust that the Spirit will do it better and more convincingly than you ever can. Be invested in the long-term outcomes. Be assured that if you have taught them correctly they are fully capable of governing themselves.

* * *

This was not an easy lesson for headstrong and self-willed Harold B. Lee to learn. Here's another sample from his history. I heard President Lee tell and retell this story many times:

A favorite, oft-repeated teaching lesson, which had its origin in President Lee's early welfare experiences, found renewed application immediately following the October 1973 general conference. President Lee found it necessary at this time to counsel with a Church-appointed administrator whom he had sustained in a stressful personnel controversy but whom he later privately counseled with love so he would become more compassionate with his workers. President Lee wrote to this leader of "lessons that I had to learn the hard way," recalling this experience:

On one occasion, just before I was called to the Council of the Twelve, a certain matter was referred by the Welfare Committee to the new Presiding Bishopric, the President of the Relief Society and myself, for a study and a recommendation. I waited to be invited to a discussion of that subject, but I received no invitation. Shortly there came a letter signed by all three members of the Presiding Bishopric announcing a decision. This, of course, was construed by the Welfare Committee as a slight and an affront to the Welfare Committee.

Brothers Henry D. Moyle and Robert L. Judd of the Committee went over to see President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and voiced their disappointed feelings. President Clark, being a good diplomat, sidestepped any head-on controversy between these brethren and the Presiding Bishopric.

Within six weeks of that incident I was called to the Council of the Twelve. President Clark invited me one day to ride with him to his ranch in Grantsville so that he could have the opportunity of talking with me about some matters, and during the course of our visit together I made mention of the incident with reference to the Presiding Bishopric refusing to meet with me, representing the General Welfare Committee, and then I made some such remark as, "I suppose that now the Presiding Bishopric would be willing to sit down with me and discuss the problem."

President Clark saw in this remark a continued feeling of resentment on my part. He said to me, rather sharply, but with a fatherly look: "Yes, my boy, now you do have the whip hand, but in your position, you must never use it."

As additional responsibilities have come up to the present time I have found that President Clark's counsel was very wise and timely. The greater my responsibilities the more careful I must be in using that authority in a way that would be not inconsistent with my position. The greater authority one has the more careful he has to be to not use his whip hand.

Then, after assuring his leader-student of his personal love for him and confidence in his operation of one of the Church's largest corporations, he summarized: "I would have you think, as I have been taught to think over the years, that the greater my responsibility the more careful I must be in using my authority to the hurt of individuals whose feelings might be more tender because of my position." (Ibid, 554-55).

* * *

May this lesson from the life of President Harold B. Lee serve to guide us in our interactions with our children, grandchildren and co-workers. My hope is that by sharing it we may not have to learn it "the hard way." Restraint, patience, love unfeigned and long-suffering is the way of the Master.

Patience, President Joseph F. Smith

We have to be patient and educate our righteous desires as they mature and age over time. 

President Joseph F. Smith

President Joseph F. Smith counseled:

"God's ways of educating our desires are, of course, always the most perfect. . .  And what is God's way? Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting. We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come. In nature we have our seedtime and harvest; and if children were taught that the desires that they sow may be reaped by and by through patience and labor, they will learn to appreciate whenever a long-looked-for goal has been reached. Nature resists us and keeps admonishing us to wait; indeed, we are compelled to wait." (Gospel Doctrine, 297-­98).