Dear Minnasan,
Well, this week I've been thinking quite a bit about humility. We talked a
lot about it at our last training meeting, which got me thinking, what exactly
is humility? Why is it important? How can I become more humble? Well, to answer
these questions, I went to the best sources, the Scriptures, Preach My Gospel (a
missionary study manual), and to God Himself through prayer. These are some of
what I learned.
Humility is being willing to submit to the will of God. When you are
humble, you trust in the Lord. You trust that He will give you the power and
ability to accomplish that which He has asked you to do. It also includes
acknowledging that it is only through God that you can do anything.
When I think about humility and strive to be humble in my own life, it
gives me the drive to become a better person, a better missionary, and a better
follower of Jesus Christ. In essence, it makes me want to become a True
Disciple: it helps me to have the inner strength to keep going even when things
get tough. I feel closer to Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer. I better
understand who He is and that brings a greater sense of peace and happiness into
my life.
Humility is being willing to submit to the will of God. When I think about
that aspect of humility, my mind is immediately drawn to the Savior's infinite
sacrifice, the Atonement. In Matthew 26:39, it says, "And
he (Jesus Chris) went
a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be
possible, let
this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I
will, but as thou wilt." This scripture is talking
about when the Savior went to the Garden of Gethsemane and preformed the
atonement. For this scripture, I learn that Jesus Christ, the very son of the
Living God, is the perfect example of humility (as He is with everything). He
submitted to the will of His Father.
But, what does that mean? What does it mean to "submit to the
will of the Father?" To me, it means doing not what you want to do, but what God
has commanded you to do, no matter how hard it is. Jesus Christ knew what God
had commanded Him to do, and even though it was more difficult than He ever even
imagined it would be, He did it anyways. He did it because His Father asked Him
to. Now, how can we apply that in our own lives? It isn't easy, that's for sure.
But as with everything, God has provided a way.
When you are humble, you trust in the Lord. You trust that He
will give you the power and ability to accomplish that which He has asked you to
do. The best example of trusting the Lord that I can think of is Nephi. He has
really become a favorite Book of Mormon figure of mine. In 1 Nephi 3:7, it
reads, "And it came to pass
that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and
do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know
that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he
shall prepare a way for
them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
What does this have to do with humility? Well, Nephi
completely trusted the Lord. He understood who God was and that if God commanded
him to do something, God would also provide a way for him to accomplish that
thing. Humility includes understanding God's power and His mercy, and relying on
that. It's trusting what God has said because you know who He is and your
relationship to Him. Being humble means trusting that God will provide us with
the help which we need to do His will. Nephi understood
that, If we humbly trust the Lord, and acknowledge His power
and mercy, we can have the enabling power of the atonement opened unto us and be
given the strength we need to become someone we could not become on our own.
Elder David A. Bednar explained this in his most recent
General
Conference address. He said, "Not only does the Atonement of Jesus Christ overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and make possible the remission of our individual sins and transgressions, but His Atonement also enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal capacities."
I too, have experience with this. I don't know if any of
you remember this, but back in December of last year, my companion and I saw a
baptism. The woman who was baptized was 85 years old and she couldn't remember
much of anything we taught her. But we felt very strongly that it was the Lord's
will for her to receive the blessing of baptism. We didn't know how to do this,
but we knew what the Lord had commanded us. So we moved forward, trusting in
Him, and saw a miracle performed.
Lastly, humility includes acknowledging that it is only
through God that you can do anything. A great example of this in the scriptures
is the missionary Ammon. In Alma 26:12 it says, "Yea, I know that I am nothing;
as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will
boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many
mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name
forever."
One of the most important parts of being humble is
recognizing our own weakness. We need to realize that because we are mortal, we
cannot do this alone. As Ammon said in the above, " I know that I am nothing, as
to my strength, I am weak." We need to acknowledge that any progress made or
success seen is a gift given to us by God and is not due to our own powers or
merits.
To be truly humble, the way Ammon was, we must give God
all the credit. This is HIS work, and it is done by HIS power.
Well, those are my thoughts on humility this week. Sort
of became a novel. Well, if you're still reading this, let's work on being more
humble together!
Sister Weigl
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