Insights from Ether (part 2)

Several days ago I read through Ether 12. As always, I paid attention to verse 27, which is very reassuring to me.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I always need to be reminded that God has given me my weaknesses to help me be humble, and that He is the one that can make weak things become strong.

This time, however, I also noticed something interesting a few verses later. The Lord said to Moroni:

...because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

This fascinated me. Because Moroni saw his weakness, he would be made strong.

I was reminded of a verse from the story of the Jaredite barges that had stayed in my mind for several days after I read it. It described the way the brother of Jared approached the Lord when he was praying for the Lord to touch the stones to make them give light. He said:

2 O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.
3 Behold, O Lord, thou hast smitten us because of our iniquity, and hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people...

Here's what was so interesting to me. After addressing the Lord, he said:

• I am weak
• Thou art holy
• We are unworthy before thee
• Because of the fall our natures are evil continually
• Look upon me in pity
• Turn away thy anger

Thoughts about this prayer stayed with me for several days after I read that chapter. I couldn't stop thinking about the humility with which the brother of Jared had prayed. We are unworthy before thee...our natures are evil continually...

I've never had a very good understanding of what it means to have humility. From time to time I seem to catch a glimpse, and I'm always grateful for more understanding. This time, as I pondered on these verses over the next few days, an experience from the past was brought to my mind.

In our early years of homeschooling we belonged to the Christian homeschooling group in Durham. Another family in our ward already belonged to this group, but apparently two Mormon families was the tipping point and it caused a crisis in the leadership of the group. At one point in the next year I found myself having a long phone conversation with the leader of the group, a devout Southern Baptist. I had not lived in North Carolina long at this point, and I was surprised by her frequent use of the word sin. She frequently interjected into the conversation the reminder that she was a sinner, that she sinned, that her children sinned, etc.

(True confession. She used the word sin so much it reminded me of the old children's rhyme about ice cream ....only different. I sin, you sin, we all sin, for I sin.)

I've thought about that experience occasionally during the intervening years. We Mormons tend not to use the word sin very much, and seem much more comfortable talking about our weaknesses. (Notwithstanding and all.)

I'm wondering if perhaps true humility is to be able to see and acknowledge both our sins and our weaknesses. Perhaps true humility is coming before the Lord with the awareness that we are unholy before him, and that our natural-man selves do evil continually.

After all—how can we work to change what we can't see? How can we pray to the Lord for help overcoming what we don't want to look at? How can we repent of things that are too uncomfortable to acknowledge?

Interesting thoughts...

P.S. I just noticed, as I was reading aloud to Russ to make sure that my thoughts were coherent, that I have always missed a word in Ether 12:27. As I read it aloud I read the word weaknesses. And, as you can see, I used weaknesses in the next paragraph. But I realize that the word in the scripture is actually weakness, and I think this changes the meaning for me. At least tweaks it a bit. What do you think?