The Power to do More and Be More

The Power to do More and Be More

We as a society are just too busy today. All of our modern advances that were supposed to save us time have simply created new holes for us to fill with new things.  We are constantly bombarded with music, media messages, bills, housework, obligations for our children, maintenance issues and so forth.  Even during our supposed 'down time' there is never a moment of peace.  

When was the last time that you spent an hour pondering and writing down impressions from the spirit?

Could you even do that without feeling guilty or getting distracted?

Do you worry that without the busyness there would be nothing left to ponder

 or that in the silence nothing would be heard?

You are not alone if this all sounds too familiar.  It is exactly where I was before my husband died.

I was doing all of the 'right' things.  We had family scripture study, FHE, family prayer.  I did my church calling and went to the temple once a month.  I always did my visiting teaching.  I even sporadically did the reading for Sunday School and Relief Society.  I wasn't very good at opening my scriptures for personal study... I was just too busy and guilt ridden to sit down and waste time like that, so I listened to hours of conference talks a day as I did my work.  Multitasking was my motto.

With all of the things that I was doing, I still felt something was lacking.  

Where was this 'enablement' from the spirit? 

Where was the voice of the Lord? 

I silently wondered,  "Do I just need to do more?" 

The answer I have found is not MORE, but LESS.

Now, I am not telling you that you need to say 'no' more and take more 'me' time.  That is not it at all. What I am saying is that we have to put spiritual things first in our lives, simplify and prioritize the temporal things, and then trust God to enable you to do them.

Let me tell you a story from my life...

My husband fell in love with a very large house on 13 acres of beautiful landscaped and irrigated lawn complete with hundred of trees, bushes and flower beds. He managed to convince me that it would be an excellent work project for our boys.  It was and I am grateful for that; however, it was also a huge work project for me.  The summer before my husband died, my three teenage boys, a friend we had hired, my daughter and I worked 6 hours a day to keep up with the yard. I had two house keepers that took over 10 hours each to clean the inside of the house.

After my husband died, I was pretty desperate to sell the place and move into something more manageable.  That spring I felt prompted to sell our tractor and two additional lawn mowers in order to prepare for the move. (That is another story for another post!) To make a long story short, the house did not sell, and 22 months after my husband's death it still has not sold.  After he died I could no longer afford people to clean or any help with the yard.  My first son left on his mission mid-summer the first year, and my second son left this last summer.  Now, my work force consists of my 15 year-old son, 12 year-old daughter and myself. No longer do we have a tractor to move the mulch, but we pitch it by hand.

The first summer we all spent literally every waking hour outside trying to stay ahead of the work.  When the house didn't sell I made a deal with the Lord.  I promised him that I would serve Him and spend my time spiritually growing and helping others come unto Christ if he would just help me to take care of my family.  I honestly had no idea how I was going to manage, and in my distraught state this was the best idea I could come up with.

Now, I know that it wasn't my idea, but it was a prompting from the spirit to do exactly what the Lord wanted me to do.  He had amazing miracles to show me. From that point on my life changed and so did my focus.

Some how, as I spent my time following spiritual promptings and then used the time leftover for the temporal things, it was enough.  I'm not saying that it is as perfect as I would like... I have had to cook more simple meals, deal with dust or a lawn mowed every 2 weeks instead of every week, but miraculously it has worked, and there is no way mathematically that it should.

This is my little miracle of consecration and it has stretched my faith and trust in the Lord.

When I am on the Lord's errand he will enable me to do everything that is needful. (Maybe not everything I used to think needed to get done, but what He knows is needful.)  The miracle comes in my priorities changing, being more efficient with my time, and simply, miraculously things getting done.

This works, but it takes faith to do the spiritual things first.  We have a tendency to ask the Lord for help and them to go about our business as usual.  We over schedule and leave no time for spiritual things.  No time to talk to someone who needs a friend, no time to study, or not time to ponder and pray.

If we really truly trust the Lord to enable us, then we will put His work first on our to do list and then trust that He will help the rest to work out.

We have work and responsibilities that have to be met, but beyond that, we can ask Him how He would have us use that disgressionary time and we can consecrate that to Him.  As we make time for Him we will find that the meal in the barrel and the little oil in the cruse is enough.  Less will become more as we trust and learn to love and serve the Lord. (1 Kgs. 17:12-16)

"Elijah then promised her in the name of the Lord that if she would feed him, she would never lack for food. I have pondered on the faith of that woman, who, on the promise of a humble man of God, put her life and the life of her son in the balance. Obediently she baked food and fed Elijah, and then followed the miracle of the fulfillment of the prophet’s promise: “And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.”  Burton, "The Power of Elijah," April 1974. 

Less time with temporal things will enable us with power to do more and be more that we ever could through any effort of our own. I have seen this work countless times in my life these past two years.  I have come to trust on it and count on it with complete certainty.

I invite you to try this in your own life and then come back and post how about your experiences in putting the Lord first.