I
am pretty sure that I was very converted to the Plan of Salvation in my
pre-mortal life. In fact, I suspect I thought the warrior spirit within me was
going to come here and set the world on fire. Instead, life brought me down to
the depths of humility. It was something I needed to break through the brick
veneer of my idealistic nature.
Pre-earth
life and mortality is very much like pregnancy and the baby….when you’re
pregnant you believe you will be the ideal mother skipping through the tulips of
an ideal life with your perfect children but then the baby comes and shocks you
into reality.
Lehi
claimed that if Adam and Eve had stayed in the Garden of Eden and had had no
children ‘they would have remained in a
state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery’ (2 Nephi 2:23). Notice
he said that having children gives you knowledge of misery. Sometimes, I think
I missed the memo about the misery part and focused only on the joy that
mortality would eventually bring. That’s the idealist that I am.
Sister
Marie Hafen explained this well: “As I lay there in my hospital bed holding
that beautiful little boy in my arms, his reddish hair already hinting at his
temperament, I thought, “Nothing could be more wonderful than this”…..
“The
day after the baby was born, I was cuddling him happily in my hospital room
when my doctor came in. He was my uncle and quite a salty character. He looked
at us and said cheerily, “How does it feel to have the easiest part over with?” “Easiest part?” I asked. “Why sure”, he
replied, “It’s the next twenty years that are going to be tough.” (Bruce C.
Hafen, “The Broken Heart” p 69)
We
are going through the twenty years of bringing up the baby. Sometimes the
challenges and trials are overwhelming. We are not just charged with
responsibility of survival and our salvation but the survival of the entire
entity of the House of Israel. We are the builders of the Millenial future of
this earth.
Now
more than ever the Saviour needs warriors to combat the subtle and not so
subtle evil that is striving to envelop the entire human family. I see many
people in the Church here in Australia leaving, Wards and Stakes being lost. We
are being lulled into believing that all is well in Zion (2 Nephi 28:21). Satan’s
greatest propaganda of this dispensation….
It
is time to put the baby down for a nap and dust off that armour……
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Put On the Armour of God by Celestial Heritage)
