Smart kid
Last spring my youngest daughter found out that she didn't get a spot in her intended major program. Besides the disappointment, this created an urgent question of what to do now? She was rushing around to figure out her options, her other interests, and what her best possibilities were.
Her intended minor was Russian. She had aced her Russian lit classes at the university. But despite having had four years of Russian in high school, when she took the university's placement test they told her she had to start with Russian 101. Now, mind you, she had passed the IB (International Baccalaureate) test in Russian which required her to take both an essay and an oral exam IN RUSSIAN (no English) on prescribed pieces of literature at the end of her senior year of high school. (That program did not emphasize conversational skills as much as literary ones. The university's test was apparently aimed at a different kind of program.) How could they put her all the way back to the beginning? I reacted with motherly indignation and she cut me off quickly. She pointed out that it didn't matter, she didn't have time to try again or appeal or even worry about it.
What did matter was to get a plan. (How did she get to be so smart?)
She found that there was an intensive Russian program for the summer, and it would put her perfectly on track to major in Russian studies and graduate on time. Her scholarship program would give her some assistance, and she felt that this was her answer. 15 credits of Russian in three months. She had to jump through some hoops with the school for financial aid, and she had to find a place to live.
She called a few days later, and said, "You know how it is when you are doing what you're supposed to do and everything falls into place," (I'm mentally nodding yes--but, she wasn't finished--)" and then the opposition starts up?" (Oh.) She then detailed the roadblocks and the steady resolution of each one as she doggedly plugged away at the issues.
After our conversation I was left musing how wise she was at the ripe old age of twenty; how often we get that first assurance of 'everything falling into place' and then give up when it doesn't proceed smoothly into reality. I had a bishop's counselor's wife in college who gave the young sisters a talk that was memorable to me. She said, when you are making the wrong choice, you have to make it over and over again. It won't stay settled. When you are making the right decision, it clicks into place and won't be moved. It stays calm in your mind.
Now, sometimes we make the assumption that the right decision won't be anything but easy and painless. I don't find that guarantee in my instruction manual. Can you point to the page that says that in yours? Then when we have to hang on and work through the problems that might arise, we give up and say, I guess I was wrong, this isn't what I was meant to do after all. After all, if this is what the Lord wants, I thought that was what he said to me, this wouldn't be happening. I must have been mistaken.
Opposition doesn't mean we were mistaken. Our Heavenly Father is not upset if we ask for reaffirmation; he will repeat his assurances that we are on the right track, and he will show us how to solve these impediments. Opposition may mean that what you are trying to do matters very much. Really active opposition, in fact, means that what you are doing matters a whole lot, and Satan is worried you might actually accomplish it.
So, if you have prayed about what to do and found an answer, you are acting on the clarity of that answer and are finding opposition, keep praying and keep going, and the Lord promises it will all work out for your good, maybe in ways you can't imagine right now.
Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. (Doctrine & Covenants 90:24)
You know how everything falls into place and then the opposition sets in? We probably all know those times. If it's the right answer, keep following it. Just do what you should. The Lord's promises beat out any other considerations.
Oh, the daughter? She is doing well, humming right along towards graduation.
Her intended minor was Russian. She had aced her Russian lit classes at the university. But despite having had four years of Russian in high school, when she took the university's placement test they told her she had to start with Russian 101. Now, mind you, she had passed the IB (International Baccalaureate) test in Russian which required her to take both an essay and an oral exam IN RUSSIAN (no English) on prescribed pieces of literature at the end of her senior year of high school. (That program did not emphasize conversational skills as much as literary ones. The university's test was apparently aimed at a different kind of program.) How could they put her all the way back to the beginning? I reacted with motherly indignation and she cut me off quickly. She pointed out that it didn't matter, she didn't have time to try again or appeal or even worry about it.
What did matter was to get a plan. (How did she get to be so smart?)
She found that there was an intensive Russian program for the summer, and it would put her perfectly on track to major in Russian studies and graduate on time. Her scholarship program would give her some assistance, and she felt that this was her answer. 15 credits of Russian in three months. She had to jump through some hoops with the school for financial aid, and she had to find a place to live.
She called a few days later, and said, "You know how it is when you are doing what you're supposed to do and everything falls into place," (I'm mentally nodding yes--but, she wasn't finished--)" and then the opposition starts up?" (Oh.) She then detailed the roadblocks and the steady resolution of each one as she doggedly plugged away at the issues.
After our conversation I was left musing how wise she was at the ripe old age of twenty; how often we get that first assurance of 'everything falling into place' and then give up when it doesn't proceed smoothly into reality. I had a bishop's counselor's wife in college who gave the young sisters a talk that was memorable to me. She said, when you are making the wrong choice, you have to make it over and over again. It won't stay settled. When you are making the right decision, it clicks into place and won't be moved. It stays calm in your mind.
Now, sometimes we make the assumption that the right decision won't be anything but easy and painless. I don't find that guarantee in my instruction manual. Can you point to the page that says that in yours? Then when we have to hang on and work through the problems that might arise, we give up and say, I guess I was wrong, this isn't what I was meant to do after all. After all, if this is what the Lord wants, I thought that was what he said to me, this wouldn't be happening. I must have been mistaken.
Opposition doesn't mean we were mistaken. Our Heavenly Father is not upset if we ask for reaffirmation; he will repeat his assurances that we are on the right track, and he will show us how to solve these impediments. Opposition may mean that what you are trying to do matters very much. Really active opposition, in fact, means that what you are doing matters a whole lot, and Satan is worried you might actually accomplish it.
So, if you have prayed about what to do and found an answer, you are acting on the clarity of that answer and are finding opposition, keep praying and keep going, and the Lord promises it will all work out for your good, maybe in ways you can't imagine right now.
Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. (Doctrine & Covenants 90:24)
You know how everything falls into place and then the opposition sets in? We probably all know those times. If it's the right answer, keep following it. Just do what you should. The Lord's promises beat out any other considerations.
Oh, the daughter? She is doing well, humming right along towards graduation.
At a BYU Honor's early morning devotional, a speaker once said that learning the language of revelation is like a traffic light. Sometimes you get a clear green light to proceed. And when you get a yellow and aren't sure, put the pedal to the metal until the Lord gives you the red light. Always stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteHow did your daughter get so smart? Probably from her parents. You got a "Life" manual? Mine probably got lost in the mail. It's amazing how things work out. 26 years ago my late wife had a stroke. Four months later I had a brain abcess. But we managed -- quite well, actually. When she passed away in '08, I was left on my own for 6 months, and then my son came to live with me. A blessing, truly!
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