Enduring

Enduring to the end means more than enduring (grit teeth) and my column today in the Nauvoo Times will sound familiar to those who were in our Institute class last spring. We were finishing the Book of Mormon, and the topic of the lesson was "enduring to the end."  Remembering that lesson* on faith related here last week, as levels of concentric circles, I envisioned the growth rings on a tree, from the scrawny sapling which is easily blown or cracked, to the enduring strength of a mature, even huge, oak or redwood.  Our lesson ended up being about "enlarging to the end."  Every choice of faith, of spiritually taking in moisture and nourishment and sending out branches and leaves and pushing upwards towards the sky builds up that strength.  From the core, we enlarge, one ring built upon another, until we (someday) cannot be shaken.

I began with that cat poster (Hang in there, baby!), and we traced and discussed the principles and the promises. Sometimes we forget about the promises, or feel they are so far away or so beyond us that we fail to draw hope where the Lord gives it.

One of the sisters, who had been one of Carole's Seminary teachers, said at the close that she would never look at the phrase, "enduring to the end," in the same way when she read her scriptures--she had always found it a little grim and daunting, but no more.  It points the way to joy and becoming all we are meant to be.


*(Proof too that teaching a particular lesson can be life-changing for the teacher as well as anyone else.)