A Heart like God's

"...sometimes the cost is very high. It was for Christ, it was for Joseph Smith...It is not easy to go without--without physical gratifications or spiritual assurances or material possessions--but sometimes we must since there is no guarantee of convenience written into our Christian covenant. We must work hard and do right, as Abraham Lincoln said, and sometimes our chance will come. And when we've tried, really tried, and waited for what seemed never to be ours, then "the angels came and ministered unto him." For that ministration in your life I pray." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

While I'm so happy with seeing so many blessings intermingled with trials this last week, I am also appreciative of the assurance that waiting is not forever. Also, that progression and direction can come every day, and in unexpected ways.

I'm grateful to see the strength in my heart, and to have recognized it, in part, because of a kind friend who has been constantly willing to encourage me and help me see the best in myself. She is someone I aspire to be like one day. I think that the best, noblest part of my character is there not of my own worthiness, but because I am a child of God with a capacity to love and forgive in ways beyond my own comprehension.

I find it interesting to think about what capacity for love and sorrow is with the heart of our Father in Heaven. Though He had His great power and knowledge, it was the feelings must of stirred within His heart that caused Him to weep in sorrow for the choices of children that He loved. (See the story of Enoch's conversation with God in Moses 7) And what a message God sent to us when he encouraged Enoch to be glad, even when there was much cause for sorrow (of course God was not rejoicing in the wickedness, but in Christ's power over such evil).

I anticipate the day when we can once again sit at the feet of our Father in Heaven, and learn more of not only His intelligence and glory, but His capacity to love. It occurs to me, however, that one of our primary purposes to being sent to earth is to form relationships that would allow us to be bound to others so deeply. We were sent here precisely so that we would learn to love in ways we could not in our life before this, to become more like God. That must be, after all, why my heart has been tested and tried again and again and again. Even more reason to be grateful.