Tied at the Ankle with Others
Story and photos by Anne Perry

I have had several very moving experiences since I last wrote.  The most important was that my home teacher said to me that he believed profoundly, in fact was quite certain, that there was something that I needed to do in order to be able to receive certain blessings I wished.  He would not tell me what it was, but said the right thing was that I should ask the Lord myself.

I was afraid it was going to be something I did not wish to do.  All sorts of possibilities danced through my mind, changes that would be painful.  The trouble with asking the Lord anything is that whatever the answer is, you really are stuck with it.  No rationalization, justification or evasion is possible.  You know the answers ― and worse than that, God knows that you do.

So instead of asking I prayed.  ‘I will ask, one day soon, but not just now.  I’m tired and I’m scared and I really don’t think I can cope with the answer just yet.  In a day or two I will.  Then I outlined what the question would be.

The next morning I woke up and thought ― I didn’t really ask yet, and I don’t have an answer?  Then I knew that when I did ask, the answer would be ― and I knew exactly what it was.

During that day I had three other quite separate people also tell me exactly the same thing that I needed to do.  They each spoke powerfully and with total conviction.  It was a spiritual change, not a material one.  I had received my answer.  I knew it was right.  So far I have kept it up, and worked to do so, probably not perfectly, but better all the time.

Which brings me to my real point: How often do we sincerely ask the Lord if there is something we need to be doing, some change to be made, before we can be the best in ourselves, and have all that is possible?  In my case, not often enough.  If things are moving along quite well I have usually been content not to be ‘anxiously engaged’ in seeing if there is anything further.  A sort of ‘Don’t rock the boat’!

But time is finite.  If not now to seek the very best, then when?  If now is the time to recoup, be comfortable for a while, when is the time to stride forward and seek the next great leap?

It comes back to trust.  God believes in us ― but do we believe in Him?

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Do we reflect God's image in our countenances?

No Poor among Them

The week before this incident I was asked at fairly short notice to fill in for someone as the last speaker in sacrament meeting, because the speaker was suddenly unable to be there.  I was happy to do so, and felt it a privilege to be entrusted with the subject, one which required a great deal of knowledge ― the literal gathering of Israel in the last days.

The first and second speakers addressed the scriptural references on the subject, leaving me to add a spiritual dimension.  After one quote from Scripture, I mentioned both Zion, which will be built in the New World, and Jerusalem.  The original city of Zion, more commonly known as the City of Enoch, was one of only two cities where the inhabitants all lived godly lives.  (The other city was Salem of Melchizedek ― the city translated from Mount Moriah between the time Abraham paid his tithes to Melchizedek on the way to Egypt, and the time he returned to find the city gone.) 

We are told that the inhabitants of both cities were so righteous that they were taken up to heaven without tasting death.  They lived such marvellous lives that they completed what they had to learn in mortality.  They held all things in common and there were no poor among them.

I thought what they must have been like.  No poor among them.  I’ll bet there were no lazy among them either!  No one who looked for the easy way out, the short cut, the excuse!  No one who turned up late, who left early, or made a slipshod job of anything he undertook.  No one who blamed someone else for his own shortcomings.

I’ll bet there were no people who told lies, were evasive, used other people’s belongings and forgot to return them, or broke them, or left them dirty.  No one who gave short change, short hours, short value!

I’ll bet there was no one who gossiped, repeated unkindnesses or rejoiced in anyone else’s misfortune.  No one who humiliated someone else, belittled them, undercut them or made them feel worthless.  No one who was happy to see others fail or who felt it their right or pleasure to sit in judgement of others, and to condemn rather than to help.

I’ll bet there was no one with an ungovernable temper with either fist or tongue.  No one who held a grudge, who refused to forgive, who lied to cover those they loved at the expense of others, no one who did not love both truth and mercy.

I’ll bet there was no one who lied to avoid discomfort, disappointment or pain, no one who took short cuts to avoid labour, effort or weariness.  I cannot think there were cowards there of any sort, moral, spiritual, intellectual, emotional or physical.

I don’t think there would be anyone who was not grateful for the wonder and the beauty of the world, the excitement and the glory of it.  No one who could not laugh, have fun, sing, understand that we exist in order that we might have joy.

There would be no one without faith, hope, and above all charity.

Of course there were no poor ― in any sense.

We all have a little work to become one of them, and the gaining of material benefits is last and the least of the blessings.

It was fast Sunday today during sacrament I had a sudden thought which the more I dwelt on, the more certain I became that it was true.

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Christlike people can't help but be grateful for the wonder and beauties of nature.

Sinking or Swimming Together

If we say or do anything that drags someone else down, discourages them, makes them weaker, less likely to succeed in what is good and beautiful, then we sink with them, as if we were tied at the ankle.  We may have crippled or debilitated them, but we have injured ourselves even more.

And if we help, encourage, lift others, and make them better able to reach for the stars, we rise with them.

If I can keep remembering that, then I will guard my tongue more, praise more, encourage more.  I will leave people better and stronger than I found them, filled with a conviction that success is possible.

One brother bearing testimony said that when applying for a job his prospective employer asked him only one question.  It was ― “How many times do you need to be told?”

He answered  “Once.”

He got the job.

I’m afraid I need to be told some things far more often.  But I’m working on it.

It is a gorgeous season of the year, in spite of being very grey and cool for summer.  But better a little cloud than the terrible life-claiming floods in the east of Europe, or the raging fires that are devouring lives and property in Portugal, Spain and the south of France.  Newspaper photographs show walls of flame towering into the sky.

Here the sunshine is brief, but the harvest fields are deep gold, the fireweed is in swathes of magenta brilliant along the verges and up the banks, blue cornflowers here and there, vivid yellow ‘stinking Billy’ in mounds and clumps and scattered individually, and around the borders there are sheets of white daisies.  Soon there will be gold corn lilies and blood red poppies as well.  And then the leaves will begin to turn bronze, copper and flame.  They will harvest the fields and the stooks will stand on the stubble.  The light will grow longer, deeper like amber, or the patina on an old painting.

The beauty of it will never fade from the mind.

I think in Salem and Zion there would be much love for the glory of the world, and the gratitude that must go with it to the Father who created it for us.  And with love of it, more care and more tenderness to preserve it.

Until next month, may you see many beautiful things of the body and of the soul.