1st Nephi 3:7

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."        1 Ne. 3:7

Many times in my life I've realized, as probably many people do, that the commandments given by God aren't exactly what we would call easy. In fact, it seems sometimes as if it may be nearly impossible from our perspective.
One distinct memory of when I faced this dilemma was when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Utah. Due to pursuing a double-major in mathematics and physics combined with church responsibilities, dating, and all the normal necessities of life this was a very busy time for me. Most of the time I barely had enough time to finish everything. But three different times I came to the point where I had a long and time-consuming assignment due for a class the next day, and couldn't finish it in time. The only possible time I had left to complete the assignment was the next morning in the time frame that I normally spent studying my scriptures. Should I just skip my scripture study for that day and work on completing my homework? I knew that daily scripture study was a commandment from God, but it seemed like there was no possible time that I could do it now. It appeared to me as if this was not a commandment I could keep.
But then I remembered Nephi's declaration in The Book of Mormon that the Lord never gives a commandment without preparing a way for us to obey and accomplish it. So I read my scriptures as normal, received a great spiritual start for my day as I usually did, but then went to class with an incomplete assignment. To my surprise, the teacher announced for the first and only time in the semester that they would extend the deadline for that homework assignment another couple days. And this same scenario occurred all three times.
These experiences proved to me that the Lord really does open up the way before us to fully keep his commandments. But I further learned that as Nephi needed to go and do prior to the Lord's door of success opening up, so it was for me. I needed to decide to keep the commandment of reading my scriptures before I saw the way forward to full success. I've learned that rather than showing us exactly how we can keep his commandments, God expects us to exercise faith by choosing to keep the commandments, trusting that he has prepared a way for us.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 24, 2017 at 9:31 AM

    Thank you Parker, this is such a cool thing your doing with the blog! And I love reading your thoughts and insights. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SusanNovember 24, 2017 at 10:34 AM

    I love this format too, Parker! As your mother, I remember you going through some of those experiences and I admired you then and continue to admire you for valuing those experiences and using them to possibly help strengthen other peoples' faith! I can't tell you how grateful I am as your parent to see you living your life so obediently to God's commandments. Great blessings are always in store! Love you! mom

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    Replies
    1. Parker HolzerNovember 24, 2017 at 10:58 AM

      Thank you so much Mom! I probably would have never learned the importance of all of the commandments had I not been taught by you and Dad. Love you too!

      Delete

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