Desire
2023/01/26 02:21 PM
When conversing recently with someone close to me, a scripture in Matthew 7:7 became clearer to me. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
They were complaining and making excuses for all sorts of things and why they could not reach their goals and the things they wanted to do. There was some truth in what they were saying. As difficult as it was, I empathized with them and gave no offers of what they might try instead.
I told them the truth I recognized in what they were saying but never said anything else could not be done. So it made me cringe when they said,” exactly, that is why I can’t reach my goal.” I don’t believe in being a victim of circumstance. I was an aspiring guitar player that injured my hands early in my career but chose to go into audio engineering to stay in the music industry; there is always something that can be done as painful and hard as it was.
So when they came back with “Exactly,” every part of me wanted to say, but what about XYZ you can still do those. I resisted and thought of how Heavenly Father sets the same pattern for us and let a 3rd of his children choose to see things the way they want to. Perhaps not even God can force our hearts to turn and us to see things as He does unless we want to.
Anyway, they eventually came around to seeing some things they could do. This only came after feeling understood; no advice or counsel was ever sought, just an empathizing ear. If Heavenly Father chooses this approach, I would like to follow his lead and scriptures and do the same. This is not to say that we can’t also let them know we feel that we have something to offer if they want to hear it, much like missionary work, since that is exactly what the scripture does.