No Toil Nor Labor Fear

In his First Presidency Message this month, President Uchtdorf wrote about the Mormon Pioneers and their ability to shout “All is Well” amidst very difficult circumstances.  One of the points that he made was that they were not afraid of hard work, remarking that “It is difficult to imagine how hard these great souls worked.”  He then suggested this application for us in our day: “In our time—when so much of what we desire is so easily within our reach—it is tempting to turn aside or give up whenever the road ahead seems a little bumpy or the slope tends to rise steeply before us. In those moments, it might inspire us to reflect on those men, women, and children who did not allow sickness, hardship, pain, and even death to deter them from their chosen path” (Ensign, All Is Well, July 2015).  Technology today is training us to expect immediate results and teaching us to think that if we can’t do something quickly it’s not worth doing.  In conjunction with the pioneers, the scriptures on the other hand show us that the most important things in life take great exertion and effort to obtain.  Enduring to the end is still just as needed for us in our dispensation as it was for the pioneers. 

                Nephi showed the importance of dedication as it relates to the scriptures.  When he and his brothers went back to Jerusalem to obtain the plates from Laban, their first attempt to get them failed.  Nephi’s reaction was immediate and uncompromising: “As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us” (1 Nephi 3:15).  Quitting for him was simply not an option.  After their second attempt failed and the angel chastised his brothers, Nephi was again undaunted: “Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses” (1 Nephi 4:2).  When his brothers still murmured, he went alone into the city and accomplished that which the Lord had commanded him.  His example of physically not giving up on obtaining the scriptures can surely serve as inspiration to us to not give up on searching and understanding the scriptures that we have. 

                In the Old Testament, Jacob showed the importance of hard work as it relates to marriage.  When Jacob knew that he wanted to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel, he said to his future father-in-law, “I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter” (Genesis 29:18).  And after he received Leah and Rachel as his wives, he still “served with him yet seven other years” (Genesis 29:30).  In our culture of entitlement and wanting everything now, I find it hard to believe that many would willingly wait and work for seven years to be married to the one they loved.  Of course we wouldn’t do what Jacob did just for the sake of waiting, but I think his story can serve as an example for us that before and after marriage great work and sometimes waiting is involved.  We should not give up just because things become difficult or do not happen in the timeline we hope for.  When, like the pioneers, we know the course that is right to follow, nothing should “deter [us] from [our] chosen path.”

                Many other pioneer-like examples of showing dedication despite difficulties could be cited from the scriptures.  In the Book of Mormon, the people of Antipus defended the Nephite freedoms as they “fought valiantly by day and toiled by night to maintain their cities” (Alma 56:16).  Joseph Smith, despite being chased by his enemies, yet still focused on the work of the salvation for the dead, writing the Saints with this revelation from the Lord: “Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled” (D&C 127:4).  In the Old Testament when Jeremiah wanted to give up on missionary work, he said, “But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9).  In a similar manner when Alma should have retired and finally given himself a break from all of his lifelong labors preaching the gospel, still continued: Mormon recorded, “And now it came to pass that the sons of Alma did go forth among the people, to declare the word unto them. And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth” (Alma 43:1).  What we need in our day is the same kind of “unwearyingness” that the 19^th century pioneers as well as those in the scriptures showed as we strive to accomplish the work the Lord has for us.