Hidden Wedges

President Monson gave a talk in 2002 entitled Hidden Wedges in which he discussed the small wedges that if not attended to can be our downfall over time.  He quoted a story of how a wedge was left sitting in a walnut tree and through carelessness was never removed.  Dozens of years later the tree crashed to the ground and it was discovered that it was the then hidden wedge (which the tree had grown over and encompassed) that “had prevented the limb fibers from knitting together as they should.”  If the wedge had simply been removed early on there never would have been a problem.  He told stories of those who had let hidden spiritual wedges ruin them, such as two brothers who shared a cabin together and yet wouldn’t speak to each other for 60 years because of a quarrel they had had one with another.  One of the lessons I think that comes from stories like this is that time does not necessarily heal.  If we don’t take care of grudges and ill feeling and anger, time alone will likely not be enough to get it out of our hearts.  The story from Elder Kevin Duncan in the most recent general conference gave essentially the same message.  He had received a sliver of wood in his finger that he never got out.  It remained painful to him for years until he finally took action and applied ointment repeatedly to get it out.  Time had not healed it—the sliver remained in his finger until he took it out.  So it is with the serious sins we may commit and offenses that may be committed against us.  If we fail to obtain forgiveness from the Lord or fail to forgive and let harms against us go, we may find ourselves holding on to those for many years to come. 

                One example of this in the scriptures is seen in the story of the brothers of Joseph.  They had sold him into slavery and certainly knew that this was a huge mistake on their part.  Surely they thought often about it over the years, especially as their father mourned the assumed death of Joseph and they said nothing to him.  The fact that this was not far from their minds was evident in their first encounter with Joseph (when they didn’t even know that it was him) about 20 years after they had sold him.  They had gone to Egypt for food, and Joseph demanded of them that they bring Benjamin to prove that they were telling the truth.  They were distraught at the request because they knew it would devastate their father, and they clearly still felt guilty about how they had harmed him in selling Joseph.  They blurted out the feelings that must have been on the gnawing at them all those years: “And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.  And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required” (Genesis 42:21-22).  All those years had not erased an ounce of guilt about their actions when they sold Joseph because they had not repented or even confessed to their father.  This “hidden wedge” had been festering relentlessly within them since the day of their crime.

                This principle reminds me of the phrase to have a burr under the saddle.  We can keep riding for as long as we want, but the burr will not go away until we dismount, remove the saddle, and take care of the problem.  It may seem easier just to keep riding and to ignore the irritation or pain, but ultimately we will make it much further in our journey if we remove it.  As the scriptures tell us, “Do not procrastinate the day or your repentance until the end” or we may find out at some future date—just as it was for the tree that burst—that we “have procrastinated the day of [our] salvation until it is everlastingly too late” (Alma 34:33, Helaman 13:38).  We must not wait to take care of the hidden wedges preventing our progress.