My Grace is Sufficient for the Meek

In his recent general conference talk, Elder Bednar said this, “Meekness is a defining attribute of the Redeemer and is distinguished by righteous responsiveness, willing submissiveness, and strong self-restraint.”  He pointed out that the Savior chose this attribution to describe Himself with this famous invitation: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt. 11:29).  He who is perfect and has all power wants us to know that He is meek.  We certainly see evidence of His meekness in the scriptural accounts of His life.  For example, when someone called Him “Good Master” He responded, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matt. 19:17).  On another occasion He said this after healing on the Sabbath, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19).  In meekness He deferred all credit for His actions to His Father.  At the end of His life as He prayed to the Father, He showed us the ultimate example of meekness, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

               Two scriptures in the Book of Mormon help us to see why meekness is so crucial.  Mormon taught us, “If a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.  And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.”  We usually talk about faith as the first principle of the gospel, which it is.  But even it has a prerequisite of meekness, for our “faith and hope is vain” unless we are “meek and lowly in heart” (Moroni 7:42-44).  There must be meekness for true gospel conversion.  Mormon’s son Moroni also taught us about meekness when he went to the Lord in humility and prayer because of his own weakness.  The Lord said to him, “Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness” (Ether 12:26).  The key to our obtaining the sustaining grace from the Savior is meekness.  His grace is sufficient to help us—if we are truly meek.     

               When I think about meekness, I’m reminded of an experience that I had with our mission president.  He was one who spoke boldly and powerfully, constantly seeking to light a fire in our hearts about the gospel.  Meekness was not how I probably would have typically described him.  But I saw meekness and a willingness to follow when a general authority came to visit our mission.  In the brief meeting I was in with the two of them and a handful of other missionaries, I saw our mission president speak in complete humility to our visitor.  With head bowed his answers were “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and “whatever you want, sir” kinds of responses.  He had absolutely no ego or pretense of needing to do things his own way so long as his priesthood leader was there to give direction.  The night after our zone conference with this general authority, my mission president called me to follow up on what we had been taught and the specific invitation we had received from the general authority.  Our mission president was determined to put in practice immediately what we had been taught.  He who usually taught us with such boldness showed complete meekness when there was someone there to teach him.  I remember very little of what was verbally taught in that meeting—but I’ll never forget the unspoken lesson on meekness that my mission president gave me given that day.