Fear Not Little Flock

Recently we watched a couple of the old Star Wars movies as a family, and my two sons have become excited about everything related to the films. They used their allowance money to purchase two toy lightsabers that are supposed to arrive later this week. My four-year-old daughter watched parts of the movies with us, but she did not like them and was very scared. When she found out the boys had ordered lightsabers, she became extremely frightened. She has frequently asked us when they are coming and then is nearly brought to tears as she asks, “Why did they want them? Why did they have to get them?” Despite my best efforts to tell her that they are not the same thing as what she saw in the movie, that they are just plastic toys that won’t harm anyone, she is completely convinced that they are real weapons coming and that her brothers are going to be really hurt by them. Any time she is reminded that these lightsabers are coming soon she is overcome by anxiety and worry.

               I wonder if perhaps we are not a little like my daughter sometimes in the way that we worry and fret over what is happening or going to happen in our lives despite the Lord’s best efforts to offer us assurances and promises. For example, in the New Testament Christ told His followers, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). The Savior similarly said in our dispensation, “Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:34). He likewise reassured us in another revelation, “Lift up your hearts and be glad, your redemption draweth nigh. Fear not, little flock, the kingdom is yours until I come” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:26-27). Other scriptural passages similarly exhort us not to worry, such as when the Lord said, “Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:1). Again and again He has told His followers that they need not worry, that they should not fear, that they can be comforted. But do we follow that injunction to not fear and to let our hearts be comforted when we have worries and fears about the future? Like Jacob we sometimes “refuse to be comforted” even though the Lord actually has everything in control (Genesis 37:35).  

Elder Holland commented many years ago, “Consider, for example, the Savior’s benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or ever will know, he said, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you…. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid’ (John 14:27). I submit to you that may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed…. I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.” My daughter will hopefully soon discover that the plastic lightsabers her brothers will receive are not real and cannot do any significant harm to anyone. But if she could only trust me now she wouldn’t have to anxiously worry and fret about what she fears is coming. We too must learn to trust the Savior now and fear only to do wrong and commit sin. If we follow Him we have these comforting words and promise, “Fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:9).