One Step Enough For Me

This morning I considered again President Nelson’s question in the Priesthood session of general conference, “What have you learned in the past two years that you always want to remember?” One thought that came to mind was this: the Lord usually doesn’t give us the whole picture at once. Nephi recorded, “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have” (2 Nephi 28:30). Though certainly there are cases where the Lord might reveal a grand vision showing all things that are to come—such as John the Revelator’s vision—I believe that usually he operates by this principle as Nephi declared. The Lord declared it again in our dispensation: “Ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God. For he will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:11-12). We are to live day by day by the words of the Lord, seeking to understand the will of the Lord for us a little better with each prayer, each study of the scriptures, each partaking of the Sacrament, each visit to the temple. My own experiences these past two years have helped me to see indeed that I must walk by faith and will not usually see the end from the beginning.

                One experience in particular at work this past year helped me to understand this. A change needed to be made concerning one of the employees who reports to me. As I started moved in one direction for a change to take place I felt sure I knew what was going to happen. But gradually as I did my best to follow the Spirit day in a drawn out process, I came to a different conclusion than the one I had initially started with and felt to pursue. Ultimately after praying I decided that I should propose a particular change, different than my original thought, to take place regarding this individual to my manager. I did, and it was rejected in lieu of something much less favorable to the person. I offered up my proposal one more time, and again it was rejected. I felt that I should let it be at that point, even though I really believed that my suggestion would be the best for everyone. I let things take the course they were headed and left them in the hands of the Lord. After going through with the planned action, and at the very last possible moment, my manager had a change of heart and decided to go with the course of action I had proposed. It is not an exaggeration to say that this single thing drastically changed the entire life of the individual involved. As I look back on how the whole process unfolded over a period of about four months, I see that indeed the Lord worked with me “line upon line.” All I could do was to move each day in the direction I felt was best, not knowing for sure the ultimate outcome. The key point for me was that I did not need to know the final outcome to move forward each day, and the Lord didn’t give it to me. As the hymn Lead, Kindly Light says, “Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene—one step enough for me.” We usually don’t need the distant scene but must work in faith one step at a time, always seeking for the Lord’s guidance in taking each of those steps.

                We see that this same principle in particular in the life of Moroni. As he wandered alone for many years, he clearly didn’t know all that was going to happen. He buried the plates on more than one occasion thinking that he had written his final words. As he began to write the book of Moroni, he stated, “Wherefore, I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed; for I had supposed not to have written any more; but I write a few more things” (Moroni 1:4). Despite his great revelations, he still didn’t know all that was going to happen to himself and had to learn like us line upon line. My experiences during the pandemic have taught me that what matters most is not obtaining a grand vision of what my future holds but rather it is seeking to receive and follow small directions from the Spirit each day. The Lord may reveal some great things about our future to us, but if not, we can move forward according to His guidance one step at a time.