Patient Navigation

It is an interesting experience to drive with voice navigation from your phone in your car when you do not follow the instructions given. At each turn you are supposed to take but which you don’t, the navigation will reroute you and give you the next best option. “Take a U-turn at the next light.” Each time you fail to follow the instructions, the navigation immediately calculates again the best route for you given where you are then at. It never yells at you for not listening. It never insults you when you go the wrong way. It never gives up on you after failing to follow the instructions countless times. It never changes where it is trying to get you no matter how far away you go. At every moment it simply finds the best way for you to get to your destination given your current location. It does not care where you have been or how many wrong turns you have taken. Its unflappable purpose is to get you where you need to be no matter where have come.

As I have thought about that, I’m led to wish that I could be like that in my parenting! I know that no matter what my children do I should give calm directions to them to help them succeed. No matter what wrong choices they make I should always look to the future and focus on where they are going. No matter how much they ignore me I should always encourage them patiently to take the right course next time. And no matter how many times they insult me, I should with love guide them towards the destination I know their Father in Heaven wants for them. To put it more scripturally, I should always lead them “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-42).

            One of the lessons we should take from the teachings of the Savior is that how others treat us should not change how we treat them. Jesus put it this way: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Matthew 5:44-47) Like the reaction of our navigation systems to those who fail to follow the instructions, we should treat everyone with patience and love, even those whom we might call our enemies. Jesus was the perfect example of this, particularly in the final hours of His life. When He was struck on the face and falsely accused, He responded in perfect calmness, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?” (John 18:23) When we can respond to our injustices and the anger of others towards us with that kind of love and patience, we will know that we are indeed becoming like Him.