My Soul Did Rest

In the most recent general conference President Nelson spoke about finding rest. He told this story, “During the recent open house of the Washington D.C. Temple, a member of the open house committee witnessed an insightful interchange as he escorted several prominent journalists through the temple. Somehow a young family became attached to this media tour. One reporter kept asking about the ‘journey’ of a temple patron as he or she moves through the temple. He wanted to know if the temple journey is symbolic of the challenges in a person’s journey through life. A young boy in the family picked up on the conversation. When the tour group entered an endowment room, the boy pointed to the altar, where people kneel to make covenants with God, and said, ‘Oh, that’s nice. Here is a place for people to rest on their temple journey.’” President Nelson then commented, “I doubt that the boy knew just how profound his observation was. He likely had no idea about the direct connection between making a covenant with God in the temple and the Savior’s stunning promise: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; … and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” The Savior asks us to be yoked to Him through our covenants, and like the ox under a yoke we might feel at times that the burden is heavy. But when we understand where He is taking us the work is indeed “easy” and “light”, especially compared to those in the world that “lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:49). In the end those are the only two yokes we can choose between: the Savior’s and the bondage of sin.  

               The prophet Enos in the Book of Mormon similarly connected rest in the Lord with the covenants of the Lord. He was worried about the future of their records because of the Lamanites who vowed to destroy them. He wrote, “I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it. And I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time.” Once he had that covenant with the Lord, he found rest: “And I, Enos, knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made; wherefore my soul did rest.” This rest did not mean that great exertion was no more required of him in various aspects of his life but rather that he was at peace knowing the Lord would make all things right. His enemies would not triumph as he held fast to the Lord’s covenants. I love the way that he finished his short book: “And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father” (Enos 1:15-17, 27). He knew that real rest, eternal rest, comes through Jesus Christ—in Him only shall we find lasting rest. President Nelson gave us this invitation and promise: “Cherish and honor your covenants above all other commitments. As you let God prevail in your life, I promise you greater peace, confidence, joy, and yes, rest.” As we hold fast to our covenants we can find the peace and rest that He has promised, no matter what difficulties swirl around us in the struggle of mortality.