Little By Little

When the people of King Limhi were in bondage to the Lamanites, they tried to go against their captors in battle three times. Each time they were defeated, resulting in the loss of many lives without helping their situation. They could find no way themselves to escape from the cruel Lamanites. Mormon summarized how the Nephites responded this way: “And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies.” They did the one thing left that they could do: pray. “And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions.” The response of the Lord in this situation is instructive for us in our own trials. He “did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage,” but rather He “did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens.” So, while He did not immediately provide them the deliverance they sought, He did start to help them and ease their burdens. The next verse reads, “And it came to pass that they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger” (Mosiah 21:13-16). The text for “prosper by degrees” in the French version of the Book of Mormon reads “peu à peu” which literally is “little by little.” I think that is a powerful phrase to remember as we try to overcome great difficulties. Sometimes we want our most challenging problems solved in a single, parting of the Red Sea kind of action. But often I think the Lord instead helps us to overcome our challenges little by little as we plead with Him for help through prayer. When the great miracle we seek does not come immediately as we plead with the Lord, we must look for the small daily miracles that improve our situation little by little.

                Nephi gave us these words of the Lord, based on Isaiah 28:13, “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). The most common application for this is that we obtain the truths of the gospel—revelation—little by little. And that is certainly true; the Restoration didn’t come in a single divine manifestation but is even still on going as the Lord gives revelation to His servants and all of us. But perhaps we might also say that help for times of need often also comes little by little. As we seek to hearken to the inspiration we receive, day by day, we will gradually find help and deliverance like the people of King Limhi. Eventually for them the full miracle did come as Ammon and his brethren led them away from bondage, but through their trials they learned that the Lord would help them prosper by degrees even though their enemies still held power over them. This reminds me of a phrase about the city of Enoch which was taken up into heaven. We read, “and lo, Zion, in process of time, was taken up into heaven. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Behold mine abode forever” (Moses 7:21). Zion wasn’t built and purified in a day, but through the process of time and with their persistent efforts at righteousness, the city was indeed taken up into heaven. So too for our desires to be fulfilled and for trials to be vanquished, we often need to patiently persist through the process of time. But waiting doesn’t mean that no help comes until the end; rather, the Lord will make it known to us like He did to the people of Alma that He will sustain us through the whole process: “That ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14).