The Weak Things of the World

The Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, said this, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). I thought of this today as I pondered the words of a sister missionary who spoke in our ward today and alluded to the fact that it was pretty crazy that the Lord would send all of these recently graduated high school students out to preach His gospel. The world would suggest that it is the most well-educated and eloquent that should represent an organization, but the Lord’s way is different. He said in this dispensation, “Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thresh the nations by the power of my Spirit” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:13). He doesn’t need to send the wisest or most experienced to preach His gospel because ultimately the gospel is preached through the Spirit of the Lord. He will speak to the hearts of the people, and He only needs those who are willing and obedient. We actually had two departing sister missionaries speak today, and both will be powerful emissaries of the Lord, not because they are experts in the gospel but because they love the Lord and will bear testimony of Him through the power of the Holy Ghost. What the Lord requires is not the same as what the world would require: “Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:34). In whatever capacity we are called to serve Him, He requires our heart, our mind, and our obedience, and He will do His work through us.

               One of the sister missionaries who spoke today related her journey there to become a missionary. She said that a couple of years previously she had received her patriarchal blessing. It was a most powerful spiritual experience for her, but she realized that it did not speak about a mission. So she prayed to the Lord and received a very strong impression that she would serve a mission and that she would go at the age of 18. But the problem was that sisters could not serve until they were 19. She spoke with the bishop, spoke with her parents, and waited in faith. Each general conference she hoped for an age change, but it didn’t come. Finally in November of last year—eighteen months after her original impression—the announcement came that sisters could serve at the age of 18. She was already 18, and she was ready to go. Her papers went in nearly immediately after that, and she is now a missionary and is indeed still 18 years old. Her faith in the Lord’s plan for her was inspiring to us all who heard her today, and it was a reminder that the Lord has a plan for each of us if we will move forward in faith. I love these words of the Lord to Moses that surely were also meant for each of us who seek to follow Him: “And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth” (Moses 1:6). This sister missionary invited us all there to pray and find out the mission that God has for us in our lives, and surely we all have a work to do unique to us to bless His children, even if we feel that we too are among the weak things of the world.