“Avoiding Spiritual Overwhelm: Progressing ‘Line upon Line,’” 2023 BYU Women’s Conference (2023)
“Avoiding Spiritual Overwhelm,” 2023 BYU Women’s Conference
Avoiding Spiritual Overwhelm: Progressing “Line upon Line”
2023 BYU Women’s Conference • Thursday, May 4, 2023
Sister Dana Wright: Thank you for joining us at this session. My name is Dana Wright, and it is my honor and pleasure to introduce our speakers today.
Sister Tracy Y. Browning was sustained as Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 2, 2022. At the time of her call, she was serving on the Relief Society general advisory council. She has also served as a stake and ward Relief Society presidency counselor, as a Relief Society and Sunday School teacher, and in the Young Women organization. Sister Browning studied at St. John’s University. She has worked in financial services for 15 years and is now an account services director in the Church’s Publishing Services Department. Sister Browning has also volunteered with various community and civic organizations. Tracy was born October 9, 1976, in New Rochelle, New York, in the United States. She grew up in Jamaica in the West Indies and in New Jersey and in New York. She married Brady Browning on May 2, 1997. They are the parents of two children. We look forward to hearing Sister Browning’s message.
Sister Susan H. Porter was sustained as Primary General President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 2, 2022, as well. At the time of her call, she was serving as First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency. President Porter has served on the Relief Society general advisory council and as a stake Relief Society presidency counselor, ward Relief Society and Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and Primary music leader. President Porter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Brigham Young University. She has worked as a lab assistant for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a math teacher. She also volunteered in her children’s schools and with various community organizations. Susan Elizabeth Holland was born July 31, 1955, in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and grew up in New York. On February 2, 1977, she married Bruce D. Porter, who later served as a General Authority Seventy. He passed away in 2016. They are the parents of four children. We are delighted to hear Sister Porter’s message today.
President Susan H. Porter: Sisters, Sister Browning and I are so happy to be with you today. We just feel like we’re only two-thirds, though. We do. Because somebody is missing. And that is Sister Amy Wright, the First Counselor. She is at the University of Utah with her son graduating today. And so we just send our love and wishes to her. It’s been such a blessing for me to serve in the Primary General Presidency with Sister Amy Wright and Sister Browning, both of them. Heavenly Father was so merciful in sending the inspiration that they should be called to serve. I think when we come and sit down and counsel, we each have unique backgrounds and life experiences that we can bring to the table. And also we feel this great unity as sisters and as disciples of the Lord and Savior, of our Lord and Savior.
Sister Tracy Y. Browning: Yeah, I also feel it a great privilege to serve in the Primary Presidency. I also miss my dear friend and counselor here too, Susan, Amy. But I’m so happy to be with Susan today. You know, when I think about this topic of avoiding spiritual overwhelm, I also consider that the Primary and our presidency would be in a constant state of spiritual overwhelm if we did not have the love, support, and consecrated service of nine amazing women who serve on the Primary advisory council. These are beautiful sisters who give their heart and souls to helping strengthen the faith of our Savior’s children all around the world. We also have an amazing staff of Primary who keep the engine running. And we’re so grateful for them. We had Michelle, who serves also in the Primary staff, give our opening prayer today. It’s just a blessing to be together and serve together in Primary.
President Porter: And so many of our council members are here today offering support. They’re the ones that are training our stake Primary presidencies all over the United States and are the liaisons with our area organization advisers all over the world. Yeah. So as Sister Browning mentioned, we are going to have a conversation with you today about avoiding spiritual overwhelm. And it was kind of ironic to be asked to speak at BYU Women’s Conference, which is spiritually overwhelming, about the topic of avoiding spiritual overwhelm. So we thought about saying the best way for us to avoid spiritual overwhelm is to say, “Maybe we won’t speak at BYU Women’s Conference.” But we really appreciated the opportunity to ponder and discuss and counsel together. And so that’s how we came up with the idea—let’s just share some of these discussions that we’ve had over the last number of weeks about this important topic.
Sister Browning: You know, one of the first things that came to us as we sat and counseled might sound contradictory, but we started by thinking about, “What if we don’t focus on doing less, but we actually focus on the word more—receiving more?” And I think that that’s a really important principle because I know in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior wants to give us so much. And I think when we think of being spiritually overwhelmed, at least I know that I do, it’s really about how many of the other things do I need to kind of get away from in order to feel better. But there’s an opportunity for us to put ourselves in a position to consider, “What more can we receive from our Savior during this time when we might feel a bit overwhelmed?”
President Porter: We’ve loved reflecting on the scripture in John chapter 10, verse 10, where the Savior says, “I [have] come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” And so we’ve really thought about, What does that word abundance mean? Does it mean more time, more money, more honor, more of the things of life? Or does it kind of indicate more of a fulness, a fulness of purpose, a sense of direction, a sense that Heavenly Father is with us? And that’s what we want to focus on today: … how can we not do more, as Tracy said, but how can we receive more of the abundance the Lord has to give us?
I even started thinking about when we were little. I don’t know how it was in your family, but as soon as we got to the street, we were told to stop, look, and listen. And I’ve thought about how much that applies to avoiding overwhelm: when we’re feeling that spiritual overwhelm, if we stop, we look to heaven, and then we listen for the Spirit.
I have reflected on an experience our daughter Lisa shared with us, an everyday experience, but where she was able to replace overwhelm with abundance by looking up. And I asked her if she might share that with us today.
Lisa: When Sean and I had been married just a few years, but we were finally out of college, he finally had a steady income, and we were kind of settled, we decided it was really important that we follow the prophet’s counsel and pay off as much debt as we could. Even though we had a steady income, we were living on a very small portion of it in order to meet this goal of paying off our debt. One of the tasks that I was responsible with, that was very overwhelming for me, was the weekly grocery shopping. I remember feeling really overwhelmed, like we just weren’t able to just go in and just buy what we wanted or needed, but kind of a feeling of scarcity, like we just were barely inching by, and it was very stressful. And I would come home feeling kind of sorry for myself a little bit, actually. I remembered that the Lord cares about even the little daily things and we can reach to Him even in the things that maybe seem trivial. And I asked Him to help me in making decisions, that I could know where I could maybe make different decisions as I shopped to make sure we were still within our budget but also that we could feel that we had what we needed. That made a really big difference for me, not just in the decisions I made but in the way that I felt about it as well. I remember just aisle to aisle, I came in with my list, which I’d also been prayerful about, but then I would feel the Spirit directing me to maybe make a slightly different decision than what I’d planned on. In addition to being able to stay within our budget and even cut back further than I had anticipated, I remember feeling an increase in gratitude and in prosperity that we had what we needed, we had plenty—and that I had made good choices, that I’d been a good steward of the funds and the means that we had to provide for our family, and that, all of a sudden, the finances could fade more into the background and we could just enjoy our young family and the relationships that we had more abundantly.
Sister Browning: Susan, I really love this thought from Lisa. One of the things that really came to mind as I listened to what she was saying was a transition in her experience from feeling a lot of scarcity and observing all the scarcity that was in her life to an actual abundance that she was able to see and recognize in her life. And I’m a lover of words, and I go to the dictionary really often when I want to really get a sense of the origin of words and what they mean and really start to get visual images of what words mean. So I went to the dictionary, and I looked up abundance. And one of the definitions that I found there was one that I fell in love with, and it says it’s a “plentifulness of good things of life.” And I loved that. And it came to mind as I was listening to Lisa, the sense of plentifulness of the good things in her life as she transitioned from scarcity to abundance in her experience. I heard from her the abundance of gratitude. If we remember, she mentioned gratitude, the abundance of prosperity that she recognized in her life—the abundance of perspective that she gained, the abundance of inspiration. She talked about being in the grocery store, and as she was going through what I think many of us seem to find to be mundane activities, she was receiving inspiration. That is a blessing, and that is receiving more, given where she was and where she started.
And it really reminded me of something that President Nelson taught. This is from an October 2016 general conference message. And many of you might remember this. He says, “My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”1 So focusing on our relationship with Jesus Christ brings abundance. Finding time to prioritize that relationship with the Savior through prayer, through scripture study, through regular temple attendance puts us in the best position to receive more—that more that we were talking about: being in a position not to really focus on the scarcity and the overwhelming options in front of us but that the Savior is constantly looking to give us what we need to help us in the daily decisions of our lives.
President Porter: You know, I was thinking, as we’ve all been studying Come, Follow Me this year and following the Savior’s footsteps, it’s really caught my eye on several occasions when Jesus … went into a mountain to pray. In Mark, it even said He sent everyone else away, and then He went into the mountain to pray.2 And sometimes when we get caught in these overwhelming situations, we need to send everyone else away or step ourselves away into a quiet space. I even thought as a young mother—or if any of you ever did what I did on occasion when I was overwhelmed: went into the bathroom, locked the door to kind of recenter, offer a little prayer for patience. Pray for a feeling of abundance, of gratitude for the crying children. And that can make a big difference. And … the Savior showed us that example as He went apart. And that apart can be in the temple, as you said. The apart can be a few minutes in the scriptures or in times of heartfelt prayer.
Sister Browning: Yeah, moments of peace, moments of clarity for us to clear our minds, however we do it. I remember as a young mother, I would also hide away, but I would hide snacks in the room that I was in. So while I was meditating, I might find a little treat as well.
Sisters, you know, as Susan and I really thought about this topic, we spent a lot of time counseling about the three critical questions that were a part of the conversation of avoiding spiritual overwhelm. And the first question we want to tackle right now is “How can listening to the Spirit lead me to the most needful things?” Susan, do you have some thoughts there?
President Porter: I think as sisters, whenever we see “needful thing,” my mind, and probably yours does too, goes to the story of Mary and Martha in the New Testament. And of course, as we remember, Martha was cumbered about by many things, and the Savior invited Mary to focus on the one needful thing.3 That doesn’t necessarily mean that we only are going to do one thing in our life, but the one needful thing would be to look to the Savior, ask for His gifts, His inspiration, the spiritual gifts we need in the many things that we have to do today.
I was thinking, too, when Elder Neil Andersen gave his general conference talk, and he talked about the experience of Alma the Younger in a way I had never thought about before, where Alma the Younger was actually in a place of spiritual overwhelm.4 He was in spiritual overwhelm because the memory of all his sins. And he said he was racked with torment, and he was—that’s the problem with overwhelm is it stops us in our tracks. And he was stopped in his tracks. And it wasn’t until he remembered the words of his father talking about Jesus Christ, and then he says, “My mind caught hold upon this thought” of Jesus Christ. And I think times when we’re overwhelmed, if our mind can set aside the looking around us for everything going on that’s kind of out of our control and too much, if our mind can catch hold on the Savior of the world, that has brought me great peace and a new understanding of that experience.
A few years ago, I heard a story that resonated deeply with me, as I could see myself in this story. A mother was home with her young children, and she had an impression. A name came to her mind. It was the name of a sister that she ministered to, and she thought, “I am going to follow through on that impression right now. I’m going to visit that sister.” She saw that she had some ripe bananas on her counter, so she got busy and made banana bread to take to the sister. Just before it was to come out of the oven, the baby woke up crying. She went in. The baby wasn’t feeling well. It was very traumatic. She’s trying to comfort the baby and so forth. And by the time she came back out, the banana bread had burned. So fortunately she had a few more bananas and set about making another loaf. So she made that loaf. She put it in the oven, and by the time it came out of the oven, the older children were just walking in the door from school. So she hands them the baby, you know, the toddler. She says, “I’ll be right back. I’ve just got to run this banana bread to my friend.” So she races out the door, goes and visits the friend, gives her a hug, says hello, races back home and comes in the house, and it’s total chaos. The baby is now screaming. The toddler is upset. The older kids are mad that just walking in from school they were given this situation to deal with. And so she went into a room, and she closed the door, and she got on her knees. And she said, “Heavenly Father, I cannot be a ministering sister right now.” And into her mind came clearly this question: “Who asked you to make banana bread?” How many of you, by raise of hand, have received sweet impressions from the Spirit and added? I know I think in those situations: “Surely, I’m not enough. I can’t just go. I need to stop by Smith’s and grab flowers, or I need to make banana bread.” That has helped me reflect on spiritual overwhelm and abundance.
Sister Browning: Now that I’m hungry, because the banana bread does sound good, I wish we had some as, like, an object lesson for you, but we don’t.
President Porter: Under every seat there’s—
Sister Browning: —a little loaf that we made. It does make me reflect that I am exactly like this sweet sister. I sometimes worry that just my willingness to be obedient to the prompting is not enough. I feel like I need to add extra to my personality, extra to my offering. I need to go get some flowers. I need to bring something in my hand, and it really is to try to satiate my own self of, you know, feeling quite doubtful about “Is it enough for me to just be obedient to that inspiration?” And I know that for a lot of women, we spend a lot of time focusing on “Am I enough?” And what the principle is, is that if you’re willing to do what the Savior asks you to do, nothing more, nothing taken away, your offering is enough. Anything else that’s lacking comes from the Spirit. It comes from the Savior. It comes from the inspiration that you feel and will have as you go about doing His work.
The other thing that I always worry about is, you know—I did talk about at the beginning this idea of less, right? And how we’re looking to receive more. But the point is that the ability for us to receive more is our focus on the Savior because He will be the one to give us more. And if we’re looking for more understanding about what we need to do less of, that direction needs to come from the Savior. And I tend to think that we’re also spending a lot of time trying to figure out on our own what things we need to discard in order to get to the needful thing. And I hope that we look to the Savior to help us in that decision because there are seasons where we need to be doing less things, and our Savior can direct us which things should we discard in our life so that we can receive the things that He wants to give us in abundance—those things that are necessary for us to have right now that will help us propel forward spiritually. President Nelson talks a lot about spiritual momentum. He wants to give us a fulness, a plentifulness of gifts that allow us to move forward. And He can direct our activities by identifying areas in our life that we do need to discard in this season.
President Porter: You know, a few weeks ago, Tracy, I was really impressed when you came into my office and you said, “I’m sorry, I won’t be in the office tomorrow.” And you said, “I’ve received an impression that my family needs me.” And so I wondered and I thought and wanted to ask you: In that day that you spent at home, which was the needful thing, what happened? Did you plan to go out to dinner or do some awesome activities? Kind of how did that day unfold? And what we’re talking about today, doing needful things and receiving the abundance.
Sister Browning: It was clear—you know, these impressions don’t always come at the times that we find to be in our calendar the most convenient, right? But when the inspiration comes, we have to respond, especially those impressions that are directly about your family. And I did receive that prompting that I needed to spend time with my family, and that for me, that day, meant really simple things. It meant that I needed to be present. I needed to be listening. I needed to be in conversation. I needed, really—that day, I really needed to have my tongue loosened and my mouth filled with words that could help to provide guidance in that moment. So it wasn’t, you know, I needed to add, replace the things on my calendar with big activities. I needed to do quite simple things. It reminds me of a scripture in Alma 37:6 that says, “Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.” And I think that’s a really important principle, that there are simple things that we will do in our lives, including when we’re feeling quite overwhelmed with the things of our lives, that will bring about great power in our lives if we focus on simple things, not all the multitasking of the million big things but simple things in our daily efforts.
President Porter: Yeah. I’m thinking about that scripture and the sister with the banana bread, which could have been me for sure. By the time she got to that sister’s house, I’m sure she was exhausted, harried, anxious about what’s going on at home, looking at her watch. When she showed up at that door, I don’t know if she could be fully present like you were with your family. And so what she offered was bread. And I’m sure she offered a hug, and she showed up. But I often think about, “What if she had just gathered the baby and the toddler and just gone over there and said, ‘I’m here; I love you’?” She would have had that—that being fully present, not overwhelmed. But her small and simple things could have brought forth something great because that sister—there may have been the space for her to open up and talk. So what she could have taken in her hand was not an object or an item but the Spirit of the Lord guiding her. And I’ve tried to think about that a lot in helping myself receive abundance that I can share with others. Yeah. So the second question we’re going to look at is “How do I accept that I can’t do everything at once but with patience progress line upon line?”
Sister Browning: This is a really good question. I’m a multitasker. A lot of the stories that we tell, you’ll hear about the errors that we’ve made in our own lives to come to learn how the Lord wants us to improve. But I’m one of those that gets overwhelmed because I think that being busy is the solution for all of my problems because I’m so afraid of being idle and what idle means in my life. But because of that, I tend to lack patience in my own progress. So I understand this question. I want to quickly be able to improve. And I look for that often by being overwhelmed in all my busyness. And what came to mind when I heard this question was a talk from Elder Holland that he gave a few years ago called “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually.” Do you remember this message? The end of Elder Holland’s message, he bore a beautiful testimony. That was really instructive to me about this question of “How can I become patient as I’m trying to progress line upon line?” And I would never do it justice by quoting him, so we’re going to listen to what he shares in his testimony.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: I testify of that grand destiny, made available to us by the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself continued “from grace to grace” until in His immortality He received a perfect fulness of celestial glory. I testify that in this and every hour He is, with nail-scarred hands, extending to us that same grace, holding on to us and encouraging us, refusing to let us go until we are safely home in the embrace of Heavenly Parents.5
President Porter: What a comforting testimony. As I’ve thought about that closing witness, of our Heavenly Father never leaving us, of our Savior growing grace to grace, I’ve just—I think of the hymn [that says], “How gentle God’s commands! How kind his precepts are!”6 They’re given out of love. They’re kind. They’re gentle. Our Heavenly Father knows we are weak and He is able. And we can be held by His matchless and marvelous hand.
A scripture that Tracy and I have talked a lot about that is very familiar to all of us but has come to have more meaning as we’ve pondered this idea of spiritual overwhelm and having patience with our progress—it’s found in 2 Nephi 28, verse 30: “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.” In the past, I think I’ve lumped all of those together. We’re going to get things line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, just thinking, well, the Lord doesn’t give us the whole package. He just gives us a little bit at a time. But as we’ve had opportunity to really reflect on this scripture, we first stopped at “line upon line” and asked ourselves, “What is happening when the Lord is giving us inspiration line upon line? Is it that He wants us to do these seven things in order as obedient children? Or is it that when we receive the first line, the first bit of inspiration, and we follow through on that, it’s actually to change us?” The Lord is interested in the process. He’s interested in the fact that we are exhibiting enough faith to act on that first impression. Then He will give us the next one, and we can exhibit a little more faith to move. So it’s that process of change that is included in line upon line.
When I thought about it that way, I thought about an impression and a story you had told me about your family and how you, line upon line, led you to receive your precious son, Cameron. I will say this: For me often I say, “OK, I’m here, so if I receive this impression, then”—I’m a really good math student, and I get out my ruler, and I draw a line from where I am to where I’m going, and then I extend it out, and I say, “Oh, it must mean I’m heading here.” But from line upon line, we realize if we are here and receive an impression here, we act on it. The next impression may send us here, and the next impression may send us here. And as we open ourselves to receive that abundance, we can truly be led by the Lord. And I think your experience with your son, Cameron, exhibits that principle of line upon line.
Sister Browning: Yeah, so well. And so much so that it really does exhibit also this idea of where I thought I was going was not actually the destination that the Lord took me nor the one that I was intending to go. I think about what you said about how the Lord is very invested in the process, and I think about that, especially as we consider this story of adoption in my family, that I think it would be—that would be the point. I could just tell you that I have adopted my son, Cameron, and that was the outcome. And there is the point, could be the point, but there’s nothing there. In order for me to tell this story and to be meaningful, I have to tell you the process because that is where the change came and that is where all of the growth and the learning that got me to an outcome—the outcome being the adoption of my son, our son. I claim him as mine, but there were other people involved. I do have a husband. He has a sister. This was a family. This was a really family effort.
But to Susan’s point, a few years ago, many years ago now, I had an impression to expand my family, and I sat with that impression before I took it to my husband for a while, and I started to go, “Well, Tracy, it’s time again for nurseries and cribs and strollers and diapers and baby bottles and breastfeeding and all the things. There is a spirit coming to our family, and I need to be prepared.” So once I spent the time sort of being in my mind ready for that, I went to my husband and I said, “Brady, I think that we need to try to have a baby. This is the impression that I’m having: that the Lord wants us to expand our family.” And almost as soon as I uttered that out of my mouth, a very short time later, a knock came on my door. And my son, my now 17-year-old son, who was four at the time, was brought to us under really challenging circumstances. And we went for two years being directed by the Lord in a process that the outcome was not clear, that we thought was temporary, until it became clear that it was not. And our vision was raised. But from that knock to the next step was a step into the dark because I then had to put aside this idea of pregnancy and move our attention, our spiritual focus, all of our faith, in this very challenging and time-consuming experience of shepherding a young four-year-old boy.
During that time, I began to understand something: that the Lord, in His impression to expand my family, kind of like the banana bread, did not actually say, “Tracy, you’re going to have a baby.” I said that, and I told everybody that. The Lord was inviting me to expand in a lot of different ways, and those two years expanded my family in understanding what it means to be consecrated, understanding what it means when Heavenly Father really does—His Spirit does move and work upon us. My understanding about how gentle He is with His children and how the Spirit actually entreats us to change and how it invites us to change and how it is quite enticing. I learned that so much of my spiritual growth and abundance of spiritual growth happened in that season of two years. All of it was necessary for us to then have an outcome, and the outcome was adopting Cameron, which was beautiful. But I did. I was at one point in my life. I received an impression that I thought was another point, and I drew a straight line in between those two points because I had a baby the last time, right? Yeah. History, you know, was a predictor for the future, I thought. And what the Lord did teach me was that sometimes our routes are curved. Sometimes they’re over hills; sometimes they’re on rough roads. Sometimes it’s not smooth. But He is generous, and He does provide abundance even as we climb mountains. Even if we’re going over bumpy land, even if it takes two years to get to the destination, we can be led by Him in that process. Line upon line.
President Porter: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think we learn throughout our lives that the Lord is not necessarily interested in efficiency. He’s interested in growth. And just two quick scriptural examples we’re all familiar with is Lehi, who was told he was being given a promised land.7 And Nephi even said, sitting in Jerusalem, “We have been given a promised land,”8 when they’re thousands of miles away. So you’d think the Lord would say, “OK, here’s the most efficient and quick way to get to the sea.” You know, it’s going to take about two months. And it took seven years. That’s because the Lord was interested in the process, in the change of heart, and the growth of faith that would take place in those experiences. I even just got thinking a few days ago about Naaman, who was asked to bathe in the River Jordan seven times. And so of course first he said, “There’s no way I’m doing that.” And then he exhibited a little bit of faith and said, “OK, I’ll go do it.”9 But I started thinking about Naaman—was the seven times just, check, once; I’m going under twice; I’m going under three times? Or each time when he came up dirtier than when he went in under the water and reflected on the fact that he was the leader of these armies; he was treated with respect. He got the best food. He got the best tent and bed. “Am I going to do this again?” And I wonder if each time it was a little different experience, that process of changing his heart, of being humble and of drawing closer to God each time he went under. So I love the idea of line upon line and that it takes patience. Yeah.
The second thing we’ve been thinking about is the phrase “here a little and there a little.” And sometimes that’s how we receive direction from the Lord. As many of you know, my husband suffered kidney failure and was on dialysis for many years. At the time of this story, he had received two transplants, the second one from his sister who is here today. Both of those transplants failed. The second failure was quite devastating for his health. And so he was back at dialysis centers. So we had done all we could do. Kidneys can’t really be operated on. And so of course, we were praying for help. So one day I took Bruce to a dialysis center. I stayed with him about an hour because it’s a four-hour process. I was driving home because we still had our two daughters at home, and they would just be getting home from school. So I went to be with them for a bit. And as I was driving up the hill, a phrase from a hymn came to mind: “All now rejoice; the long night is over.”10 I knew it was from a hymn; I didn’t know what hymn it was from. But I knew the message. I could rejoice. The long night was over. So I drove home and I thought, “The phone’s going to ring any second and they’re going to say, Mrs. Porter, I don’t know what happened, but you can come get your husband. He’s good.” And that call didn’t come—or the next day or the next day or the next month or the next year. But I knew I had been given something. I had been given here a little. I didn’t know the path; I didn’t even know what it meant. But I knew I could be rejoicing because the long night was over. That gave me hope. And even though in those ensuing eight years there were more surgeries, more health challenges, after eight years, he received a transplant from our oldest son, David, which restored his health. And we were able to accept an international assignment in Russia for the Church. I’ve reflected on that “here a little” and asking myself, “How can I be more open to the Spirit as I go throughout my life to receive those little impressions, those ‘here a little’ or ‘there a little’ that will give me hope through the vicissitudes of life to have faith in Christ and receive that abundance that I could start rejoicing now, even though the promised blessing was afar off?”
Sister Browning: So generous. That’s so generous to know that in the middle of something so challenging that the Lord seeks to give you hope that there is a destination to rejoice over. I think that’s just beautiful. Susan, thank you for sharing that. Thank you.
President Porter: So our third question is “How can I know if the Lord is pleased with my efforts?” I think sometimes that question can even lead to spiritual overwhelm when we realize, “Well, I bet I’ve got to be doing more.” And we end up in a place of overwhelm. So do you have any thoughts, Tracy, on how we can know if the Lord is pleased?
Sister Browning: My immediate thought when we kind of counseled around this question was in Matthew 25:21, and this is where the Lord is talking about the parable of the talents. But there is in verse 21—Matthew 25, verse 21—He says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of [the] lord.” There is so much peace for someone like me who is a multitasker, who is always assuming I need to do more, that my busyness in the gospel represents my effectiveness in the gospel, and as much stuff as I can collect to do to feel like I’m anxiously engaged in some way must be the solution to the Lord being pleased with my effort. But this scripture is so peaceful to me because He reminds me that the Lord’s expectation is a few things. A few things. How peaceful is that? Think about the list that we have that we could be doing to try to be perfect in now, when perfection is eventually, as Elder Holland taught us—that the Lord expects us to be master over a few things, and our focus on Him helps us to determine what those few things are that He will help us to be really good at.
President Porter: Thank you. Yeah, I’ve thought also how if I pay attention, every time I feel peace through the Spirit or every time I receive an impression is an indication of God’s love and His encouragement. And that He is pleased that He can offer me this impression with His hope that I’ll act on it. Even those little—every impression can be an indication that the Lord is pleased with us. He can count on us to be His messenger and to be His hands. So watching for those simple feelings of peace and impressions can help us know the Lord is pleased with our efforts. I love the hymn, too, “Be Still, My Soul.” “Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side.”11 So the Lord is not over here trying to find everything that’s the matter with us. He’s right there with us.
Remember that article in the Liahona that President Nelson wrote called “The Everlasting Covenant”? In the October 2022 Liahona. I think many of us here have made covenants with God, and once we’ve made those covenants, we are linked with our Savior and our Heavenly Father in a very special way, with Their special love and Their unique help. And this one quote from President Nelson: “Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.”12 So even when I fall, even when I’m not the person I know the Lord wants me to be, I know I’m never going to exhaust His patience with me or His mercy because of my efforts and desire to keep His covenants. That is a great comfort to me.
I wanted to close with an experience that I had surrounding this scripture in Hebrews. The Apostle Paul is inviting us to “run with patience the [course] that is set before us.”13 And we’ve been talking about patience, patience in our growth. And he says we do it by “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”14 When I think about running with patience, there are times in our lives when we’re running faster than other times. There are times when we’re barely, barely moving. And how can we know that the Lord is pleased with us in those times? Years ago, we were living in Munich, Germany, with three children ages three and under. This was before cell phones and FaceTime with family back home. And we just wrote letters. I wrote letters back and forth. Bruce had a full-time job and was called to serve as the branch president in a branch that was about 30 minutes away. And so I was at home long days and evenings with these three tiny children, two in diapers, in a foreign country. And I began to feel that I was not only not running a race, I wasn’t even walking the race. I just felt like I wasn’t contributing anything. I wasn’t making any progress. I was just trying to hang on. And one day I got a call from a sister in the ward saying that she was looking for a substitute for her Relief Society lesson. And so without thinking, I said I would be happy to do it. And I hung up. And I really was crying and thought, I can’t do this. I don’t have anything to offer. But I did. I had agreed. And so I prepared the best I could. So I went and taught the lesson. And then after class, there were just a group of us talking. And into my mind came this very clear sentence: “The Lord loves a plodder.” P-L-O-D-D-E-R. That gave me so much comfort. The Lord was aware I was doing about as much as I could. I was not running in any kind of race. I was plodding along, and He loved me for it, and He knew and saw my efforts.
Sisters, I leave with you my witness that you have a Heavenly Father who is on your side. Especially because when you are trying to live your covenants, His mercy will never run out. He’s anxious for you in those times; He is hoping in those times of overwhelm that you will stop, take yourself apart, look for Him, put yourself in a place to receive His guidance, and then act. Not embellishing, not making it bigger than it is, but doing those simple things that He knows you can do out of His love. I bear my witness that when you feel His Spirit, that is abundance: knowing and feeling your heart expand with His love for you and your love for Him. I love my Heavenly Father [and] His Son, Jesus Christ. I bear my witness that They live and They love us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Sister Browning: Our Savior loves His daughter who is overwhelmed. He loves His daughter who is exhausted. He loves His daughter who is seeking and searching for Him and for His direction. He loves His daughter who has questions and worries and concerns. He loves His daughter who is anxiously waiting upon the Lord for promised blessings, waiting at the windows for the floodgate to open, who’s looking to Him to provide things that are necessary. This is God’s kingdom, and each of us in it stand waiting for our Savior to help us in some way to do His work in His kingdom. And He loves us regardless of where we are in that process; He’s willing to help us, grace for grace, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. God loves a plodder.
I’m so grateful for my Savior. I’m so grateful for, in the challenges that I know that I am seeking for Him to help me with, that at times are overcoming, that He offers abundance, even as I feel like I am trying to make my way forward, and I’m climbing the hill, and I’m turning sharp corners, and I’m not quite sure what’s around the corner. I am so grateful that there is still abundance when I put myself in a position to receive. How blessed are we that the opportunity to be near to the Savior and in His presence is as close as the distance between our knees and the ground. They’re as close as the scriptures in our hands. They’re as close as the nearest temple. How grateful and how blessed we are for that. And for a Savior who provides us with so much to help us in the very normal and natural ways that we can at times be overwhelmed in His kingdom. But it is His kingdom, and He promises to never tire in His efforts to bring us safely home as we journey there. And I testify that our Savior is the only path. He is the answer. He is the answer for all the questions. He is the center of our covenants. He is the center of our faith. And when we focus on Him, He is the help that we need, the help that we need to help us progress in the ways that we desire. And I testify of this in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.