Life Skills

Humility: Embracing Our Need for God’s Help

By Jonah Merrell

Through learning a difficult piano piece, I realized that God is always ready to help us in our weaknesses—we just need to be humble enough to ask Him.

For a year and a half during college, I had been trying to master a certain piece on the piano: Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, by Franz Liszt.

I could play the entire piece, but there was one spot in particular that made it more difficult for me than any other piano piece I had ever tried to master.

My challenge was one thing—speed.

Despite lots of practice, I hadn’t been able to learn to play that one section fast enough without making mistakes. But that wasn’t what was bothering me the most.

I was more frustrated at myself for not being able to improve. I had the thought to ask my mom (who had taught me to play the piano growing up) for help at times, but I was too stubborn, so I kept trying to improve on my own.

After more than a year of practicing and no improvement, I finally gave in and decided to ask her to listen to me play to see if she could figure out what I was struggling with.

When I finished playing, she had one suggestion for me: “Slow down.”

I couldn’t believe it! That couldn’t be right! How could practicing slowly help me play more quickly? I could already play it slowly—in fact, I had the piece memorized. Still, she insisted that I continue practicing it slowly and said that it would eventually help me play it at full speed.

I didn’t like her advice, and I thought I knew better than she did. Playing slowly obviously wouldn’t help. But I had tried everything else, so I followed her suggestion anyway.

As you might have guessed, something amazing happened. Within a month, I was able to play the passage at the proper speed. Even though I had worked on this piece for over a year without any improvement, it took just a few weeks for me to finally get it right, just by following my mom’s advice.

If I had only been willing to ask my mom for help sooner, I would have accomplished my goal much more quickly.

In other words, when we are willing to be humble and set our pride aside, we can benefit from greater blessings, be led to greater experiences, and reach our goals much more smoothly and quickly.

Pondering this experience, I realized how when we are facing challenges, it’s easy to exhaust every other possible option before we finally admit that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s guidance was the best to follow all along. When we are willing to let Them guide us, we can trust that Their blessings will come at the right time.

But why is it so hard at times to be humble enough to follow Them?

Well, in my case, I didn’t slow down my piano piece in the first place because I don’t like playing slowly. This was not the first time that my mom had told me to slow down, but I wanted to accomplish my goal my way. My unwillingness to follow her advice (let alone ask for it) only delayed how quickly I succeeded. It took me that year and a half of trying before I was finally humble enough to reach out for help.

Through this experience, I learned three things that have helped me develop and practice humility:

Be willing to ask Heavenly Father for His help.
Be willing to do whatever it is He might ask you to do as you seek guidance.
Trust that His answers through the Holy Ghost are true and what you need, even if you disagree with or don’t completely understand them at first.

Following these ideas often requires us to step back and find a broader perspective. President Russell M. Nelson shared an example of this, where a family member of his needed to practice humility when he offered some advice.

The wife of one of his grandsons, whom he referred to as Jill, was struggling with her faith as her father was dying. President Nelson’s only advice to her was the word myopic, which means “nearsighted.” At first, Jill was frustrated and didn’t understand this answer, but eventually, as she pondered the word more deeply and began seeing life through an eternal lens, her heart softened. She explained: “Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan. … Myopic has led me to God.”¹

Whether it be learning this difficult piano piece or struggling to learn Portuguese on my mission, I have faced a lot of humbling moments in my life. But through it all, I have learned that if we let go of our pride and rely on Heavenly Father and the Savior for help, our weaknesses and imperfections can become a means for us to become more humble (see Ether 12:27).

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are our Master Teachers, and trusting Their answers and guidance will help us progress. We can receive divine help much sooner if we are humble enough to listen. Sometimes weaknesses will take years or even a lifetime to overcome, but I know that if we turn to Them in all things, They can help us find comfort and make the most of our experiences to become more humble and more faithful. There is no better way to improve our efforts than to let Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ direct them.