"The most important lessons come from ordinary events in life."
As he went on with his lesson he kept reiterating the idea that
"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."
I sort of chuckled to myself because I am the type of person that lets little, irrelevant things in life get to me; often resulting in frustration or annoyance. Our reading we had for homework brushed over the topic of grace and I was really touched by a story that my teacher shared; I'll try my best to tell it as well as he did.
He was talking to a minister about the possible differences between the Protestant and LDS definitions of grace. This conversation provoked a lot of thought, and Brother Frogley studied, pondered, and prayed to gain a better understanding of how grace works in our lives. Brother Frogley then was having a conversation with another minister while eating lunch. Brother Frogley's intentions were nothing other than having a peaceful and intellectual conversation with someone of a different faith. Hoping to discuss the idea of grace, he brought it up and the minister sort of chuckled as if it was going to be a heated debate. Brother Frogley talked about the scriptures Matthew 11:28-30 which read,
"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; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
A yoke is "a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, especially oxen"(dictionary.com). In this scripture Christ is inviting us to take upon his yoke, so that we can go through our lives with his help and guidance. However, how can we take upon his yoke if we still carry our own yoke? We need to take off our yoke which is burdened by sin, bad habits/actions, and negative thoughts. In addition, the yoke is only effective if we trust in the Lord, and are both working together. With every step we take, he takes one with us; we limit Christ with how many steps we take. The more proactive we are, the more we will see grace working in our lives.
This anecdote really opened my eyes to how I can be happy by letting go of burdens in my life. By focusing my attention outward and being a positive person in the world, rather then taking in all the negative things of the world, I am allowing my Savior to ease my burden.
This simple lesson really inspired me and after class a friend and I drove and saw this beautiful view at the Pali lookout. I'm so glad I get to live in such a beautiful place and have amazing people around me to teach me and remind me of why life is so precious.
