Entering the land of Canaan and fighting the Giants may have seemed to the Israelites akin to being asked to jump off a cliff. Sacrificing his son Isaac may have seemed to Abraham worse than jumping off a cliff. To Laman and Lemuel, setting sail into the ocean on a ship built by Nephi may have at first seemed like certain death. Sariah believed that her sons had died and that she and her husband would perish because they followed what her husband said were commandments from the Lord. What did that visionary man know anyway? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were forced into a fiery furnace. They trusted that God would deliver them, but even if he did not deliver them from the flames they were determined to obey Him. Would God ever ask us to do something that to us seems foolish or dangerous or that might lead to persecution or death? Yes. Because His ways are not our ways and He sees a greater picture.
External elements act upon a rock. If it rains, the rock sits there. If the driving winds come, the rock sits there. If you pick it up and set it somewhere else, that is where it will remain until forces outside it move it somewhere else. Don’t be a rock. Choose how you will respond to what happens outside you. Look for solutions. Enlist the help of others. Choose. Don’t be a rock.
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