“Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock—and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (3 Nephi 14:24-27
“Brothers and sisters, none of us would knowingly construct our homes, places of work, or sacred houses of worship on sand or rubble or without appropriate plans and materials. Let us accept the Savior’s invitation to come unto Him. Let us build our lives upon a safe and sure foundations.” (Dean M. Davies, “A Sure Foundation,” General Conference, April 2013)
My mind is feeling unsettled tonight. I am turning towards a writing meditation to help me organize my thoughts and feelings on an issue and the “Wise Man and The Foolish Man” keeps running through my mind.
I have spent a lot of time studying faith in recent months. I know how vital it is to put my faith and trust in the sure foundation that is Christ and not in man. Today I came to the realization that, while I know that to be the case, I may be putting too much of my faith in other people.
As I grapple with my doubts and with difficult questions, I come to answers I feel comfortable with and that make sense to me and resonate in my heart. Then, when I hear other people whose I trust come to similar conclusions I find great comfort in that. Lately, however, like minded friends of mine whose faith I have relied on when mine has wavered, have been leaving the church in droves. I learned recently of yet another person who has made the decision that the church no longer fits into their life and I found myself shaken more than I ever expected. I start to fear that my searching will lead me on a similar or inevitable path if people whose beliefs aligned so much with my own or whose faith I admired can come to that conclusion. And I desperately do not want to lose my faith or my testimony of the gospel.
The answer that comes to my mind and speaks peace to my heart tonight is that I must not build my faith on the faith of others. I need to trust that still small voice that speaks peace to my heart and tells me that the doctrine of love that I believe in deep in my soul IS the truth. That the difficult questions have answers that come with love and peace. That the things that bring doubt and the truths I know can co-exist. That Christ is the way, this church is His and it will lead me to Him. I must be the wise man, and watch out for the foolish man within me that seeks validation and confirmation from other humans who are just trying to fumble their way this life like I am. I must continually seek that confirmation from God and live my life in a way that I can hear when he speaks to me. I am making a renewed commitment to study and ponder and meditate every day so that I can maintain that connection with him. I do not want my house to wash away when the floods come up, because up they are coming!
Meditation and Journaling Prompt: Where is your faith today? Where is your house built?
Call to Action: Commit with me to meditate twice a day for the rest of this week. Then please comment here, or on Instagram (or send me a DM if you don’t want to share publicly) and let me know how it went for you.
