This post is in complete response to my religion class which had an impact on me today... Go figure, huh? We were talking about impressions and how God will sometimes tell you to do something or tell you not to or maybe just allow you to make your own decision and will just get back to you later. I believe all of that so the part that was interesting to me was the professor's application of the principle.
He began by talking about his dating life in college. There was a girl he had dated in high school from his small hometown in southern Utah and when they had both graduated and came to BYU, there is no escaping someone in a small Utah town but in Provo he gave into his fear. He was afraid of where things were going and even though he hadn't spoken to her in over two months he had continued praying about whether or not she was girl he was supposed to marry. Eventually he felt like he should do what he felt he should have done all along and give her call. She wasn't there because she had gone home for the weekend, so delightfully he left a message to have her call him back. It would have been to stressful and nerve-racking to actually talk to her. In any case, his dad calls and lets him know the news; she is engaged. So the next week he hears back from her and she asks what he was calling for. He tells her he was just calling to congratulate her on her engagement. For the next six years of his single life, a specific scripture continually came to mind, "Behold, it was expedient when you commenced; but you feared, and the time is past, and it is not expedient now." (Doctrine and Covenants 9:11)
In time, the blessing of marriage didn't escape him completely. Once he turned 29 years old, he was no longer single and eventually married his wonderful wife. He did learn his lesson. The other interesting thing was that again even in the celestial room of the temple as he was about to get sealed, he became afraid. He was about to make a covenant that had eternal implications. He wasn't praying about a major or where to live, things he could change, he was praying about who to be married to for time and all eternity. The consequences of this choice would forever change his life and the lives of others. As the pressure continued to build, his fiance noting his emotions, well long story short, he never got the impression to go for it and followed his gut and the feelings he had before and got married. It wasn't until afterwards that he knew he made the right choice.
The lessons he had learned from all these things were that he couldn't let fear keep him from making the right decision. If he felt like he needed to do something, he should follow the impression (as long as it made sense and was according to his standards and principles, of course). Impressions are given for us to act on them, in the time that they were given. If he had followed the impression to date his high school sweetheart things could have played out very differently but the time had passed he no longer could do what he originally felt prompted to do. Don't date someone's fiance. Don't date someone's wife. Write that down if you need to... But lastly, he pointed out something truly significant. Not only did he remember the impressions and feelings he had when dating his own wife, but in the end, marrying her was his decision. It wasn't the Lord's decision. He couldn't blame God if it didn't work out. He chose her out of everyone else in the world to be his eternal companion and she chose him. God let him know that his choice was the right one, but allowed him to make it his choice. I just felt that it was truly significant, at least for me.
Learning to recognize promptings, following your feelings, and remembering the Lord in your life will help us all find the blessings and joy and happiness that God has always been wanting and intending for us to enjoy. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is so very crucial in achieving our temporal and also divine potential and in our becoming even as He is. Simply put,when the Spirit speaks... Just do it.
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