Delivered from Want

Tucked so neatly at the end of my favorite talk from April conference that I almost missed it was this little remark: "I pray that you will always have His Spirit to be with you to guide you and deliver you from want, anxiety, and distress." (Elder Christofferson) Being delivered from want struck me as very interesting thing to pray for.

During my May visiting teaching trip, Laura (miss you!) pointed out that the opposite of 'to want' is to be satisfied. When we are satisfied we are often free from want. For me that has been a good way to think of it. However I still find myself wanting a lot of good things. . . to raise a righteous family, to have a happy family (here and now), to be of service to those around me, for my sister to get better. . . . Isn't okay to want good things like that?

Then I remembered Alma. He wanted to be an angel to cry repentance. Wasn't that a good thing? But then he explained that he sinned in his wish and that he should be content with what was allotted him. When I went to look up that scripture, this is what I found:It's a little post-it note that I had printed out with an Elder Maxwell quote regarding Alma 29:1. The quote says, "Ponder how Jesus was and is the Lord of the universe. Yet His ministry, as we all know, was accomplished in a very tiny geographical space. His ministerial travels were very limited. Yet therein the Savior accomplished the Atonement for all of mankind! There were certainly much more prominent hills than Golgotha and much more resplendent gardens than Gethsemane. No matter; these were sufficient to host the central act of all human history!"

The quote spoke to me again like it must have when I put it in my scriptures. I felt again of Heaven's presence in my life and that I didn't need to have any wants. Heavenly Father desires my happiness more than I do and He will help fill the righteous desires of my heart as I submit my will to His. I need to focus my energy on being satisfied with my blessings and making sure I use the opportunities allotted to me.

The quote also led me to the talk that it came from and with this new thought process I gleaned a few more applicable tidbits:

"Pondering often precedes contentment. "

"Meanwhile, the discontented continue to build their own pools of self-pity, some Olympic size. "

"Being content means acceptance without self-pity. Meekly borne, however, deprivations such as these can end up being like excavations that make room for greatly enlarged souls."

After studying this I have come to realize the importance of being free from want. Taking it back to the terms that brought on this mini study session, Elder Christofferson prayed that we would be 'delivered from want' which leads me to think that it is not something we can do entirely on our own as mortals. While it is important to avoid pity pools especially Olympic sized, (don't you just love Elder Maxwell's imagery?) I think mud-puddle and kiddie-pool-sized wantings are part of mortality and can only be filled by the strengthening and enabling power of the atonement (see page 697 in the Bible dictionary under 'grace') which comes to us as we keep our covenants--and that is what Elder Christofferson's talk was all about. Through keeping our covenants it is possible to delivered from want. What a wonderful promise!