I understand that my topic today is based on this year’s ward theme: “behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). The second I heard the topic, I looked around me and thought, Dane (my youngest) sure is small and simple, but he can make a great big mess! But in all seriousness, I’ve been trying to focus on the small and simple things all week. The big things are definitely more exciting!
Like in the story of Naaman and Elisha, when Naaman got upset because Elisha’s servant instructed him to wash in the River Jordan seven times to be healed, Naaman’s servant asked Naaman if he would have been quick to obey if Elisha would have asked something great out of him (2 Kings 5:13). I feel like I get more out of throwing my kids a birthday party to express how much I love them rather than the everyday milk cup refills they follow me around the house pleading for. But God usually doesn’t ask us to move mountains. He doesn’t even ask us to trek across the plains with a handcart. He asks us to do things that everyone can do. He doesn’t test our faith in one big gesture. Our test of faith is an enduring one that lasts through the eternities, and it’s the small and simple things that will eventually lead to the great eternal things.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Eternal things are always done in the process of time… Direction is initially more important than speed” (Neal A. Maxwell - Of One Heart). And I add to that, “more important than the size of gesture.” So what are the small and simple things that he asks of us? The usual Sunday school answers: daily prayer and scripture study, Family Home Evening, going to church every week—basically keeping the commandments. I decided to divide my talk up into how the small and simple things have affected our marriage, our family, and myself.
I have to admit that marriage was the hardest category for me to pinpoint the small and simple things. I think it’s because everything we do has become so ingrained into our marriage that it was hard to see them as additional things we do. We have couple prayer and couple scripture study. We have gospel conversations—not scheduled out or anything—but when we learn something new or want to discuss something with each other. We try to go to the temple every month—together. We find that we always have something we want to talk about in the Celestial room. We support each other in our callings. When Jaren was in the bishopric, I got the kids up and ready for church and sat with them in the pew while he went to his meetings, and Jaren made sure to come home early on Tuesday nights and put the kids to bed while I went to mutual.
Of course not everything we do is spiritual in nature. We try not to critique each other in front of other people. And when Jaren bikes home from work, I give him a few minutes to compose himself before bombarding him with kisses and conversation. Of course I didn’t know that was an issue until we talked about it. Getting to know each other’s needs and habits actually takes communication! These aren’t everything we do, and I’m not saying that because of these small and simple things, Jaren and my marriage is perfect. We’ve only been married for about eight years and eternity is a little longer than that, but I can say that the little things have made our good better and our time together joyful. In short, it has made a difference—not only a difference in our marriage, but in how we have chosen to raise our children. When Paul said that the gospel is taught by the weak and simple, I think that parents are included in that category (1 Corinthians 1:27).
With our children, we’ve decided that consistency is the key to developing habits. Ever since our oldest would sit with a book, we’ve read the picture scriptures with our children every night. We started with the illustrated Book of Mormon, then moved on to the Old Testament, and have just kept cycling through them. It’s been fun to see them start to recognize stories and ask questions.
We pray together as a family every night. Initially it was fine, but then it started to get repetitive. So now, before we pray, we talk about our day together to reflect not only on what we did, but what we could do better. To keep it simple for them, we ask each of them, “What was the best thing you did today?” and “What was the worst thing you did today?” When we pray, they include those things in their prayers. And sometimes, if they notice a pattern of “worst things”, they even work on changing it. I hope that these small things that we do will become so habitual to them, that when great temptations meet them on the path of life, they can rely upon the Savior. As Elder Delbert L. Stapley said, “It is not in the moments of great test and trial that character is built. That is only when it is displayed” (Delbert L. Stapley - General Conference October 1974).
In my own life, I quickly learned that great things won’t come to pass just because I expect them to. Both of my parents are converts and so their conversion stories always sounded so glamorous to me. My mom joined the church when she was 16. She is Japanese, and the big decision to join a Christian church and eventually marry my father left her disowned by her family for a few years. My dad was a smoking, drinking, swearing military man when he took a big leap of faith to join the church. So when I was eleven years old, I assumed that when I prayed to know if the church was true, as a girl who grew up in the church and made pretty solid choices, I could get some great miracle!
I remember the day down the detail. I was in room 101 in the church building right next to the bishop’s office. I usually stayed after church to read the scriptures while my dad was in meetings. On this day, I decided that I was going to get my testimony before I started Young Women’s. So with my scriptures with me, I prayed to my Heavenly Father, with real intent, to know if the church was true. And surprise...nothing happened! At least I thought nothing happened. I was disappointed to feel only how I felt every time I read the scriptures. It was the small and simple feeling of the Holy Ghost.
It wasn’t until further study and prayer that I realized that the testimony was there and that it didn’t come through the visitation of an angel or a lightning bolt from heaven. It was through the small and simple things. And it was then I realized that it was the same for my parents. They didn’t join the church because of something great to begin with. It started with the small and simple whispers and feelings from the Holy Ghost. And their conversion, like mine, continues through the daily small and simples.
But Heavenly Father isn’t the only one who knows that through small and simple things, great things come to pass. Satan knows that as well. Nephi wrote about Satan leading us away with a “flaxen cord” (2 Nephi 26:22). The flaxen cord refers to the fibers in a plant that are individually weak, but together strong. We must be wary of the small and simple distractions that turn into habits because habits work both ways. I think we all know stories of people who have made one bad choice, whether it be friends, or media content, or something else, that eventually led them to a place they never imagined themselves being. Satan will use the small and simple things to lead us into places of despair and misery.
But it’s never too late to come back. When Christ was born he was of small and simple circumstance. Then like us, he learned “line upon line, precept upon precept” until he became as we know him: the performer of the Atonement, our Savior, our Redeemer (2 Nephi 28:30). Although we are all small and simple, we are part of something great! It’s easy to forget why we do our home or visiting teaching. It’s easy to forget why we are commanded to do the mundane. Through these small and simple things, we become instruments in God’s hands to help bring to pass his Gospel.
I know that God lives. I know that he knows each one of us, no matter how small we feel. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.