Is it possible to be unhappy and not know it? Enos later tells us that, in answer to his diligent supplication, his “guilt was swept away.” But at this point, before the prayer, he doesn’t talk about sins or guilt. He talks about remembering his father’s description of “the joy of the saints.” As he pondered his father’s words, his soul “hungered.” Was he unhappy? At a minimum, he recognized that he was missing something, something which his father had described vividly enough that it now sank into his heart.
I love Neal A. Maxwell’s description of how an external stimulus can rekindle deep feelings in our souls:
Some of us have been momentarily wrenched by the sound of a train whistle spilling into the night air, and we have been inexplicably subdued by the mix of feelings that this evokes. Or perhaps we have been beckoned by a lighted cottage across a snow-covered meadow at dusk. Or we have heard the warm and drawing laughter of children at a nearby playground. Or we have been tugged at by the strains of congregational singing from a nearby church. Or we have encountered a particular fragrance which has awakened memories deep within us of things which once were. In such moments, we have felt a deep yearning, as if we were temporarily outside of something to which we actually belonged and of which we so much wanted again to be a part.
There are spiritual equivalents of these moments. (“Patience,” BYU Devotional Address, 27 November 1979).
Today as I pray, I will seek to communicate with my Heavenly Father sincerely and to be aware of the feelings of my heart.
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