“How Great Blessings”

As I wrote yesterday, it’s important to be thankful for the good things in our lives. Additionally, it’s important to recognize that God has prepared blessings which we are not yet aware of. Here is how He described those blessings to members of the church in Kirtland, Ohio in 1832:

Ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

And the Lord provided a similar assurance to readers of the Book of Mormon through Moroni:

Doctrine and Covenants 78:17-18

Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief.

Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief.

Ether 4:13-14

It sounds like God has great things in store for us, blessings which we aren’t yet able to understand let alone receive. But He is willing to “lead us along” to help us receive them.

President Russell M. Nelson said, “I testify that [the Lord] has been, and is, indeed leading us along, as we seek to hear Him. He wants us to grow and to learn” (“What We Are Learning and Will Never Forget,” General Conference, April 2021).

And Elder Brian K. Ashton made the following observation about our efforts to understand God’s plan for us:

Why can’t or won’t God reveal more about the process of becoming like Him? I don’t honestly know all the reasons. But there are at least two that I do understand. The first is that some things are simply incomprehensible in our mortal estate (see Doctrine and Covenants 78:17). It might be akin to trying to explain the internet to someone who lived in the Middle Ages. The context and perspective are just not there. And the second is that gifts of grace often come to us precisely because we must agonize and struggle through not knowing.

“The Father,” General Conference, October 2018

Today, I will remember not only the blessings I have received from God but the blessings He has in store for me. I will trust His promise to lead me along, knowing that I still need to grow and mature in order to understand and receive the blessings He wants to give me.