“For What Could I Write More Than My Fathers Have Written”

Bryan Richards

Truly, Lehi, Nephi, and Jacob had written incredibly clear doctrine on the plan of salvation and the Lord's covenants with the House of Israel. It may have been intimidating for Jarom to have to continue to write in this great tradition. However, if there really was no more to be said, we would not need the writings of king Benjamin, Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. Fortunately for us, those prophets did not feel as Jarom did. Jarom apparently feels like he cannot fill the footsteps of his predecessors. We often feel the same way when we feel we are not qualified for our callings. We sound like Jarom when we ask, "How could I ever do as good a job as the last Primary President, Elders Quorum President, etc.?" From the Church News, we read:

"Legion are the experiences of members who have grown in the gospel because the mantle of responsibility has been passed their way. Their abilities grow to meet the challenges and demands of the calling. Most members feel quite inadequate when they accept a new calling, but we are called not necessarily for what we are, but for what we can become. The Lord makes us equal to the task. President Thomas S. Monson has often said, 'Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.'
"And it matters little where we serve, but how!" (Church News, May 3, 1997, "Mantle of Responsibility")

Dallin H. Oaks

"There is something deficient about any service that is conscious of self. A few months after my calling to the Council of the Twelve, I expressed my feelings of inadequacy to one of the senior members of my quorum. He responded with this mild reproof and challenging insight: 'I suppose your feelings are understandable. But you should work for a condition where you will not be preoccupied with yourself and your own feelings and can give your entire concern to others, to the work of the Lord in all the world.'

"Whenever we focus on ourselves, even in our service to others, we fall short of the example of our Savior, who gave himself as a total and unqualified sacrifice for all mankind. Those who seek to follow his example must lose themselves in their service to others." (Pure in Heart, pp. 45-6)

GospelDoctrine.Com

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