Instead of gladness, murmuring seems to come so naturally to the natural man. It crosses the spectrum of complaints. We need bread. We need water. (See Numbers 21:5.) The needed military reinforcements did not arrive (see Alma 60). 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?' (See Numbers 11:20.) 'Why did we ever leave Jerusalem?' (See 1 Nephi 2:11.) On and on goes our murmuring, and, it is significant that it almost always focuses on our tactical frustrations.
Be free of criticism and murmuring. Build and lift in your words and conversations as you sustain and support. Murmuring and criticism lead to inactivity and apostasy from the Church. Do not allow yourself the dangerous luxury of criticism and murmuring. When I think of those who are prone to murmur, I think of Laman and Lemuel. 'And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.' (1 Nephi 2:12.) Often murmuring is an outward evidence of disobedience.
Too many of us seem to expect that life will flow ever smoothly, featuring an unbroken chain of green lights with empty parking places just in front of our destinations.
In its extremity, despair not only reflects immediate discontentment but also incorporates feelings of very deep ambivalence and/or confusion about the nature of life: 'Their sorrowing was . . . the sorrowing of the damned, because [they could not] take happiness in sin' (Mormon 2:13, 14).
By knowing that the everlasting and ultimate things are firmly in place, can we not then better endure irritations such as a dislocated travel schedule? Besides, how can it rain on the just and the unjust alike without occasionally raining on our personal parades? (See Matthew 5:45.)
By knowing that the everlasting and ultimate things are firmly in place, can we not then better endure irritations such as a dislocated travel schedule? Besides, how can it rain on the just and the unjust alike without occasionally raining on our personal parades? (See Matthew 5:45.)
Enduring 'well' means passing the breaking point without breaking, having cause to be bitter - as men measure cause - without being bitter. Enduring 'well' means the disciple in the very trough of his difficulties avoids, as Job wisely did, having 'charged God foolishly.' The 'murmuring' so often mentioned in the Book of Mormon is kindred to the feelings we may sometimes have when we do not really question God's existence but rather his fair play, and we wrongly begin to make demands of him. (Helaman 16:17-20.) A brighter time will come when they that murmured 'shall learn doctrine,' (Isaiah 29:24) suggesting that conceptual inadequacy can cause us to murmur and complain.
Conclusion
Be free of criticism and murmuring. Build and lift in your words and conversations as you sustain and support. Murmuring and criticism lead to inactivity and apostasy from the Church. Do not allow yourself the dangerous luxury of criticism and murmuring. When I think of those who are prone to murmur, I think of Laman and Lemuel. 'And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.' (1 Nephi 2:12.) Often murmuring is an outward evidence of disobedience.
Neal A. Maxwell, One More Strain of Praise, p. 26; A Time to Choose, P. 42
Marvin J. Ashton, Ye Are My Friends, p. 3 - 4.
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