Prepare to be Stretched...

In the book of Ether, we read about the Brother of Jared, or Mahonri Moriancumer, and his task of getting his family to the "Promised Land". While on this journey, Mahonri and his family arrived at the shore of the 'many waters' which the Lord said they must cross to get to the promised land. God commanded Mahonri to build eight barges giving him every little instruction on how to build them, however, He left to problems to be solved by Mahonri alone: how were they to see, steer, and breathe whilst on their journey on the sea. The Lord solved two of his problems by telling Mahonri not to worry about steering, for He would send forth a wind that would direct the barges to the promised land, as well as directing Mahonri to cut two holes into each barge that could be plugged when underwater. However, God left the third problem to be solved by Mahonri. In this way, God was asking Mahonri to think for himself, even though Mahonri could easily have found his task impossible. So, Mahonri ended up molting out of the mount, sixteen small, transparent stones. After all this work, the best that Mahonri could put forth, the rocks still did not give forth light. Often we may feel the way the brother of Jared must have felt. Even after we try our very hardest to do something right, it may not even get the result we tried so hard to achieve. However, just as the Lord did with Mahonri, He only asks us to put our best effort onto the altar and to then ask God to magnify it and make it shine.

"No light will come from your finest work without the help of God."

God will find each and every one of us, wherever we may be in our spiritual progression and capacity, and He will stretch us to become better. God doesn't ask less of us as we get better, simply he helps make us strong enough to handle harder things. As President Eyring put it, "the more faithful service you give, the more the Lord asks of you. Your smile is a happy one because you know that He increases our power to carry the heavier load" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/o-ye-that-embark?lang=eng). At times we may feel like the road before us is too difficult to travel, but I know that if we pray for guidance and help, that the Lord will lift us up to more than we could ever be on our own. He's going to stretch us, but if we trust in Him and follow Him, we can successfully grow to higher heights than ever before.