Personal mountains

In our bishopric meeting last week, it was the second counselor, Brent’s turn to offer a spiritual thought. He quoted a scripture:

… verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17:20)

Moroni tells us in Ether 12:30 that the brother of Jared had this kind of faith:

For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith.

 Brent suggested that often, the mountains you and I need to remove are more figurative than real.

Brent told a story about the first few months of his mission and the struggle he had to deal with his own self-doubt and depression. He wanted to quit his mission and go home. He recognized his problems as a personal mountain that had to be moved from his path before he could make progress on his mission.

He realized that he could not continue as he was, so one morning while his companion was in the shower, he poured out his heart to the Lord. He was especially concerned that his senior companion would be transferred soon and he would be required to train a new companion, even greener than he was.

He was worried that he would be unable to find investigators for them to teach, because his senior companion had always done that for him. He asked the Lord to help him find someone to teach. He finished his prayer, and within five minutes, someone rapped on their front door. When he opened the door, a man and his wife stood there.

The conversation went something like this (I’m paraphrasing):
“Do the missionaries still live here?”
“Yes. How can I help you?”
“Do you teach people about your church?”
“Yes. We do.”
“Well, about 17 months ago, your missionaries stopped by our house. We weren’t ready then, but we would like to be baptized.”

We will probably never have the need to remove a real mountain from our path, but all of us may have personal mountains that impede our progress in this life. Brent suggested that the Lord removed his personal mountain in a most spectacular way. Probably our mountains will not move quite as easily, but they certainly can be moved. Elder Sterling W. Sill said:

If you need the kind of faith that will move mountains, you need only look within yourself, for God has already implanted in your own heart the seeds of faith, waiting only for you to make them grow. If you need courage and love for the greatest accomplishment, you can develop that which you have already been endowed. God laid up the silver, gold, and other precious things in the earth, but he put his own potentialities into his children and has made their development our greatest responsibility,,, (Conference Report, April 1962, First Day—Morning Meeting 16)

Moving personal mountains is not just a “pick and shovel” manual labor problem. In fact, preparing to move aside those things which impede our progress requires considerable thought, study, and prayer. Seeking and finding the kind of faith that gives us the ability to overcome personal obstacles is probably a life-long effort. We progress, slip a little, progress a little more, and repeat the cycle many times simply because we are human. Progressing more and slipping less is really a key to moving our personal mountains. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said in his book, Men and Women of Christ, p. 23:

Paced progress not only is acceptable to the Lord but also is recommended by Him. Divine declarations say: "Ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now" (D&C 50:40); "I will lead you along" (D&C 78:18). Just as divine disclosure usually occurs line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, so likewise we will achieve our spiritual progress gradually (see D&C 128:21; 98:12).

Perhaps another key to increased faith and spiritual strength is to start with small things. A little more kindness. A little more service. A little more scripture study. A little more prayer. Just a little more. As a matter of fact, Elder Bruce R. McConkie counseled us to start small. He said:

Don't go out and try to move mountains, but go out and start in a small degree to do the thing you need to do in your life to get what you ought to have temporally and spiritually.... Work on the projects ahead, and when you have taken one step in the acquiring of faith, it will give you the assurance in your soul that you can go forward and take the next step, and by degrees your power or influence will increase until eventually, in this world or in the next, you will say to the Mt. Zerin's in your life, "Be thou removed." You will say to whatever encumbers your course of eternal progress, "Depart," and it will be so. (Lord, Increase Our Faith, Address at Brigham Young University, October 31, 1967.)

Alma 32:27-28 gives us great insight into the process of starting small:

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Alma is suggesting that as you begin to believe, as the spirit begins to work in you, you will begin to have real hope that the Lord can help you overcome your personal mountains. Hope = optimism. Faith = optimism. I believe that we cannot have true hope in salvation or true faith in God unless we are optimistic about our mortal future and our eternal salvation. President Monson said:

Our Heavenly Father has placed an upward reach in every one of us. The words of scripture speak loud and clear. “Look to God and live.” No problem is too small for His attention nor so large that he cannot answer the prayer of faith. (Your Celestial Journey, General Young Women Meeting, March 27, 1999)

If you believe you can’t, you won’t. If you believe you can, you will. So be optimistic. Believe that you can overcome your personal mountains. Believe that the Lord can and will help you move aside obstacles to your mortal and eternal progress. Reach upward. Lloyd Newell, of Music and the Spoken Word fame, said:

The Lord can give us the power to move mountains of trouble in our lives, to part seas of discouragement, and to moisten the hardness of human hearts when we are exercising faith by first thinking positively. It's never easy, and it's seldom luck. But real strength comes from allowing God into our lives through the welcoming door of optimism. (May Peace Be with You [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994], 70)