March 2015 Visiting Teaching Message
The
Attributes of Jesus Christ:
Long-suffering and Patient
Prayerfully study this material and seek to know what to share.
How will understanding the life and roles of the Savior increase your faith in
Him and bless those you watch over through visiting teaching
Patience
is often thought of as a quiet, passive trait, but as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency,
said, “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of
our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with
something … even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not
simply enduring; it is enduring well!”
In
our premortal life, our Heavenly Father prepared a plan for us—His spirit
children—and we shouted for joy at the opportunity to come to earth (see Job 38:7). As we choose to align our will with His during our earthly
life, He “will make an instrument of [us] in [His] hands unto the salvation of
many souls” (Alma 17:11).
President
Uchtdorf continued, “Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and
facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being ‘willing to submit to
all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth
submit to his father’ [Mosiah 3:19]. Ultimately, patience means being ‘firm and steadfast, and
immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord’ [1 Nephi 2:10] every hour of every day, even when it is hard
to do so.”1
Additional Scriptures
From the Scriptures
The
scriptures tell us that in our earthly life, we should “be patient in
afflictions, for [we shall] have many.” God then gives us this comforting
promise, “Endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days”
(D&C 24:8).
The
following Bible story is an example of patience and faith.
“And
a woman having an issue of blood twelve years … touched the border of
[Christ’s] garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched [stopped].
“And
Jesus said, … Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out
of me.
“And
when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down
before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had
touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
“And
he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole;
go in peace” (Luke 8:43–48).
Like
her, we can find blessings and comfort, and even healing, as we reach out
to Jesus Christ—whose Atonement can heal us.
Consider This
From
the account in Luke 8, how was this woman’s years of patience and then her faith
in Jesus Christ rewarded?
