Exactness

I have had to go to the doctor twice on my mission. Once was for an intense handshake which included a puddle of water, a tile floor and gravity. The other time was for a football thrown with impressive speed that collided with my head. For the handshake, the concern was that I had torn my rotator cuff. For the football, it was a concussion. Needless to say, the work of the Lord can be at times dangerous.



Luckily, I had not torn my rotator cuff, but the doctor did give me some exercises to do to keep my shoulder strong, and from feeling so uncomfortable. He told me to do the exercises twice a day for two weeks. The more exact I was in the exercise, the better I would heal. I did my best to use that stretchy band EXACTLY as I was supposed to. After two weeks, the pain and discomfort were gone, and I had full range of motion again.

Unfortunately, I did get a concussion. The doctor told me to raise the head of my bed so that it would lay above my heart. He also instructed me to take ibuprofen in the morning to help with the sickness and pain. He too offered the same advice, that if I would be exact in following these instructions, I would recover much quicker. I raised my bed with books, and took the prescribed dosage of pain relievers. Almost immediately, I began to feel better.

What is the lesson? Exact obedience brings blessings. A couple thousand years ago, there were a couple thousand young men that enlisted in the army of a commander named Helaman to ensure that their parents could be loyal to the covenants they had made. They were given strict charges to be obedient and perform their tasks. Their faith sustained them, and Helaman reported that "they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness." The result? Their faith increased, and not one of them became a casualty of war.

If we observe to obey every word that God has given us with exactness, our faith will increase, and we will be blessed. I testify that God does not set us up to fail. His commandments can be challenging. They can be painful. They can make us grow, and stretch in ways that we don't want to. But as we are obedient to them, we will be blessed beyond measure.