Have you ever felt that you were in bondage? Alma remembers how his fathers were in bondage, and they couldn't establish His church while in captivity and that the Lord deliver them just as He did deliver them "out of the hands of the Egyptians."
"11 Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my fathers; for I surely do know that the aLord did deliver them out of bondage, and by this did establish his church; yea, the Lord God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage.
12 Yea, I have always remembered the captivity of my fathers; and that same God who adelivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians did deliver them out of bbondage."
Just as Alma's fathers were delivered from bondage by the Lord, God is able to deliver us from our bondage of any kind--physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, financial, you name it.
I can think of a couple of times when I was in bondage. The first one was during those number of years that I was carrying my own burden of sin. I knew God has forgiven me and yet I wasn't able to forgive myself. And so I was feeling like I don't deserve certain blessings. And when I realized I was supposed to forgive myself, and I did, my burden of sin was lifted. And it opened the way for me to receive the blessings I've been longing for and I was able to finally receive such blessings. All along, the Lord already has forgiven me. I was the one keeping myself in bondage.
The second time was when I was teaching a lot of classes at my school. For a number of year I was have 20-22 classes. And on one particular year, it was 23 total of classes. I was teaching each class of 5th and 6th graders once a week. And each class has 30-35 students. So, I got about a total of 700 students in one school year! Imagine when it's time to mark the test papers after each exam. I would have lots of sleepless nights marking all the students' test papers! And there were also individual workbooks and worksheets I would check. I was feeling like I was indeed in bondage at that time. And then one day, as I was reading the Book of Mormon, I came across the passage which is about that time when Alma the first and his people were put in bondage by Amulon, the Nephite leader of the Lamanites who was also one of the priests of King Noah just as Alma was. Alma the first couldn't establish the church among his people because they were prohibited to even say their prayers aloud. So, they poured out their hearts in prayer to God. And God did hear their cry. Their burdens were not lifted right away. The Lord did strengthen them that they were able to carry their burdens easily. And then they were eventually delivered from bondage. And the Lord did strengthen me as well...And so I was able to carry my own burden cheerfully. I was able to find joy teaching my 700 students and marking their work even when I was having very little sleep. And I decided to pray for my boss and so my attitude towards her suddenly changed. I was able to see how she's just doing the best she could in fulfilling her own duties and responsibilities as the head of our department. I stopped judging her in my thoughts. And suddenly her attitude towards me has changed as well. Before I thought she didn't like me and she wanted to fire me. And then suddenly I heard my Irish teaching partner telling me that my boss does like me. And yes, she paired me up with my Irish co-teacher to teach the same subject. I got moved to teach a different subject which is a lot easier to teach compared with my former subject. And my teaching loads was lessened. It went down to 16 classes! And over the years my number of classes went down even more until it's only 2 classes. And this since the past school year, my number of classes has been down to only one class. I'm just teaching them 5 subjects.
I said I can think of two and yet here's the third one. Actually I'm at a point at this time when I'm transitioning to a new career where I could work from home full-time and I will have more freedom. I'm breaking free from the bondage of working for 8 hours with overtime work at home from time to time. The challenge I'm going through because of the pandemic has made me decide to leave my teaching job at school and pursue a new career working from home. And when I am able to work from home full-time, I will have more time to spend with my family, friends and I will have more time for ministering and doing temple work. And this has been my goal. So, the situation I'm going through is actually a blessing in disguise. The Lord wants me to reach my goal quicker so I could spend more of my time fulfilling the mission He has called me to do in this earthly life.
What is your mission? How is the Lord directing your life so you could fulfill the mission He has called you to do?
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