Day 139

  • Principle: Patience is a personal blessing as well as to those in your life.
  • Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 3:1 - 3:19
  • Turn to Luke 15.  Study the parable of the prodigal son.  As you are reading look for how patience is demonstrated by all those involved.  
    • How did the patience of one benefit the other?
  • Read the following from Brent H. Nielson about the blessing of patience.

    • "The Savior Jesus Christ spent His earthly ministry teaching of His healing and redemptive power. On one occasion in Luke chapter 15 in the New Testament, He was actually criticized for eating and spending time with sinners (see Luke 15:2). The Savior used this criticism as an opportunity to teach us all how to respond to those who have lost their way.

      He replied to His critics by asking them two important questions:

      “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4).

      “What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?” (Luke 15:8).

      The Savior then teaches the parable of the prodigal son. This parable isn’t about 100 sheep or 10 pieces of silver; it is about one precious son who is lost. Through the parable, what does the Savior teach us about how to respond when a family member loses his or her way?
       

      The prodigal son informs his father that he wants his inheritance now. He wants to leave the safety of his home and family and seek after worldly pursuits (see Luke 15:12–13). Please note that in the Savior’s parable the father lovingly responds by giving the son his inheritance. Certainly the father must have done everything he could to convince the son to stay. However, once the adult son makes his choice, the wise father lets him go. The father then demonstrates sincere love, and he watches and he waits (see Luke 15:20).

      Our son David was reading as we studied together Luke 15. As he read the parable of the prodigal son, I heard it differently that day than I had ever heard it before. For some reason, I had always related to the son who stayed home. As David read that morning, I realized that in some ways I was the prodigal son. All of us fall short of the glory of the Father (see Romans 3:23). All of us need the Savior’s Atonement to heal us. All of us are lost and need to be found. This revelation that day helped me know that my sister and I both needed the Savior’s love and His Atonement. Susan and I were actually on the same path back home.

      The Savior’s words in the parable as He describes the father greeting his prodigal son are powerful, and I believe they may be the description of the experience you and I will have with the Father when we return to our heavenly home. They teach us of a father who loves, waits, and watches. These are the words of the Savior: “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
       

      May you and I receive the revelation to know how to best approach those in our lives who are lost and, when necessary, to have the patience and love of our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, as we love, watch, and wait for the prodigal. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” (“Waiting for the Prodigal” April 2015)

  • Additional Study
    • Ulisses Soares, “Feed My Sheep”, October 2005
    • Lead Me into Life Eternal, Hymns No. 45
    • Master, the Tempest Is Raging, Hymns No. 105