Subject: Ether 12:27
Weights — represents weakness. Volunteer to do curls. Talk about what changes they can make to turn that weakness into a strength---Number one on that list is to ask the Lord for help!!! Have one person represent the Lord and come in and help them lift their weight for a while (Hopefully they will want to give up or ask for help)
His fear: “the Gentiles shall mock.” He is reassured that “my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness.” In fact, he is promised his writing, however weak, will “become strong.”
In what way? It will lead the humble to an intensity of faith, hope, and charity that “bringeth [them] unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.” (Ether 12:25–28.)
But why permit such a problem in the first place? The Lord might have given someone else Moroni’s task—a literary genius perhaps. And for a modern translator he might have raised up a Shakespeare whose vocabulary and range of expression were well beyond those of the young Joseph Smith. Yet Moroni and Joseph were not aspiring novelists; they were witnesses of divine treasure. The greatest of their words are transparent, and sooner or later we may see Christ, and see ourselves in need—in need of Him.
Further, the Lord has not delegated to men the burden of proof of his mission and promises. He reserves it unto himself. “The power of God unto the convincing of men” (D&C 11:21) is not a product of human word-craft, human argument, or human coercion; it comes from the Spirit.
Pride, or even petty preoccupation with self, is like triple-plate steel against the flow of that Spirit.
Why: We are all born into a world of weakness and Out of his love for us; some we may bring individually from our pre-mortal existence. Some weaknesses are the inheritance from previous generations. The Lord may have customized—with our full consent—our particular obstacle course to those flaws and failings as well as to our strengths.
_What...