He Will Teach You

One of the people we have been teaching is such a great example to me of how Heavenly Father really does teach and prepare us to understand and receive the knowledge He wants us to have. She has been slowly increasing in her faith over the past few years as she has experienced the loss of her mother and trials of health. Though she grew up not really being very religious, she has learned to turn to God through prayer and has such immense trust that He will take care of her. She has been feeling the Spirit tell her that she needs to learn about the gospel and be a part of it. Yesterday, we taught her about the Word of Wisdom. This commandment was revealed to us through another prophet, Joseph Smith, and it details how God wants us to take care of our bodies and our spirits (See http://www.mormon.org/faq/word-of-wisdom). This commandment teaches us to abstain from alcohol, coffee, tobacco, tea, and illegal drugs in order to protect ourselves spiritually and physically and have the most happiness. We knew that she struggles with some of these substances, especially smoking, and so we invited her to pray about this commandment and ask God herself if it is something that she should do. To our surprise, she told us, "You won't believe this, but I already have been praying about this! For the past 2 weeks, I have been asking God to help me quit smoking. And I didn't even know it was a commandment!" This is such a testament to me that God is in control and that He is preparing and guiding all of us to learn what He needs us to. He was already teaching this woman how to better care for her body and spirit before we even talked to her about it. I know that there are forces at work in our lives preparing us for the future. Every experience and trial we have can be an opportunity to grow if we will take advantage of it.