My daughter sprained her ankle last week.
It was towards the end of the day and she was crying from the pain.
She’s a super logical kid, so her dad and I comforted her and explained that the best way for sprained ankles to get better is to give it rest.
We told her that when she slept that night, her ankle muscles would start to relax and heal.
She eventually calmed down and she went to sleep pretty soon after.
Well, when she woke up the best morning, she was not too happy to discover that her ankle still hurt!
“I rested it all last night, so it’s supposed to be better now! Why does it still hurt?!”
I realized I needed to better explain that even though it is amazing that our bodies heal themselves, often it takes a lot longer than we want.
Within a few hours, she was running around like normal again and hasn’t mentioned her ankle since.
But how often do we tell the Lord our own timetable for healing?
“Okay, I took a nap, did some service, and prayed about it. Why is my emotional pain still here?”
The Lord taught the Israelites:
“I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26)
He has blessed us with beautiful bodies that are, for the most part, able to heal ourselves when we have injury.
He heals the wounds of sin.
He heals emotional hurt.
He heals broken hearts and broken trust.
He heals pride and contention.
He heals quickly and miraculously.
He heals slowly and gradually.
He heals in a completely different way than we thought we needed to be healed.
Elder Christofferson recently taught about how we can heal and receive blessings from the Lord:
“We do our best but must leave to Him the management of blessings, both temporal and spiritual.”
The Lord heals.
But how and when is up to Him.
How has the Lord healed you recently?
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
