Remember that picture book, “Seven Blind Mice” by Ed Young?
There are seven blind mice who each try to figure out what the large object in front of them is.
One feels the foot and thinks it’s a pillar.
Another one feels the trunk and thinks it’s a snake.
And so on. . .
They all are accurate in their assessment of what they physically feel, and draw completely reasonable conclusions.
But they are all wrong.
It’s an elephant.
The Lamanites made a reasonable, but very incorrect, assumption that the people who kidnapped some of their women were the people of Limhi they kept clashing with next door.
“They were angry with the people of Limhi, for they thought it was the people of Limhi.” (Mosiah 20:6)
But they were wrong.
This is an essential lesson to learn here on earth:
While we do our best to draw accurate conclusions each day, there are many times when we are very wrong.
Your ministering sister who didn’t reach out to you when you were clearly struggling, is dealing with brutal anxiety.
Your bishop who completely ignored you when you obviously needed help, had just received some concerning personal news.
Your friend who didn’t respond to your text, saw your message but then got interrupted by her kids and honestly forgot to reply.
We do our best to create the truth of what’s happening around us, but at the end of the day, we are often wrong in our assumptions of other people.
And other people are wrong about us.
So what do we do about this?
I think happiness and peace are found in letting go of the frustrating stories we make up when we don’t actually know the whole truth.
Sometimes I like to come up with my own backstories in my mind that completely and reasonably explain what someone did.
But most of the time, I’ve learned to just give it to God.
I’m naturally going to feel frustrated, confused, let down, forgotten, annoyed. . .
But I can quickly return to happiness and peace when I let that anger go and humble myself before Jesus Christ, the only One who knows exactly what everyone is going through.
Humility, surrendering it to God, and finding love instead.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
