You may trust the Lord too little, but you can never trust Him too much.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried,
Quietly, patiently, lovingly He replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the master said gently, “Child, you must wait.”
LORD, I need answers, I need to know why?
Is your hand shortened or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked and I’m claiming your WORD.
My future and all to which I can relate hangs in the balance,
And you tell me “Wait”?
I’m needing a yes, a go ahead sign or even a no to which I can resign.
And Lord, you’ve promised that if we believe
We need but to ask and we shall receive.
And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry,
“I’m weary of asking I need a reply.”
And quietly, softly I learned of my fate,
As my master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So I slumped in my chair defeated, and thought and grumbled to God,
And said, “So I’m waiting for what?”
He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine,
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could raise the dead and cause the mountains to run.
All you seek I could give and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint,
You would not know the power I give to the faint,
You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair,
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there,
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me,
When darkness and silence was all you could see.
You would never experience that fullness of love,
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late in the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask of an infinite God,
Who makes what you have last.
And you never would know should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Yes, your dreams for that loved one o’er night could come true,
But the loss is you lost what I’m doing in you.
So be silent My child, and in time you will see,
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know me.
And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still “Wait!”

When God restores our spiritual sight through the mystery of evil, we are then able to see the work of God displayed with in the framework of our most difficult question.  With tears of joy we bend before him.

In summary, for the Christian, evil is real, this world is real, and time is real.  Jesus recognized all three realities with reference to the blind man.  He pointed out that this world has built into it the component of time.  And upon the anvil of time beats the hammer of eternity until time ultimately reflects the values of the etermnal and willl be shed as a sheel, from within which ultimate truths will be freely embraced.  When we enter that stage, we will find out that the real anvil was eternity, that time provided the hammers, and that God’s glory and purpose will be what remains.

How did we do it? I get asked that often. Here is one of the main messages in this whole book:  It is not fancy. It is as fundamental as blocking and tackling. I just did it. I just went to work every day and did everything that needed to be done.

I have a three-legged milk stool in my office perched on top of a cabinet. It is a great symbol for how to succeed in business. There are three legs: Take care of the customer, have a little fun, make a little money. If you don't do that, it doesn't work, but if you do, it comes together easily....

I learned that too many people who become bosses don't understand the market or work as hard as they should.

Here's a classic trap:  A businessman is successful with one business, so he thinks two or three or four would be even better. This changes the equation dramatically. With one operation, you can be there yourself and use the sheer force of your personality to drive it, but as soon as you get two you're dividing your time; you need someone who is strong and good enough to run the other business. It's going to be more difficult to make a profit. Other people don't care about it as much as you do. There are some who work hard, but they are few....

Good people are hard to find, but they're there. We've got many good people in our organization. The trick is to find them jobs that keep them interested and match their talents and what they want to do (not everyone is a boss). Then you have a happy, motivated work force. In our company, we give our general managers the opportunity to buy 10 percent of the dealerships they manage. We prefer that they do this-obviously, someone who has a financial stake in the business is motivated to work hard and make the business a success.

As children of God, knowing of His great love and His ultimate knowledge of what is best for our eternal welfare, we trust in Him. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith means trust.

Men accomplish marvelous things by trusting in the Lord and keeping His commandments—by exercising faith even when they don’t know how the Lord is shaping them.......

But in the midst of all those glorious outcomes hoped for and expected by the participants, there were always the but if nots:......

Our scriptures and our history are replete with accounts of God’s great men and women who believed that He would deliver them, but if not, they demonstrated that they would trust and be true.

He has the power, but it’s our test.

What does the Lord expect of us with respect to our challenges? He expects us to do all we can do. He does the rest.

My purpose today is to assure you that our Heavenly Father and the Savior live and that They love all humanity. The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life. Then our spirits will be changed. We will become able to want what God wants, to think as He thinks, and thus be prepared for the trust of an endless posterity to teach and to lead through tests to be raised up to qualify to live forever in eternal life.

It is clear that for us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do. We are prepared for so great a trust by passing through trying and testing experiences in mortality. That education can come only as we are subject to trials while serving God and others for Him.

As you trust Him, exercise faith in Him, He will help you. That support will generally come step by step, a portion at a time. While you are passing through each phase, the pain and difficulty that comes from being enlarged will continue. If all matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not grow.

I know that each one of you faces overwhelming challenges. Sometimes they are so concentrated, so unrelenting, that you may feel they are beyond your capacity to control.

Don’t face the world alone. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5.)

In many ways, the world is like a jungle, with dangers that can har

m or mutilate your body, enslave or destroy your mind, or decimate your morality. It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming. You face on every hand difficult but vitally important decisions. There is an array of temptations, destructive influences, and camouflaged dangers, the like of which no previous generation has faced. I am persuaded that today no one, no matter how gifted, strong, or intelligent, will avoid serious problems without seeking the help of the Lord.

I repeat: Don’t face the world alone. Trust in the Lord.

Getting through the hazards of life requires understanding, skill, experience, and self-assurance like that required to sink a difficult basket under pressure. In the game of life, that is called righteous character. Such character is not developed in moments of great challenge or temptation. That is when it is used. Character is woven quietly from the threads of hundreds of correct decisions (like practice sessions). When strengthened by obedience and worthy acts, correct decisions form a fabric of character that brings victory in time of great need.

Righteous character provides the foundation of spiritual strength that enables you to make difficult, extremely important decisions correctly when they seem overpowering.

Righteous character is what you are. It is more important than what you own, what you have learned, or what you have accomplished. It allows you to be trusted. It opens the door to help from the Lord in moments of great challenge or temptation.