I had the opportunity the first part of this week to spend a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park with my wife and my parents and siblings. This was my second trip to Yellowstone, and highly enjoyed the fresh air, the sweeping panoramas, the geysers, and of course the wildlife.
Tuesday, the second day we were there, we were viewing the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone river. We came to pullout entitled, “Grand View.” It was a magnificent vista of what is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 20 miles long and at points more than 4000 feet across, the bright yellow rock and the clear, blue Yellowstone River below was quite the site:
As we were walking back to the car, ready for the next spectacular view, two parents passed by. Their daughter, who was probably about 14 or so, was slow to get out of the car and as she started towards her parents she looked around briefly and then asked, “Wait, another walk?! I’m done. I’ll be in the car.” With that she spun around and went right back to the car. It was then that I noticed that she had an older sister who hadn’t even left the car. The fact that the lookout point of Grand View is a very short distance from the parking lot, made the moment even more ironic to me.
It struck me that with just a little bit of effort, there was a wonderful, breath-taking view that was likely to help her enjoy her journey a little more. The wheels in my head started turning and I asked myself the question, “Do I ever do that?” Are there things I avoid because I am afraid of the effort (costs) that I think might be involved? How often is it that the ‘effort’ involved turns out to be but a small moment that leads to a better,’grand view’ of the Lord’s plan for me and my family?
Like Laman and Lemuel, perhaps we are too quick to complain and “murmur, saying it is a hard thing which [is] required of [us];” (1 Nephi 3:5). They failed to see the grand view because (by their own choosing and disbelief), “the Lord maketh no such thing known unto [them],” (1 Nephi 15:9). O the irony that all it would have taken for Laman, Lemuel and the young girl at the car some simple steps of faith to enjoy the ‘grand view’.
I hope we can all go and do, and not miss out on the grand views of our lives.
Thanks for Reading.
P.S. The young boy in my posts is my 4-year-old nephew, Parker.
There may be another dimension to your observation. There was the spoken and unspoken excuses made to support their decisions to not act on faith. Laman and Lemuel might have said “it’s impossible” and the teenage girl “it’s too far.” It is an indicator to self-check ourselves: “I am making up excuses NOT to follow this prompting…where is my faith?”
Many times when I miss out on an opportunity to follow prophetic council or personal inspiration, it all starts with making excuses: “I can’t go share the gospel with that guy; he will think I am so weird that he will never join the church.” Maybe it is good to note when we start those excuses, so we can begin diagnosing our true problem…a lack of faith.