What I Learned from a Widow

All of my experiences, questions, and desires, everything that seemed so difficult, was now being replaced with the questions, “How is the Lord inviting me to know Him right now?” and “How can I accept His invitation?”

It had been a go, go, go, but satisfying, day at work. When I got home I went straight to my room and plopped down on my bed to have a minute to just be still. Immediately a slew of questions began to fill my mind. Where should I live? Where am I heading? How can I move forward toward the things that matter most and the desires of my heart? How can I purify my heart? How can I increase in faith, in hope, and in charity? Where will spending my time be of most worth? How come this situation turned out the way it did? How can I feel the spirit more abundantly in my life? Where can I serve? What can I offer to others and to the Lord? How can I nourish the relationships that matter most? How can I draw closer to God? What do I need to change that is holding me back? And the list went on. Do you ever have these kinds of questions?

As I sat pondering, the story of Elijah and the widow of Zaraphath came to mind. I opened up my scriptures and found the story in 1 Kings 17. I prayed that the Lord would help me find answers to the many questions I had. I desperately felt the need for guidance. I prayed and then began to read.

There was a famine in the land and the Lord provided food and water for Elijah. Eventually the brook went dry and the Lord commands Elijah to go to Zaraphath where a widow has been commanded to take care of him. “A widow?” I thought. Of all the people God could’ve asked to help, He chose a widow. Not a merchant or a king, but a widow, who was probably in great need herself. And this is where I grabbed my pen and began to write. If the Lord asked a widow for help, He may ask me, weak as I am, at any time. Am I ready? Am I listening? Can the Lord trust me enough to say to someone, “The way has been prepared for you, Becca is there and she will help you, so go.”  

Back to reading. Elijah obeys and finds the widow. She is busy preparing the last cakes she anticipates she and her son will ever eat. When Elijah asks for bread she responds by explaining her situation. The first words Elijah says to her are, “Fear not.” Then he asks her to make the cakes, but to give the first cake to him. Immediately after asking for this sacrifice Elijah promises the widow that her meal and oil will last until the famine is over. I pick up my pen and begin writing again. Am I facing the invitations and commandments of the Lord with fear or faith? Am I willingly sacrificing all He asks of me? What am I fearing that is preventing me from acting in faith? Do I believe that the Lord will deliver on the promises He has given me?

What does the widow do next? Immediately the woman obeys and reaps the blessings. Pen. Isn’t this how the Lord always blesses me? How he always blesses everyone? If I give what little I have, he makes it enough. He always gives more in return. Am I taking time to recognize the blessings the Lord is giving me and how the Lord provides the way for me to obey all His commands? Am I taking the time to recognize the daily sustenance he provides me? The Lord always keeps His word. I can trust Him. Has my journal become a travel log or am I reflecting on, and recording, the tender mercies the Lord sends me daily?  

Reading on. Even after the widow has done all she’s been asked to do, her son dies. Upset, she goes to Elijah and questions him as to why this would happen. Immediately Elijah says, “Give me thy son.” And then he takes him. He prays and pleads to God for the boy’s life. God hears and the boy lives again. Here I really took a step back and thought about my questions as to why certain circumstances had turned out so differently in my life than expected. I felt a deep relationship with this widow and pondered on what it would have felt like to be in her shoes. And then I reread the words, “Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom…” I thought on how often the Lord has come to me in my times of need, discouragement, and trials. Each time, in some way, he has said, “give this to me.” And when I haven’t been able to give it to Him, I have even felt Him reach to me and take it from me. God is merciful. God is kind. The Savior has taken my sins, my sorrows, my pains and anguish, my weaknesses, and on and on. He has done this so He can succor me. He has done this so when I give my burdens to Him, or allow Him to take them from me, He can give me back something whole, beautiful, wonderful, and beyond my comprehension. What has he already taken for me? What may He be waiting for me to give to Him?

Now to read the end of the chapter. After Elijah returns the widow’s son to her alive saying, “See, thy son liveth.” the widow says, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.”  Wait a minute, I thought. Did she not know that Elijah was a man of God when her meal and oil lasted throughout the duration of the famine? That was a pretty big miracle. Could the purpose of deep trials in my life be that the Lord is inviting me to know Him more deeply? How would the perceptions of my trials, and my questions regarding them, change if I could see them as an invitation to know God? And to know God, is life eternal (John 17:3). There is not any gift greater than that (D&C 14:7).

At this point I put down my pen and reread what the Lord taught me. I didn’t get every answer to the questions I initially had. But I did get some answers and more questions I needed to be asking. I did feel an increase of faith. I did feel the Lord’s awareness of me and what was going on in my life. I pondered on the invitations He was giving me to let go of fear and act in faith and obey. I pondered on the blessings He has promised me. All of my experiences, questions, and desires, everything that seemed so difficult, was now being replaced with the questions, “How is the Lord inviting me to know Him right now?” and “How can I accept His invitation?” These questions brought a much greater purpose to everything. The circumstances of my life haven’t changed much. But I am learning and the Lord is helping me to change. He will continue to guide me. And in time, like the widow, I will also say, “Now I know.”

Invitation

Ask yourself, “How is the Lord inviting me to know Him right now?” “How can I accept His invitation?”

Please share your thoughts or experience below!