This Morning's Devotional

When I wake up earlier in the morning than is needed to start the day, I like to fill in the time with a private, morning devotional. It is quite simple. I read a few verses of scripture, ponder them, and pray. Then I make sure and wait for an answer. In the rush of a typical day I often skip the pondering and waiting parts. Today I didn't.

I read only a few verses of the Book of Mormon, Moroni 7:39-44. This section simply talks about the esential interweaving, mutually dependent nature of faith and hope. It then comments on the essential nature of being meek and lowly of heart; concluding with the importance of charity. As I was pondering these principles I suddenly realized something very important (at least to me it was important).

Every former member of the Church, or member who has slipped away, has a weakness in this area. In saying that, I am not claiming that all active Latter-day Saints are strong in these areas - for I do not believe it. I know many active LDS who are not meek and lowly of heart; nor are they charitable. But they are not the purpose for this post.

Those who fall away almost universally lose their faith, meekness, and lowliness of heart. They often replace their faith with another one - evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, traditional Protestanism, secular humanism, etc... Many of these people are wonderful people, lovely to know, and they do wonderful things. But I have never met a meek and lowly of heart former member. I have never heard of a meek and lowly of heart member who has fallen away. Perhaps they exist, but I have never met them.

I suspect this is at the root of people who fall; and may serve as a predictor of those who might be vulnerable to falling away - are they meek and lowly of heart? Having lost faith in the source of that meekness and lowliness of heart, it isn't surprising that they would lose the fruits of it. In fact, the universal absence of it seems to be a back-handing form of proof that the fruits of Mormonism (when lived correctly) lead to such things - faith, hope, meekness, lowliness of heart, and charity. May we all strive to become such people. I am working on it.