Easy To Be Entreated

"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated..."  
                                                                           Alma 7:23

Dear Reader, 

Hello again! I'm glad you are here. Today I want to talk about how God is easy to be entreated, just as he asks us to be. 

On the fourth of July, I wrote this in my journal: 

It was a joyous Independence Day spent under the shaded sidewalks of Stratford Avenue for a charming parade--a pocket of sweet Americana. In the afternoon we ate a picnic barbecue and played pin-the-star-on-the-flag. As the sky turned black, we reverenced the day by singing "My Country Tis of Thee." I felt the sacred presence of the Holy Ghost and in that fleeting moment I felt God's love and kindness toward me. It felt humbling. I'm in awe that He knows me and sees me as better than I hope I am. Sometimes I believe in ugly perceptions of myself. I am convinced that I really am those people. But God comforts me that if he is there for me just like that--on the very start of trying to show some portion of reverence--I am not who I've been afraid I am. That means so much to me. 

This simple experience was somehow so ineffably moving that  I've been thinking about it ever since. Not because nothing like it has never happened before, but precisely because it keeps on happening. This time just made me realize how often He so quickly responds to my efforts to reach Him. 

Throughout my life--even from moment to moment during the most common of days--I've felt the tingling warmth, the invisible sunlight of the Holy Ghost, gently falling upon my frame. It comes in times of authentic outreach. It is absolutely un-creatable. It is absolutely real. And it is absolutely good. 

I know that God wants us to ask Him questions. I know that He is the source of comfort and peace, for every time that I have had a heavy heart or a confused mind and I've turned to Him and entreated Him for divine guidance, He has been there. I've knocked and He has opened. 

I will say this--It has been my experience that there is a difference between real seeking and plain stewing. There have been times that I've been stuck in the goo of my own thoughts. Because I'm thinking about spiritual things, I think I'm seeking Him. That has always led to whirls of darkness. But when I include God in prayer about whatever is ailing me, illumination and comfort always come, and usually quickly. 

So today I say that God is so much more accessible than people sometimes think. From personal experience, I know He is as He asks us to be: easy to be entreated--ever there, just waiting for us to invite Him in.