7 A final word

Anyone who has ever played a sport knows that timing is so very important. Anyone who has made it very far down life's path knows that timing plays a significant part of our success and our happiness in life. It's all in the timing.

The Good Book reminds us, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

"A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

"A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

"A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

"A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

"A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

"A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

There are times and seasons in our lives, and clearly timing is important to the Lord. Therefore, our trust in Him extends not only to trusting in His purposes and in His commandments and in His servants but also trusting in His timing. It is important to be doing the right thing, but it is even better to be doing the right thing at the right time. Sometimes we try to force things, even good things, when the timing is just not right.

And though He never abridges our agency as we make it through this maze of mortality, I think we will be surprised once we step out of this life into the next to learn how brilliantly the Lord has orchestrated the events and happenings and opportunities of our lives to our eternal benefit. He is, after all, our Father, and He loves us beyond anything we can really comprehend here. He wants the best for us.

"This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God," we also read in the scriptures, "yea, behold, this life is the day for men to perform their labors" (34:32).

His call, now and always, is for us to exercise faith in His Beloved Son, to repent of our sins, and to make sacred covenants with Him, beginning with baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and on through the ordinances of the holy temple. And then, once in that strait and narrow path, we are to endure in faith and patience to the end of our lives, however long or short that may be. The timing of that is clearly in His hands.

It's all in the timing.