Our True Weakness

I was recently studying Ether chapter 12. This chapter speaks extensively about faith and weakness, but my perspective on what was actually said about weakness changed.

Starting with verse 23, Moroni starts to worry about his own weakness:
23 ...Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing;...

And Moroni proceeds to spell out the ways that he is not skilled in writing. Then the Lord comes back with this response in verses 26 through 28, and 37:

 26 ...Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

37 ...because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong...

I had always thought that the weakness that the Lord spoke of was Moroni's weakness in writing. However, the Lord didn't make Moroni strong in writing, so was that his real weakness?

On this reading, I noticed that Moroni seemed to be worried about what others though of him. What if worrying about others' perspectives was Moroni's real weakness? It would still fit the conversation. Such a perspective seems to clarify the Lord's response (and Moroni's strength of conviction at the end of the chapter). The Lord seems to be saying:

  • Meek people who read your words will not mock you.
  • Meek people will exhibit the grace of the Lord.
  • Meek people will become strong;
    1. they will first have humility before the Lord
    2. have faith in Him (the person and the mental aspect which everyone has access to)
    3. then their updated perspective will give them a new strength (i.e. the strength of the Lord)
So how does this insight apply to me? Is it to just ignore others and be strong-headed in my approach? I don't think so; ignoring others places ourselves above others and into the victim/villain mindset.

Moroni may be weak in writing, but his weakness was in worrying about others. Then weakness isn't in our particular skills; those can always be learned and improved on. Instead, my weakness may be what I worry about in terms of my personal worth. My worry about what some physical weakness of mine means about me and my worth.

When I worry about my worth like that, I make myself a victim to other people's perspectives. And as I stated in my "the strength of the Lord" article, the only way out is to stop being a victim without being a hero, and to start seeing things from the Lord's perspective.

Seeing my weakness (that I am worried about what others think of me) requires me to have the spirit of Christ towards myself. I need to be truly curious about myself: my thoughts, my wants, and my fears. I need to not make a judgement about my worth based on those aspects of myself. And by eliminating judgement I am humble, will give myself grace (because of my faith), and will instantly be made strong in my confidence.

Ultimately, seeing my weakness is freeing because I can finally make deliberate choices in the moment instead of reacting automatically to my fear of being exposed as being worth less.

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