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Meekness (Neal A. Maxwell)

"God, who has seen billions of spirits pass through His plan of salvation, has told us to be meek in order to enhance our enjoyment of life and our mortal education. Will we be meek and listen to Him and learn from Him?
...Perhaps, brothers and sisters, what we brought with us as intelligences into our creation as spirit children constitutes a 'given' within which even God must work. Add to that possibility the clear reality of God’s deep commitment to our free agency—and we begin to see how essential meekness is! We need to learn so much, and yet we are free to choose! How crucial it is to be teachable! There 'is no other way' in which God could do what He has declared it is His intent to do. No wonder He and His prophets emphasize meekness time and time again!...
Like Himself, He first had to make us free, to learn, to choose, and to experience; hence our humility and teachability are premiere determinants of our progress and our happiness. Agency is essential to perfectibility, and meekness is essential to the wise use of agency—and to our recovery when we have misused our agency.
...Meekness...is more than self-restraint; it is the presentation of self in a posture of kindness and gentleness. It reflects certitude, strength, serenity; it reflects a healthy self-esteem and a genuine self-control.
So in matters little or large, if our emulation of the Lord is to be serious, we must do more than note and admire Jesus’ meekness. He passed through 'all of these things' which gave Him, too, needed experiences.
Meekness is one of those attributes acquired only by experience, some of it painful, for it is developed 'according to the flesh'. It is not an attribute achieved overnight, nor is it certified to in but one exam; rather, it is certified to 'in process of time'. The Savior said we are to 'take up [the] cross daily'—not just once or occasionally—and taking up the cross daily surely requires meekness."
Neal A. Maxwell
"Meekly Drenched in Destiny"
BYU Devotional September 5, 1982
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