The space of an hour.

I’ve been reading in Alma often lately. Such powerful missionary stories and lessons to be learned. 

I’ve also been pausing on King Lamoni’s experience. Not the beautiful interaction with Ammon and him and his wife and Abish, but in what happens first. 

I am intrigued by King Lamoni’s pause button. His ‘space of an hour’ experience. He called Ammon to him after learning of Ammon's labor in the stables after protecting the king’s flocks in the fields. Ammon asked the king what he wanted, and the king didn’t answer him for the space of an hour. Then Ammon asked him again and the king still waited. It doesn’t tell us how long this time, but eventually God granted Ammon revelation to propel the conversation forward.

The waiting place.

I wonder what King Lamoni was thinking about? What was he feeling? My guess is lots of things. 

Astonishment. Fear. Wrapping his head around the things Ammon was teaching him, and what that might mean for him moving forward. What would his new life look like if it was all true and did he have the grit and strength to change?

I can relate to his waiting place, if some of his feelings were attached to the vulnerability of the unknown, and what might be asked of him after the gift of this new knowledge. I am praying for the faith of Abish, who may have also felt fear as her plan went a little off the rails for a minute, and wasn't quite what she had pictured it in her mind. Sometimes our best intentions are messy. 

As we are doing our best to prepare to serve, I am trying to embrace the vulnerable places in me, and fill my thoughts with faith. Our thoughts determine our feelings, and our feelings determine our actions. King Lamoni undoubtedly turned his thoughts to a place of faith and rejoicing and humility, and it prepared him to be a fearless missionary. 

I am trying to make my waiting place as holy as his.