Sometimes we do not fully realize how much change we have lived through until we stop and look backward for a minute. I do not always feel old, but when I think about the changes I have experienced, it really does feel like I have been around awhile.
Do you remember the sound of a busy signal?
What about dial-up internet?
That awful screeching sound somehow meant, “Okay, we are getting somewhere.”
Back then, you could not use the internet and the phone at the same time. If someone picked up the phone in another room, you got a busy signal. Today, we get frustrated when a webpage takes more than three seconds to load.
Life has changed fast.
Technology changes. Culture changes. Expectations change. Seasons of life change.
Still, one thing has never changed: God.
The world keeps changing, but God does not. Learn how to find peace, trust God, and navigate change with faith and hope.
From Party Lines to Smartphones
When I was little, my grandparents had what was called a party line. Multiple homes shared the same phone line, which sounds unbelievable now.
If somebody else was on the phone, you waited. Sometimes you may have listened for a minute first. Every house even had its own ring pattern so you knew whether the call was for you or for the neighbors.
Before that, operators connected calls by hand through switchboards. Then came phones mounted on kitchen walls with long curly cords. After that came cordless phones, giant cell phones, flip phones, text messaging, and eventually smartphones.
Now our phones barely feel like phones anymore.
Looking back reminds me how adaptable human beings really are. Every generation has experienced changes that probably felt overwhelming at the time.
God Has Always Worked Through Changing Times
As I thought more about this, I realized the same thing is true spiritually.
The people in the Bible lived in a completely different world than the people in the Book of Mormon. The early Saints during the restoration lived differently than we do today.
Methods changed. Communication changed. Transportation changed. Society changed.
God did not.
Hebrews 13:8 teaches:
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
That verse feels comforting in a world that never stops moving.
Sometimes life changes faster than we expected it to. Families change. Relationships shift. Dreams evolve. Plans unfold differently than we imagined.
When uncertainty enters our lives, we often assume something has gone wrong. Yet change has always been part of mortality.
If your heart feels heavy and you want help working through the heartache, lets talk. On a FREE find connection and peace call.
Line Upon Line, Step by Step
Even when the gospel was restored, the Lord did not reveal everything all at once.
The early Saints learned truth piece by piece, line upon line, precept upon precept. Revelation unfolded over time. Their understanding deepened gradually. Their capacity expanded little by little.
If those early members had received every doctrine, ordinance, responsibility, and revelation all at once, it probably would have felt impossible to carry.
Instead, God taught them the same way He often teaches us now: one step at a time.
Isaiah 28:10 says:
“Precept upon precept; line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”
That principle applies to our lives more than we sometimes realize.
We often want the full roadmap before moving forward. We want answers before taking the next step. However, God usually gives us enough light for only the next few steps ahead.
President Henry B. Eyring taught:
“The Lord is leading you by the hand and knows you.”
Learning Is Personal
Even when people sit in the exact same church class and hear the exact same lesson, they often walk away with different understanding.
Learning is deeply personal.
Growth is deeply personal.
Testimony is deeply personal.
Sometimes a principle we have heard for years suddenly means something different because life has changed us. Experience teaches us. Repetition teaches us. Heartbreak teaches us. Time teaches us.
As parents, this can feel especially hard.
We sometimes panic when somebody we love does not seem to understand or hold onto something we thought we taught them well. Still, part of mortality has always included allowing people space to grow at their own pace.
People need room to wrestle, question, and learn through experience.
God Himself teaches progressively, patiently, and over time.
If God can allow space for growth and unfolding understanding, maybe we can too.
Why Change Feels So Uncomfortable
Most people love predictability. We enjoy knowing what to expect because it helps us feel safe and in control.
Growth rarely works that way.
It often asks us to let go of something familiar before stepping into something new.
Imagine trying to explain FaceTime to someone standing beside a party line telephone. It would have sounded impossible.
Yet just because they could not imagine it did not mean it was not coming.
Maybe there are things God is doing in your life right now that you cannot fully imagine yet either.
Elder Dale G. Renlund said:
“God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were.”
Becoming takes time.