Woman at the Well

I really love the Saviors use of symbols and analogies in His teachings. For me, it makes the gospel so easy to understand, AND it helps me to understand why everything is so logical. There are two types of water in this story. There is the water that we need to physically stay alive, and there is the water that we need to spiritually stay alive. We all know and accept the fact that if we go even two days without water we are putting ourselves in serious physical danger. And that's a fact. Well why would we then think we could go days or weeks or months without partaking of the Living Water? Spiritual decline happens so slowly that even if we were to stop doing what we should cold turkey, I don't think it would be instantly awful. That's one thing that makes it so easy to get lazy. But then one day we wake up and realize that our faith isn't where it used to be, and we have to build that spiritual strenght back up. 

I feel like that is what has happened to me over this past year. I stopped personal scripture study a while ago. Probably... more than two years ago. But life was fine and good and great and I didn't really notice a difference. Then this year when I've had some things that have really required a lot more faith on my part, I realized that my faith is not as strong as it used to be. It was really upsetting for me to feel so easily discouraged and mad at the Lord and any other negative feelings, because I knew that wasn't me. It's just so true that no one can stand still in their spiritual growth or decline. We are either moving towards The Lord or away. And I wouldn't say I got too far away, but it was enough that my faith felt extra tested.

One thing that strikes me about the woman at the well, and about all of the other women we have studied so far, is that she was prepared. She had heard about The Messiah. She knew He would come. When she learned who she was, she didn't really need further explanation about why that should be significant to her. She knew! I was not prepared for the trials of this past year. So I needed so much extra reassurance and I had to sometimes rely on the faith of others. Not that it's a bad thing, but I hope that from now on I am always spiritually prepared. It doesn't necessarily make hard things easy, but it makes it easier to make it through.