One thing that’s always bothered me about the story of Adam and Eve is the way God gave Adam and Eve conflicting commandments. He commanded them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and He commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. And it was impossible for them to do both simultaneously. They could not obey one commandment without sacrificing the other. Why would God set them up for failure like that? Why would He put them in a situation where they were forced to break one commandment or the other? It seemed unfair and unkind, not something a just and loving Heavenly Father would do.
I’m sure there is more than one explanation for why this may have been. I wanted to share though an insight that struck me last night about this situation with Adam and Eve that I had never thought of before.
Ted and I were having a discussion that we’ve had multiple times before in our marriage about how as members of Christ’s Church there are multiple things we are encouraged to do, and it seems impossible to do them all. We are told to get an education, not wait to marry and start a family, ideally have the mother of the family stay home to care for the children, and stay out of debt. Several of these admonitions seem contradictory. Maybe some people are able to do them all at the same time, but we have not been able to. We’ve felt that we, like Adam and Eve, have had to choose which commandments to prioritize. Right now, for example, we can either have me home with our children, or we can have me leave home to go get a full-time job and work on getting out of debt more quickly. We can’t do both. We are in debt because we prioritized getting an education and not waiting to get married and start a family over staying out of debt. We couldn’t do both. To stay out of debt, we would have had to give up one of those other things that we are also encouraged to do.
The thought I had last night as Ted and I were talking was that maybe one of the reasons God gave Adam and Eve conflicting commandments was to teach us about the kinds of choices we would need to make in this life. We are all put in situations where we have to choose between multiple good things that God asks us to do. It’s not always possible to do all the good things He asks us to do simultaneously. This is not a perfect world, we are not perfect people, and we have a finite amount of time and resources. Maybe through the story of Adam and Eve, Heavenly Father was trying to teach us the importance of seeking the guidance of the Spirit to know how best to apply God’s teachings in our own individual lives. We are all unique and in unique situations, so what the application of God’s commandments looks like for each of us at each stage of our lives will be different. And that’s okay. At one point one commandment may take precedence, and in another situation another commandment may take precedence. And it’s the Spirit that will help us make these choices.
Adam and Eve realized that in order to follow God’s command to multiply and replenish the earth, they would need to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and leave the Garden of Eden. Although making this choice gave them the opportunity to progress and have children, it also resulted in less desirable consequences such as becoming mortal and being separated from God’s presence both physically and spiritually. It’s interesting to me that God did not stop Adam and Eve from experiencing the undesirable consequences of their choice along with the desirable consequences. What He did do was provide a means of ultimate deliverance from those undesirable consequences by providing a Savior for them, Jesus Christ.
In like manner, I have hope that God will ultimately, as we continue to be diligent in striving to keep all His commandments to the best of our ability, provide a means of deliverance for us from the undesirable consequences of our good but imperfect choices as well. Even though right now we are prioritizing having children and me staying home with our children over getting out of debt, I feel like God has given us many small blessings along the way to help us continue to improve our financial situation one tiny step at a time. I’ve had an assortment of side jobs that I’ve been able to do while still staying home with our children, and Ted has been blessed with both a full-time job in his field and a part-time Air National Guard job. Our progress on getting out of debt is very slow, but I have faith that God will continue to open doors for us, and that as we remain faithful to Him and follow the guidance of His Spirit, all the blessings necessary for us to accomplish what we need to in this life will be ours. I love my Savior and am so grateful for His mercy, patience and guidance as we strive to make the best choices we can with the time, resources, and opportunities we have each been given.
