Angelic Help

As much as I love Paladins (and many of you know that I really like Paladins), I'm also coming to really love angels. Last night, I had a talk with my Bishop. There's a personal challenge that I've been struggling with and he just wanted to check up on me. I reported that things were going well. When he asked me what I've been doing that's been helping me, I answered "Clenching my right fist," then I explained.

A while back, it probably would have been a few months by now, I was inspired by a sister in our ward who was teaching the Gospel Essentials class. She said that if a person needed extra help, they could pray for angels to aid them. I left the class early to find a quiet place to pray. When I knelt down, I asked Heavenly Father to commission angels to be with me, to watch over me, to help me choose the right. Then I clenched my right fist and felt that I was physically holding on to the iron rod. Now, whenever I have the need of angels, I feel a gentle reminder to clench my fist and hold on to the iron rod.

Now that I've been thinking about angels, they seem to show up all over the place in the scriptures. When Alma first met Amulek, Amulek had been not-so-faithful to the gospel. He had felt promptings, but had ignored them. Finally, an angel came to him and told him to make his home ready to receive (Alma) a servant of the Lord. And Alma would have never gone to Amulek's house in the first place if and angel hadn't appeared to him as well, telling him where to go.

In the talk he gave on October 2008, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught that there are at least two kinds of angels - mortal and immortal. The immortal angels are split into two categories - those who have bodies and those who don't. The angels that don't have bodies are spirits, either born and died or not yet born. They can be messengers, guides, comforters, etc. They are often invisible, but they sometimes appear to people to give them special, specific direction. Immortal angels with bodies are righteous people who have been resurrected or translated. I think they can be invisible, but I'm not sure. These resurrected or translated angels have mostly been sent to participate in ordinances, restoring the priesthood authority that was lost from the earth with the death of the apostles, but I suppose the could act as messengers, too.

The mortal angels Elder Holland spoke of are simply good people who are doing the will of God. He said:

I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.

In closing, I'd like to repeat Elder Holland's plea from the video that I shared a few weeks ago: "In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith..."

We all need angelic help from time to time. Some of us need it more often than we know or are willing to admit. There is no shame in seeking heavenly aid. The Savior Himself was helped by angels once or twice. If even He could use such help, certainly we could! As disciples of Christ, we are expected to serve, bless, and uplift others. May we follow the examples of angels in doing so, and eventually become angelic ourselves.