Plateauing: to reach a state or level of little or no growth or decline, esp. to stop increasing or progressing; remain at a stable level of achievement; level off.
Reaching a plateau in any aspect of our life is better than never having done so. Think about it. Reaching a plateau means one has achieved something of worth. It could mean you’re at the pinnacle, the zenith of something meaningful. However, the word laurels and the phrase “don’t rest on your laurels” comes to mind.
In other words, it can be “boring” to reach a plateau. When it comes to matters of faith how does one know if he/she has plateaued and what can be done, if we have?
First, are you bored? Is the thrill you once experienced attending church and serving in your calling dissipating or a distance memory? If so, then you have probably reached a plateau in your church life.
The remedy might be to tackle a new challenge. The best place to kick—start your plateauing faith is to take an inventory of your laurels. If you’re know for your intellectual laurels, but lack and equivalent degree of spirituality then, it might be time to plow that field. If the reverse is true, then maybe its time to read and study those things you’ve always thought about, but left on the shelf.
One word of caution, not all endeavors are of equal value. Choose your endeavors carefully.
Neal Maxwell observed:
“Happily, many of us have already picked and been greatly nourished by the low-hanging fruit from the gospel tree. Yet, on the higher branches, much fruit still remains, unreached for and unplucked. Neglecting to harvest this fruit deprives us of greater joy and of greater capacity to help others. The further feast includes, for example, those fruits of repentance ripened from correcting our sins of omission. The ‘cease and desist’ portion of repentance is surely vital but so is doing the good heretofore undone.
The higher hanging fruits also embody the sweet savor of submissiveness, the nourishing nectar of consecration, and the milk of meekness. All these await our stretching grasp and represent the further expression of love of God for us ( 1 Nephi 11:21-22). This fruit, said Lehi, is ‘most sweet’ and will ‘make one happy’ (1 Nephi 8:11, 10;11:7)
No wonder God, who ‘delight(s) to honor’ those who will so stretch, urges us onward (D&C 76:5). His own beckoning arm is stretched out and even extended all the day long (D&C 103; Jacob 6:5)”.
He knows all about stretching (2 Nephi 19:12, 17, 21).”
Neal Maxwell; Whom the Lord Loveth P 7-8.
I’d liked to suggest that acquiring the Holy Ghost and the gifts of the Spirit is a mountain we can climb, and never find a “plateau”.
God bless each of us in our efforts to keep the gospel of Jesus Christ a vital and invigorating part of our daily life.
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