Dean Laura Padilla-Walker shares Christ’s invitation to choose love over retaliation in “The Wonder of Scripture” lecture.
Each Friday, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship invites a scholar to speak as a part of its lecture series “The Wonder of Scripture." The inspiring experiences shared by professionals at Brigham Young University aim to help students ponder on the blessings of scripture study.
On October 17, Laura Padilla-Walker, dean of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, shared with the audience that the scriptures are a frequent source of wonder and faith for her. Some of the greatest lessons she learns are through the miracles taught in the scriptures.
“Miracles are surprising, inexplicable, and surely deserving of wonder,” she says.
The scriptures show the access all have to God’s power with miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea or the restoration of the gospel.
When looking at these great examples, many “may argue that they’ve never experienced miracles.” Yet Padilla-Walker testifies that, with time and faith, miracles are made available to all.
“We have been counseled to seek and expect miracles. Large or small, mighty or private, we are promised miracles,” she says.
25 years ago, as a young student majoring in psychology at Central Michigan University, Padilla-Walker experienced her first miracle through the scriptures before being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the final year of her undergraduate studies, she heard a knock on the door and opened it to find two missionaries. She agreed to receive lessons but was not a “cooperative" investigator.
“I told them, ‘You can talk to me, but I won’t join your church.’”
The missionaries taught her every day for months, but with friends and family pushing against it, Padilla-Walker remained reluctant. However, she knew something was there, and—despite difficulties—she wanted to reignite her “dying ember of a testimony.”
It was a night of desperate prayer and unanswered questions when she came across Doctrine and Covenants 6:15-23: “Thou hast inquired of me... did I not speak peace unto your mind concerning the matter?”
“I felt like the scripture was speaking directly to me,” Padilla-Walker says.
The comfort and witness gained from this verse felt like a miracle to her, and even through the challenges of life she continues to find comfort in the miracles of the scriptures today.
Christ-like Poise
From His birth to His death, Christ’s life was full of miracles, and Padilla-Walker felt prompted in her lecture to focus on the miracle of Christ healing Malchus’s ear after Peter slew it.
After the Savior suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ and His disciples were approached by high priests and Roman soldiers. When Peter cut off the ear of one of the servants of the high priests, Christ rebuked him and healed the servant’s ear with a single touch.
Padilla-Walker describes this miracle as a prime example of “Christ-like poise—being calm, cool, and collected even in times of adversity.”
We are all facing great opposition in both online and in-person environments. However, Padilla-Walker emphasizes that we must take after Christ by standing firm in faith while still respecting people when they believe otherwise. When prioritizing kindness, each struggle in life becomes an opportunity to practice what Christ exemplified through His miraculous healing: peaceful poise.
The Savior had more right than anyone to be angry and defensive when the guards came to capture him. But even as Peter cut off Malchus’s ear, Christ chose to love.
“He used the same heavenly power to heal his potential captor that could have prevented Him from being captured,” Padilla-Walker shares. Christ exemplified meekness by submitting to the will of God despite the great suffering He had gone through.
The healing of the servant’s ear was a capstone to the pattern Christ set throughout His ministry because He prioritized the servant’s needs over His own struggles. Although He knew there was more suffering to come, He “had the spiritual poise to slow down and see individuals.”
Pure Love for Peace
While avoiding contention is vital to having peace, Padilla-Walker shares that Christ’s deliberate combination of meekness and poise showed that true peace takes more than walking away—it takes the pure love of Christ.
“He went further than holding His peace, and instead He reached out and healed someone who was His enemy,” she says.
Christ’s example invites us to “build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire.”
“These are not easy invitations,” Padilla-Walker says.
But she testifies that earnestly studying the scriptures can teach us to become more like Christ. By following this with meekness and poise, we can help strengthen individuals and relationships, furthering the mission of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences.
“As we study His miraculous life, we will learn of Him and become more like Him,” she says.
