In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb
March 16, 2017 • Blog Post
In first grade my teacher introduced my class to the old proverb “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” This saying referred to the weather of March, suggesting that if there was bad weather at the beginning of the month, the weather at the end of the month would be calm. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, the people who used the saying believed there should be a balance in all things, including in both the weather and our lives.
The plan of salvation is a plan of balance. “And to bring about his eternal purposes in . . . all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition” (2 Nephi 2:15). Our lives will have times of misery and joy, hardship and ease, lowliness and greatness—storms and clear skies.
In a BYU devotional, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:
We can take comfort in the fact that because opposition is divinely decreed for the purpose of helping man to grow, we have the assurance of God that in the long view of eternity, opposition will not be allowed to overcome us. We will prevail. Like the mortal life of which they are a part, adversities are temporary. What is permanent is what we become by the way we react to them.
There are many opposing forces in our lives—some natural, like wind or rain, others the result of wickedness. 1 Peter 5:8 compares the devil to “a roaring lion.” There will be times when the adversary will storm into our lives, roaring with his fury, attempting to frighten and discourage us. When these times of opposition come—no matter how loud the roars may rage—we can be comforted by the gentleness of the Lamb.
Our Savior—the Lamb of God—is our great balancer. He is the mercy in the law of justice. He is the perfection in a world of sin, the good against the evil. And no matter how stormy life may get, it is because of Him that the lion will lie down with the lamb. Just as we can weather the storms of early March and look forward to clear skies to come, we can weather our trials through Christ and look forward to the brightness of God’s glory in our lives.
Aubrey Milligan Zalewski is an editorial assistant for BYU Publications & Graphics. She enjoys short walks on the beach and long naps on the couch. Her hobbies include catching comma splices, creating parallel structure, and shortening run-ons. She’d say that she considers language an artform, but that would be incorrect; it’s “art form.”
