The Law of Increasing Returns

Now, one trouble with most of our struggles is that you can’t see the seeds and the crops clearly. And you may not know as much about maturation time. So, you have to make this decision frequently: “Has this effort yielded about all it’s going to, or shall I keep working and waiting?”...

You shouldn’t really be surprised to have arrived in an “I want it now” generation. A prophet, Peter, saw it long ago. He said,

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [2 Peter 3:3–4]

You are believers, not scoffers. Yet the scoffers can be helpful, because they encourage you to get an answer to this question: “What am I willing to keep giving heart and soul for, when neither I nor the scoffers may see returns for a long, long time?” And when we decide there are potential rewards worth that commitment, you’ll want answers to another question: “How can I keep myself working and waiting if the scoffers are loud and the delay long?”...

There are spiritual crops that require months, years, and sometimes a lifetime of cultivation before the harvest. Among them are spiritual rewards you want most. That shouldn’t surprise you. Common sense tells you that what matters most won’t come easily. But there is another reason suggested in the scriptures. Remember this from the Book of Mormon?

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. [Ether 12:6]

And from the Doctrine and Covenants:

Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. [D&C 58:3–4]

If you wanted to give this idea a name, you could call it “the law of increasing returns.” The simple fact is that there is a God who wants us to have faith in him. He knows that to strengthen faith we must use it. And so he gives us the chance to use it by letting some of the spiritual rewards we want most be delayed. Instead of first effort yielding returns, with a steady decline, it’s the reverse. First efforts, and even second efforts, seem to yield little. And then the rewards begin, perhaps much later, to grow and grow.

-President Henry B. Eyring, The Law of Increasing Returns