Patiently Waiting for Deliverance at the Sully House

Across the road from the Air and Space Museum in Chantilly is the Sully House--a home built in the late eighteenth century. Once the property of Robert E. Lee's uncle, the farm is now a historic site of Northern Virginia.

In this photo, I'm standing in front of the slave quarters. I couldn't tour the inside because the gate was locked (and I thought it unwise to hop over), but I could look; what I saw was cramped and uncomfortable. My body ached as I imagined living this way.

The situation reminded me of a verse in the Book of Mormon. Alma, a prophet, told his son Shiblon,

"For I know that thou wast in bonds; yea, and I also know that thou wast stoned for the word's sake; and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee" (Alma 38:4).

Eventually, the Lord did deliver the people enslaved at Sully House. The Lord has been over this nation, which was "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address). Often, God delivers His people from slavery and physical destruction; every day, He delivers His children from the slavery of sin and the destruction of hopelessness.

I am developing patience as I trust that Heavenly Father is with me. It's taking every day, but I hope at the end I can say that I knew the Lord delivered me, as Alma said to Shiblon.