According to the Lord’s Due Time - Elaine Marshall - 2002 BYU Women’s Conference Address

Aug 26, 2026

The address explores how divine timing can challenge personal plans, using the speaker’s “timing dysfunction” as an extended metaphor for uncertainty in everyday transitions. Drawing on Elder Dallin Oaks’ teaching about complete trust in the Lord’s will and timing, the message contrasts quick-fix expectations with faithful submission. Personal experiences—mission call, marriage timing, academic career changes, and an unexpected Relief Society presidency—illustrate discomfort, adjustment, and eventual recognition of “the Lord’s own due time.”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Timing

Trust in the Lord’s will and timing

Personal examples of “due time”

Life doesn’t happen in chronological order

“According to the Own Due time of the Lord” ELAINE MARSHALL This address was given, at the 2002 BYU Women’s Conference © 2002 by Brigham Young University, Women’s Conference All rights reserved. For further information write: BYU Women’s Conference, 352 Harman Continuing Education Building, Provo, Utah 84602. (801) 422-7692 E-mail: [womens_conference@byu.edu](womens_conference@byu.edu)[ ](womens_conference@byu.edu)Home page: [http://womensconference.byu.edu](http://womensconference.byu.edu) I have a timing dysfunction. I’ve come to believe that timing is a talent or gift, probably distributed at some meeting I missed. The problem is best expressed in my inability to get on or off an escalator. It doesn’t seem natural to me that stairs should move. When I was young, it didn’t matter. The only escalator in my universe was at Grayson’s Department Store on Washington Boulevard. But now, they are everywhere—at airports, in hotels, in subway stations. I can’t tell when to get on and when to get off. I stand and wait, and rock back and forth, and hesitate. Everyone in my family has tried to help. My son Chad once rocked with me, saying gently,“Mom, you can do this.”My husband says with veiled impatience,“Just close your eyes and step on!” This disability has been confirmed by other events on the conveyor belts of my life. Those moving steps of life seem to come too early or too late, and I often trip to get on or off. Timing Earlier this year, I heard Elder Dallin Oaks give a devotional address that spoke to my heart. His subject was timing. He said,“We cannot have true faith in the Lord without also having complete trust in the Lord’s will and the Lord’s timing.”1 Elder Oaks addressed one of my most serious personal theological issues. I have spent my entire life both questioning and marveling at the unfolding of the “due time of the Lord”(1 Nephi 10:3) . I sometimes perceive divine timing as either heavenly interference with my personal plan or endless waiting on the Lord for something I think I deserve now. As members of the Church, we know the commandments. We are goal oriented, and we believe in working out our salvation.“We live in a world of quick fixes and instant gratification.”2 We’re drawn to day planners and hand-held computers. We sometimes think we know and may even deserve specific blessings at scheduled times, that our lives should unfold in a selfprescribed order. When we quarrel with the Lord’s timing, it’s usually because we think events come too early or too late. As a young woman growing up, I had only one plan: to marry and have children immediately. Some of my best friends married their prom sweetheart right after high school. I didn’t even have a date for prom. I waited. I went to college. My twenty-first birthday came. I was still dateless. My younger sister was already married. Then things turned around. I graduated from nursing school and applied to graduate school. I was accepted with a full-tuition scholarship that included a generous living allowance. I even enjoyed a few dates. I thought the Lord finally understood my plan. During the summer of my twenty-fourth year, as my second younger sister was making wedding plans, I was packing for graduate school. I had a boyfriend, but my timing dysfunction was in full bloom as we continued a sort of approach-avoidance relationship. But I was hopeful. Then, on a Tuesday evening, my bishop called me to go on a mission. As I pictured myself giving up my scholarship, going away for a year and a half, coming home older than a quarter century and totally dateless, it was all the wrong time!“Why didn’t he call me when I was twenty-one?” I whined. As I prayed for direction, however, I knew I must go. So I declined the scholarship, put my affairs in order, and served with faith and abandon in Colombia, South America. I never looked back and have never regretted that decision. My mission became one of the defining events of my life. Six ye

FAQs

What central idea does Elaine Marshall emphasize about divine timing?

She emphasizes that true faith requires complete trust in the Lord’s will and His timing, even when events feel early or late.

How does the speaker describe her difficulty with timing?

She compares her struggle to not knowing when to get on or off an escalator, likening her life events to moving steps that arrive too early or too late.

How do her life experiences support the message about “the Lord’s due time”?

Her mission call, marriage, academic career shift, and an unexpected ward Relief Society presidency all show how situations that seemed untimely later became defining and meaningful.

Aug 26, 2026

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