Presidents Day weekend marks Home Show weekend here in St. George. Our little town is full to the brim! I don't believe it is all due to the Home Show, something about our 65 degree temperatures and 12" of snow up north this week tends to draw people here in abundance. I am grateful to call this vacation destination home!
For the better part of this week the roof of our building was taken off, and open to the elements. The rooftop units were lifted down last week, and the holes they left on the roof were totally exposed for last week, and the first part of this week. Tuesday I was at the job site, and because my fabulous Dad was in Salt Lake (to serve in the Temple) the job site was quiet. We were praying hard for good weather, and our prayers were certainly answered! Last Saturday we had spent the better part of the day on site cleaning, finishing odd jobs, and our favorite (haha) insulating the walls! We were not quite done, but with Monday Valentines day, and Family Home Evening, we didn't make the family work Monday night. Which meant that Tuesday night, we still had lots of insulation to finish! Brad and I went to the job site as soon as I could get our babe, Sophia, to bed. We worked most of the night, and were very nearly done by about 3:00 a.m. Wednesday early morning, I was on site again at 8:00 a.m. and our job really started buzzing! My wonderful parents were up before dawn Wednesday, driving to come help me! Thank You Mom & Dad! They arrived on site even before I did early that morning. By noon, the roofers were working hard, the plumber, HVAC, electrician and dry wallers were all there! It was fun and somewhat overwhelming to see the progress being made! I am so grateful for my amazing Dad who orchestrates so many facets simultaneously! Thank you Dad!
Thursday the weather man was predicting really stormy weather. We were praying hard that the roof could be dried in by Wednesday night, but by that evening, Dad still said we really needed to not have any rain until at least Thursday evening. Minor details - not! That night, at midnight I was up feeding my babe, and the wind was blowing sooo hard that I was sure all my cushions on my patio furniture were going to be gone! Our flag was whipping so hard, I thought the flagpole might break in two. I was impressed I was to go outside and gather cushions and bring them in. Sure enough, I had nearly lost three of them! Gratefully, I found them along the side yard and brought them inside. Then I tried to go back to bed, but even as tired as I was from working most of the night the previous night, I was worried. I had prayed to get some rest, but I couldn't sleep. I couldn't even tell what I was worried about, but I was! So I got up dressed, and went to the current office to work on my accounting jobs! I was getting off the freeway, and the clock on a digital sign said 1:00 a.m.. Upon arriving at the office, the building was creaking in the wind, and being somewhat uneasy all alone, and worried about something I couldn't even tell what, I turned the LDS radio station on my computer on for some background noise to try to ease my tension. The radio station was airing a talk by Elder Jeffery R. Holland, and these are some of the first words I heard:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
That is my basic message to each of you tonight, wherever you live, whatever your joys or sorrows, however young or old you may be, at whatever point you may find yourself in this mortal journey of ours. Some of you know what you want to be and where you want to go with your lives, and some of you don't. Some of you seem to have so many blessings and so many wonderful choices ahead of you. Others of you feel, for a time and for whatever reason, less fortunate and with fewer attractive paths lying immediately ahead.
But whoever you are and wherever you find yourself as you seek your way in life, I offer you tonight "the way . . . and the life" (John 14:6). Wherever else you think you may be going, I ask you to "come unto him" as the imperative first step in getting there, in finding your individual happiness and strength and success."
The radio program continued with a message Just for Me...!
"It seems to me that the essence of our lives is distilled down to these two brief elements in these opening scenes of the Savior's mortal ministry. One element is the question, to every one of us, "What seek ye? What do you want?" The second is his answer as to how to get that. Whoever we are, and whatever our problems, his response is always the same, forever: "Come unto me." Come see what I do and how I spend my time. Learn of me, follow me, and in the process I will give you answers to your prayers and rest to your souls....
I don't know what things may be troubling you personally tonight, but, even knowing how terrific you are and how faithfully you are living, I would be surprised if someone somewhere weren't troubled by a transgression or the temptation of transgression. To you, wherever you may be, I say, Come unto him and lay down your burden. Let him lift the load. Let him give peace to your soul. Nothing in this world is more burdensome than sin. It is the heaviest cross men and women ever bear. And while I believe you to be the greatest generation of young adults ever to live in this Church, nevertheless the world around you is an increasingly hostile and sinful place...
Do whatever you have to do to come into the fold and be blessed. For some of you that is simply to live with greater faith, to believe more. For some of you it does mean to repent: Right here. Tonight. For some of you (I hope there are investigators out there. There better be!) it means to be baptized and come into the body and fellowship of Christ. For virtually all of us it means to live more by the promptings and promises of the Holy Ghost and to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men."
"This is the way," Nephi said--there is that word again--"and there is none other way . . . whereby man [or woman] can be saved in the kingdom of God" (2 Nephi 31:2021).
This reliance upon the forgiving, long-suffering, merciful nature of God was taught from before the very foundation of the world. It was always to give us hope and help, a reason to progress and improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. May I be bold enough to suggest that it is impossible for anyone who really knows God to doubt his willingness to receive us with open arms in a divine embrace if we will but "come unto him." There certainly can and will be plenty of external difficulties in life. Nevertheless the soul that comes unto Christ dwells within a personal fortress, a veritable palace of perfect peace. "Whoso hearkeneth unto me," Jehovah says, "shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" (Proverbs 1:33).
That is exactly what Paul said to the Corinthians. Trying to help them keep their chin up--and the Corinthians had a lot to be grim about--he wrote:
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. [2 Corinthians 1:34]
Jesus taught the same thing to the Nephites, who also lived in a difficult world. "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed," he said, "but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee]" (3 Nephi 22:10; see also verses 1314). I love that. The hills and the mountains may disappear. The seas and oceans may dry up completely. The least likely things in the world may happen, but "my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee]" (emphasis added). After all, he has, he reminds us, "graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Nephi 21:16). Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion, Christ is not going to turn his back on us now.
Peace to Our Souls
The Lord has probably spoken enough such "comforting words" to supply the whole universe, it would seem, and yet we see all around us unhappy Latter-day Saints, worried Latter-day Saints, and gloomy Latter-day Saints into whose troubled hearts not one of these innumerable consoling words seems to be allowed to enter. In fact, I think some of us must have that remnant of Puritan heritage still with us that says it is somehow wrong to be comforted or helped, that we are supposed to be miserable about something.
Consider, for example, the Savior's benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or ever will know, he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
I submit to you that may be one of the Savior's commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet I wonder whether our resistance to this invitation could be any more grievous to the Lord's merciful heart. I can tell you this as a parent: As concerned as I would be if somewhere in their lives one of my children were seriously troubled or unhappy or disobedient, nevertheless I would be infinitely more devastated if I felt that at such a time that child could not trust me to help, or should feel his or her interest were unimportant to me or unsafe in my care. In that same spirit, I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.
Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can't help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature. That is why Joseph Smith gave those lectures on faith, so we would understand the nature of godliness and in the process have enough confidence to come unto Christ and find peace to our souls. There is not a single loophole or curveball or open trench to fall into for the man or woman who walks the path that Christ walks. When he says, "Come, follow me" (Luke 18:22), he means that he knows where the quicksand is and where the thorns are and the best way to handle the slippery slope near the summit of our personal mountains. He knows it all, and he knows the way. He is the way.
Listen to this wonderful passage from President George Q. Cannon teaching precisely this very doctrine:
No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments. ["Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 198792), 2:185; emphasis added]
Once we have come unto Christ and found the miracle of his "covenant of peace," I think we are under obligation to help others do so, just as Paul said in that verse to the Corinthians--to live as much like he lived as we possibly can and to do as much of what he did in order that others may walk in this same peace and have this same reassurance." (Come unto Me, Jeffrey R. Holland was a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside
address was delivered at Brigham Young University on 2 March 1997.)
This beautiful message was rebroadcast just for me I am certain that night in the middle of the night, to speak to me! Tender mercies! I didn't know if I was to be worried for my missionary, if I should be worried about finances and the endless jobs looming over my head at home and at the office. I couldn't even identify what I was so worried about, but my heart was worried! Then as if Elder Holland had seen exactly my worry, my fear, my uneasiness, he spoke just to me about succoring! You see I am a nursing mother right now, my little girl won't even try anything else despite our efforts to introduce her to bananas, rice cereal, etc.! She won't! I am constantly concerned about feeding her, and having enough milk to supply her needs! He continued:
"One last piece of counsel regarding coming to Christ. It comes from an unusual incident in the life of the Savior that holds a lesson for us all. It was after Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand from five loaves of bread and two fishes. (By the way, let me pause here to say, Don't worry about Christ running out of ability to help you. His grace is sufficient. That is the spiritual, eternal lesson of the feeding of the five thousand.) After Jesus had fed the multitude, he sent them away and put his disciples into a fishing boat to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He then "went up into a mountain apart to pray" (Matthew 14:23).
We aren't told all of the circumstances of the disciples as they set out in their boat, but it was toward evening, and certainly it was a night of storm. The winds must have been ferocious from the start. Because of the winds, these men probably never even raised the sails but labored only with the oars--and labor it would have been. We know this because by the time of "the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14:25)--that is somewhere between three and six in the morning--they had gone only a few miles. By then the ship was caught up in a truly violent storm, a storm like those that can still sweep down on the Sea of Galilee to this day.
But, as always, Christ was watching over them. He always does, remember? Seeing their difficulty, the Savior simply took the most direct approach to their boat, striding out across the waves to help them, walking on the water as surely as he had walked upon the land. In their moment of great extremity, the disciples looked and saw in the darkness this wonder in a fluttering robe coming toward them on the ridges of the sea. They cried out in terror at the sight, thinking that it was a phantom upon the waves. Then, through the storm and darkness--when the ocean seems so great and little boats seem so small--there came the ultimate and reassuring voice of peace from their Master. "It is I," he said, "be not afraid" (verse 27).
This scriptural account reminds us that the first step in coming to Christ--or his coming to us--may fill us with something very much like sheer terror. It shouldn't, but it sometimes does. One of the grand ironies of the gospel is that the very source of help and safety being offered us is the thing from which we may, in our mortal shortsightedness, flee. For whatever the reason, I have seen investigators run from baptism, I have seen elders run from a mission call, I have seen sweethearts run from marriage, and I have seen young couples run from the fear of families and the future. Too often too many of us run from the very things that will bless us and save us and soothe us. Too often we see gospel commitments and commandments as something to be feared and forsaken.
Let me quote the marvelous James E. Talmage on this matter:
Into every adult human life come experiences like unto the battling of the storm-tossed voyagers with contrary winds and threatening seas; ofttimes the night of struggle and danger is far advanced before succor appears; and then, too frequently the saving aid is mistaken for a greater terror. [But,] as came unto [these disciples] in the midst of the turbulent waters, so comes to all who toil in faith, the voice of the Deliverer--"It is I; be not afraid." [Jesus the Christ, 3d ed. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1916), p. 337]
Brother Talmage used there the word succor. Do you know its meaning? It is used often in the scriptures to describe Christ's care for and attention to us. It means literally "to run to." What a magnificent way to describe the Savior's urgent effort in our behalf. Even as he calls us to come to him and follow him, he is unfailingly running to help us.
Finally recognizing the Master that night, Peter exclaimed, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."
And Christ's answer to him was as it always is, to all of us: "Come," he said.
Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel's side and into the troubled waves. While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well--he was coming to Christ. Only when his faith and his focus wavered, only when he removed his glance from the Master to see the furious waves and the black gulf beneath him, only then did he begin to sink. In fear he cried out, "Lord, save me" (Matthew 14:2830).
In some disappointment the "Master of ocean and earth and skies" (see "Master, the Tempest Is Raging," Hymns, 1985, no. 105) stretched out his hand and grasped the drowning disciple with the gentle rebuke "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:31). (See also Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994], pp. 31013.)
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is his true and living Church. He wishes us to come unto him, to follow him, to be comforted by him. Then he wishes us to give comfort to others. However halting our steps are toward him--though they shouldn't be halting at all--his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son. May we come unto him and his gospel and be healed. And may we do more to heal others in the process. When the storms of life make this difficult, may we still follow his bidding to "come," keeping our eye fixed on him forever and single to his glory. In doing so we too will walk triumphantly over the swelling waves of life's difficulties and remain unterrified amid any rising winds of despair.
I pray we will hear this very night that sweet utterance from the Savior of the world: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. . . . And ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:2829). "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid" (Matthew 14:27). I pray this for you and for those you can help, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
Amen, and Amen.
I worked for a few hours, emotionally as I thanked my Heavenly Father for knowing of my every need, and speaking through His apostles just to me! I worked until about 3:30 a.m. when Brad called from home with a little one screaming, and he said "Where are you?" I closed my work up and hurried home to succor the little angel he has sent here to bless my life!
The following morning, the sun came up! Our St. George blue sky was clear and even warm! What every weather station had predicted had not come to pass. Salt Lake received some 12" of snow at Mom and Dad's house. We had blue sky and sunshine! In fact, that early afternoon I was at the job site, and watched as they loaded the sheetrock into the building via a funny sort of crane. Then I returned a few hours later, to find the HVAC units in the sky! Yes. The weather was sooo calm! Mom had called and told me to bring the kids and hurry! They had decided the weather was perfect, and they were flying the HVAC units to the rooftop! Our roof was dried in, and our rooftop units were flown up! There wasn't even a gale of wind! My Heavenly Father had moved mountains just for me! Thank you Father! My little ones loved climbing on their roof, watching as four huge units were lifted up to the rooftop of our building!
Tender Mercies! Las Deo!
The problem with not keeping current in recording miracles, is they are so frequent, that if I don't record them daily, then I miss so many!
The following night, I arose early (not the middle of the night, but after feeding my babe at 3:30) and decided I had so much to do at the office, I would go for a few hours. Once again, the program was just for me! This time, the speaker was Elder Henry B. Eyring, with a talk he gave on my birthday in 2001 which I quote often, but most have never heard. Yes, it was definitely just for me! You see, Brad is speaking today (now Sunday morning) and his topic is on Good, Better, Best or "Of Things That Matter Most" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, (October 2, 2010) and Elder L. Tom Perry "Let Him Do It with Simplicity," (October 4, 2008). For most people, these talks say stop. I don't believe that is the message for me. You see, that these talks in the middle of the night for me both said "Trust Him!"
That night Elder Eyring said:
"It is clear that our first priority should go to spiritual learning. Reading the scriptures would come for us before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more to us than standing first in our graduating class. But it is also clear that spiritual learning would not replace our drive for secular learning.
The Lord clearly values what you will find in that history book and in a text on political theory. Remember His words. He wants you to know "things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations" (D&C 88:79). And He favors not only Spanish verbs but the study of geography and demography. You remember that His educational charter requires that we have "a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms" (v. 79). There is also an endorsement for questions we study in the sciences.
It is clear that putting spiritual learning first does not relieve us from learning secular things. On the contrary, it gives our secular learning purpose and motivates us to work harder at it. If we will keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. We generally know when papers will be due, when tests must be taken, when projects must be completed. And we know when the Sabbath will come. We know when the institute class will be held. We know when the prayers at the beginning of a day and those at the end should come. We know about how long it takes in reading the scriptures before we begin to feel the Holy Spirit. We know about how many hours it takes to prepare and to perform our service in the Church.
When we see life as it really is, we plan for a time and a place for all of those things. There will come crises when there does not seem to be enough time. There will be many instances when one thing crowds out another. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary as a pattern in our lives. Never. That will lead to tragedy. The tragedy may not be obvious at first, nor may it ever be clear in mortal life. But remember, you are interested in education not for life, but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly with spiritual sight, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision.
God Knows What We Need to Know
Part of the tragedy that you must avoid is to discover too late that you missed an opportunity to prepare for a future only God could see for you....
Your life is carefully watched over, as was mine. The Lord knows both what He will need you to do and what you will need to know. He is kind and He is all-knowing. So, you can with confidence expect that He has prepared opportunities for you to learn in preparation for the service you will give. You will not recognize those opportunities perfectly, as I did not. But when you put the spiritual things first in your life, you will be blessed to feel directed toward certain learning and you will be motivated to work harder. You will recognize later that your power to serve was increased, and you will be grateful....
Your service may not be in what the world would recognize as a lofty calling. When the real value of service becomes clear in the judgment of God, some people who worked in quiet anonymity will be the real heroes. Many of them, perhaps most of them, will be the underpaid and under-recognized people who nurtured others.... I never see a mother juggling three little children who are crying while she is smiling, as she shepherds them gently, without seeing in my mind’s eye that day of honor in the presence of the only Judge whose praise will finally matter....
Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And since what we will need to know is hard to discern, we need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad of things we could study we would most wisely learn. It also means that we cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.
For many of us, the feeling bears down on us that we must choose between spiritual and secular learning. That is a false conflict for most of us, particularly for the young. Before we have families there is leisure time in even what is our busiest day. Too often we use many hours for fun and pleasure, clothed in the euphemism "I’m recharging my batteries." Those hours could be spent reading and studying to gain knowledge, and skills, and culture.
For instance, we too often fail to take advantage of the moments we spend waiting. Think of the last time that you sat in a barber shop or a beauty salon or the waiting room of a doctor’s office. It is so easy to spend time thumbing through any magazine that is stacked on a table there. In fact, if you think about it, you will remember how you wondered where they get those old, out-of-date magazines. There is much valuable reading you could do if you took a book with you to fill those islands of time.
From at least the time man was created, there was the written word. The scriptures tell us that from what they teach about Adam and Eve. They were conscious of the need to develop the mind and the power of reading and writing. In the book of Moses we read, "And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled" (Moses 6:6).
It takes neither modern technology nor much money to seize the opportunity to learn in the moments we now waste. You could just have a book and paper and pencil with you. That will be enough. But you need determination to capture the leisure moments you now waste.
God Can Multiply the Effectiveness of Our Time
I realize that there are some, perhaps many, for whom my urging you to capture leisure time cuts like a knife. You feel overwhelmed by the lack of time. You have left unfinished tasks in your Church calling. You’ve carried your scriptures all day but still not found a moment to open them. There is someone in your family who would be blessed by your thoughtful attention, but you haven’t gotten to them yet. You will go to a job tomorrow that barely pays enough to keep food on your table and pay your bills. There is a term paper or a project due soon that you are yet to start and there are examinations looming. Rather than finding ways to capture leisure time for learning, you are trying to decide what to leave undone.
There is another way to look at your problem of crowded time. You can see it as an opportunity to test your faith. The Lord loves you and watches over you. He is all-powerful, and He promised you this: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
That is a true promise. When we put God’s purposes first, He will give us miracles. If we pray to know what He would have us do next, He will multiply the effects of what we do in such a way that time seems to be expanded. He may do it in different ways for each individual, but I know from long experience that He is faithful to His word.
Years ago I was admitted to a graduate program for which I was poorly prepared. The course was arduous. The competition was fierce. On the first day the professor said: "Look at the person on your left and on your right. One of the three of you will not be here at the end. One of the three of you will likely fail." The schedule of classes filled the five weekdays from early until late. Preparations for the next day’s classes lasted until nearly midnight, often beyond. And then late on Friday a major paper was assigned, with no way to prepare until the assignment was given and with the paper due at 9:00 on Saturday night.
I can still remember the hours of frantic study and writing on those Saturdays. And as the 9:00 deadline approached, crowds of students would stand around the slot in the wall of the library to cheer as the last desperate student would dash up to throw in his completed paper just before the box inside the building was pulled away from beneath the slot to let the late papers fall into the oblivion of failure. Then the students would go back to their homes and to their rooms for a few hours of celebration before starting preparations for Monday classes. And most of them would study all day on Sunday and late into the night.
For me, there was no party and no studying on Sunday. The Lord gave me an opportunity to test His promise. Early in that year He called me, through a humble district president, to a Church service that took me from the early hours of Sunday to late in the evening across the hills of New England. I visited the tiny branches and the scattered Latter-day Saints from Newport and Cape Cod on the south to Worcester and Fort Devins on the west and Lynn and Georgetown on the north. I realize that those names mean more to me than they do to you. For me the words bring back the joy of going to those places, loving the Lord and trusting that somehow He would keep His promise. He always did. In the few minutes I could give to preparation on Monday morning before classes, ideas and understanding came to more than match what others gained from a Sunday of study.
I’ve seen that same miracle when there seemed not enough time for my family when they needed me. I had four young sons, a challenging new job, and then came a call from our bishop as the assistant Scoutmaster and the deacons quorum instructor. The Scouts camped out often, taking me from my boys, who were either older or younger than Scout ages. But I gave my heart to teaching and serving, trusting the Lord’s promise. I began to take one of my sons and then another with me on our outings. What seemed a call away from my obligations to my sons, with the Lord’s help, formed a bond with them that will last for eternity. I gave my heart to the Lord’s service in that deacons quorum; He gave me the hearts of my sons.
I cannot promise academic success or perfect families. Nor can I tell you the way in which He will honor His promise of adding blessings upon you. But I can promise you that if you will go to Him in prayer and ask what He would have you do next, promising that you will put His kingdom first, He will answer your prayer and He will keep His promise to add upon your head blessings, enough and to spare. Those apparent prison walls of "not enough time" will begin to recede, even as you are called to do more.
Real Life Is Eternal Life
The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to live the life that He does. We learn both the spiritual things and the secular things so that we may one day create worlds and people and govern them (see The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 386). All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the resurrection. And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most quickly, or for those who enter the most respected professions. It will be given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.
There is another implication in all this for what we should do. We should never fail to thank those who teach us well. It may be the most precious pay they will ever get, and they deserve it. Not only have they blessed you, but through you they will bless those you will teach and serve. Tens of thousands may someday wish they could thank your teacher. Do it for them.
Luckily, we have an historical record that allows me to thank a teacher of long ago whose service blesses us all. The first teacher at the institute here, the first institute teacher anywhere, was named Wylie Sessions. We did not sit in his class, but we received his message and the blessings that flowed from what he did. He taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he did it well enough that now hundreds of thousands are blessed by tens of thousands of institute teachers across the world. And that blessing will go on across generations and into eternity. So, thanks to Wylie Sessions from the hundreds of thousands and what will someday be millions.
As I give him my thanks, I leave you my blessing. It is, first, that you will feel a debt of gratitude to the Master Teacher, your Master Teacher and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I bless you that you will sense the great service that a loving Heavenly Father expects you to give to His children and that you will see the opportunities to learn that He has prepared for you.
I testify to you that He lives, that His Son, Jesus Christ, is our living Savior. And I testify that the keys that give us the hope of eternal life have been restored in His Church and are held by His living prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. He is a man of great capacity. He is a man of great kindness. But I testify to you that he is a prophet of God. He holds the keys, and through those keys it is possible for us to have a hope, indeed, even an assurance of eternal life. I pray for that hope and that assurance for you, and I do it as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
I believe in personal revelation. I am so grateful for tender mercies for me! I am grateful for His watchful eye and guiding hand in my life! Las Deo!
For the better part of this week the roof of our building was taken off, and open to the elements. The rooftop units were lifted down last week, and the holes they left on the roof were totally exposed for last week, and the first part of this week. Tuesday I was at the job site, and because my fabulous Dad was in Salt Lake (to serve in the Temple) the job site was quiet. We were praying hard for good weather, and our prayers were certainly answered! Last Saturday we had spent the better part of the day on site cleaning, finishing odd jobs, and our favorite (haha) insulating the walls! We were not quite done, but with Monday Valentines day, and Family Home Evening, we didn't make the family work Monday night. Which meant that Tuesday night, we still had lots of insulation to finish! Brad and I went to the job site as soon as I could get our babe, Sophia, to bed. We worked most of the night, and were very nearly done by about 3:00 a.m. Wednesday early morning, I was on site again at 8:00 a.m. and our job really started buzzing! My wonderful parents were up before dawn Wednesday, driving to come help me! Thank You Mom & Dad! They arrived on site even before I did early that morning. By noon, the roofers were working hard, the plumber, HVAC, electrician and dry wallers were all there! It was fun and somewhat overwhelming to see the progress being made! I am so grateful for my amazing Dad who orchestrates so many facets simultaneously! Thank you Dad!
Thursday the weather man was predicting really stormy weather. We were praying hard that the roof could be dried in by Wednesday night, but by that evening, Dad still said we really needed to not have any rain until at least Thursday evening. Minor details - not! That night, at midnight I was up feeding my babe, and the wind was blowing sooo hard that I was sure all my cushions on my patio furniture were going to be gone! Our flag was whipping so hard, I thought the flagpole might break in two. I was impressed I was to go outside and gather cushions and bring them in. Sure enough, I had nearly lost three of them! Gratefully, I found them along the side yard and brought them inside. Then I tried to go back to bed, but even as tired as I was from working most of the night the previous night, I was worried. I had prayed to get some rest, but I couldn't sleep. I couldn't even tell what I was worried about, but I was! So I got up dressed, and went to the current office to work on my accounting jobs! I was getting off the freeway, and the clock on a digital sign said 1:00 a.m.. Upon arriving at the office, the building was creaking in the wind, and being somewhat uneasy all alone, and worried about something I couldn't even tell what, I turned the LDS radio station on my computer on for some background noise to try to ease my tension. The radio station was airing a talk by Elder Jeffery R. Holland, and these are some of the first words I heard:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
That is my basic message to each of you tonight, wherever you live, whatever your joys or sorrows, however young or old you may be, at whatever point you may find yourself in this mortal journey of ours. Some of you know what you want to be and where you want to go with your lives, and some of you don't. Some of you seem to have so many blessings and so many wonderful choices ahead of you. Others of you feel, for a time and for whatever reason, less fortunate and with fewer attractive paths lying immediately ahead.
But whoever you are and wherever you find yourself as you seek your way in life, I offer you tonight "the way . . . and the life" (John 14:6). Wherever else you think you may be going, I ask you to "come unto him" as the imperative first step in getting there, in finding your individual happiness and strength and success."
The radio program continued with a message Just for Me...!
"It seems to me that the essence of our lives is distilled down to these two brief elements in these opening scenes of the Savior's mortal ministry. One element is the question, to every one of us, "What seek ye? What do you want?" The second is his answer as to how to get that. Whoever we are, and whatever our problems, his response is always the same, forever: "Come unto me." Come see what I do and how I spend my time. Learn of me, follow me, and in the process I will give you answers to your prayers and rest to your souls....
I don't know what things may be troubling you personally tonight, but, even knowing how terrific you are and how faithfully you are living, I would be surprised if someone somewhere weren't troubled by a transgression or the temptation of transgression. To you, wherever you may be, I say, Come unto him and lay down your burden. Let him lift the load. Let him give peace to your soul. Nothing in this world is more burdensome than sin. It is the heaviest cross men and women ever bear. And while I believe you to be the greatest generation of young adults ever to live in this Church, nevertheless the world around you is an increasingly hostile and sinful place...
Do whatever you have to do to come into the fold and be blessed. For some of you that is simply to live with greater faith, to believe more. For some of you it does mean to repent: Right here. Tonight. For some of you (I hope there are investigators out there. There better be!) it means to be baptized and come into the body and fellowship of Christ. For virtually all of us it means to live more by the promptings and promises of the Holy Ghost and to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men."
"This is the way," Nephi said--there is that word again--"and there is none other way . . . whereby man [or woman] can be saved in the kingdom of God" (2 Nephi 31:2021).
This reliance upon the forgiving, long-suffering, merciful nature of God was taught from before the very foundation of the world. It was always to give us hope and help, a reason to progress and improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. May I be bold enough to suggest that it is impossible for anyone who really knows God to doubt his willingness to receive us with open arms in a divine embrace if we will but "come unto him." There certainly can and will be plenty of external difficulties in life. Nevertheless the soul that comes unto Christ dwells within a personal fortress, a veritable palace of perfect peace. "Whoso hearkeneth unto me," Jehovah says, "shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" (Proverbs 1:33).
That is exactly what Paul said to the Corinthians. Trying to help them keep their chin up--and the Corinthians had a lot to be grim about--he wrote:
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. [2 Corinthians 1:34]
Jesus taught the same thing to the Nephites, who also lived in a difficult world. "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed," he said, "but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee]" (3 Nephi 22:10; see also verses 1314). I love that. The hills and the mountains may disappear. The seas and oceans may dry up completely. The least likely things in the world may happen, but "my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee]" (emphasis added). After all, he has, he reminds us, "graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Nephi 21:16). Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion, Christ is not going to turn his back on us now.
Peace to Our Souls
The Lord has probably spoken enough such "comforting words" to supply the whole universe, it would seem, and yet we see all around us unhappy Latter-day Saints, worried Latter-day Saints, and gloomy Latter-day Saints into whose troubled hearts not one of these innumerable consoling words seems to be allowed to enter. In fact, I think some of us must have that remnant of Puritan heritage still with us that says it is somehow wrong to be comforted or helped, that we are supposed to be miserable about something.
Consider, for example, the Savior's benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or ever will know, he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
I submit to you that may be one of the Savior's commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet I wonder whether our resistance to this invitation could be any more grievous to the Lord's merciful heart. I can tell you this as a parent: As concerned as I would be if somewhere in their lives one of my children were seriously troubled or unhappy or disobedient, nevertheless I would be infinitely more devastated if I felt that at such a time that child could not trust me to help, or should feel his or her interest were unimportant to me or unsafe in my care. In that same spirit, I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.
Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can't help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature. That is why Joseph Smith gave those lectures on faith, so we would understand the nature of godliness and in the process have enough confidence to come unto Christ and find peace to our souls. There is not a single loophole or curveball or open trench to fall into for the man or woman who walks the path that Christ walks. When he says, "Come, follow me" (Luke 18:22), he means that he knows where the quicksand is and where the thorns are and the best way to handle the slippery slope near the summit of our personal mountains. He knows it all, and he knows the way. He is the way.
Listen to this wonderful passage from President George Q. Cannon teaching precisely this very doctrine:
No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments. ["Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 198792), 2:185; emphasis added]
Once we have come unto Christ and found the miracle of his "covenant of peace," I think we are under obligation to help others do so, just as Paul said in that verse to the Corinthians--to live as much like he lived as we possibly can and to do as much of what he did in order that others may walk in this same peace and have this same reassurance." (Come unto Me, Jeffrey R. Holland was a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside
address was delivered at Brigham Young University on 2 March 1997.)
This beautiful message was rebroadcast just for me I am certain that night in the middle of the night, to speak to me! Tender mercies! I didn't know if I was to be worried for my missionary, if I should be worried about finances and the endless jobs looming over my head at home and at the office. I couldn't even identify what I was so worried about, but my heart was worried! Then as if Elder Holland had seen exactly my worry, my fear, my uneasiness, he spoke just to me about succoring! You see I am a nursing mother right now, my little girl won't even try anything else despite our efforts to introduce her to bananas, rice cereal, etc.! She won't! I am constantly concerned about feeding her, and having enough milk to supply her needs! He continued:
"One last piece of counsel regarding coming to Christ. It comes from an unusual incident in the life of the Savior that holds a lesson for us all. It was after Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand from five loaves of bread and two fishes. (By the way, let me pause here to say, Don't worry about Christ running out of ability to help you. His grace is sufficient. That is the spiritual, eternal lesson of the feeding of the five thousand.) After Jesus had fed the multitude, he sent them away and put his disciples into a fishing boat to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He then "went up into a mountain apart to pray" (Matthew 14:23).
We aren't told all of the circumstances of the disciples as they set out in their boat, but it was toward evening, and certainly it was a night of storm. The winds must have been ferocious from the start. Because of the winds, these men probably never even raised the sails but labored only with the oars--and labor it would have been. We know this because by the time of "the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14:25)--that is somewhere between three and six in the morning--they had gone only a few miles. By then the ship was caught up in a truly violent storm, a storm like those that can still sweep down on the Sea of Galilee to this day.
But, as always, Christ was watching over them. He always does, remember? Seeing their difficulty, the Savior simply took the most direct approach to their boat, striding out across the waves to help them, walking on the water as surely as he had walked upon the land. In their moment of great extremity, the disciples looked and saw in the darkness this wonder in a fluttering robe coming toward them on the ridges of the sea. They cried out in terror at the sight, thinking that it was a phantom upon the waves. Then, through the storm and darkness--when the ocean seems so great and little boats seem so small--there came the ultimate and reassuring voice of peace from their Master. "It is I," he said, "be not afraid" (verse 27).
This scriptural account reminds us that the first step in coming to Christ--or his coming to us--may fill us with something very much like sheer terror. It shouldn't, but it sometimes does. One of the grand ironies of the gospel is that the very source of help and safety being offered us is the thing from which we may, in our mortal shortsightedness, flee. For whatever the reason, I have seen investigators run from baptism, I have seen elders run from a mission call, I have seen sweethearts run from marriage, and I have seen young couples run from the fear of families and the future. Too often too many of us run from the very things that will bless us and save us and soothe us. Too often we see gospel commitments and commandments as something to be feared and forsaken.
Let me quote the marvelous James E. Talmage on this matter:
Into every adult human life come experiences like unto the battling of the storm-tossed voyagers with contrary winds and threatening seas; ofttimes the night of struggle and danger is far advanced before succor appears; and then, too frequently the saving aid is mistaken for a greater terror. [But,] as came unto [these disciples] in the midst of the turbulent waters, so comes to all who toil in faith, the voice of the Deliverer--"It is I; be not afraid." [Jesus the Christ, 3d ed. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1916), p. 337]
Brother Talmage used there the word succor. Do you know its meaning? It is used often in the scriptures to describe Christ's care for and attention to us. It means literally "to run to." What a magnificent way to describe the Savior's urgent effort in our behalf. Even as he calls us to come to him and follow him, he is unfailingly running to help us.
Finally recognizing the Master that night, Peter exclaimed, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."
And Christ's answer to him was as it always is, to all of us: "Come," he said.
Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel's side and into the troubled waves. While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well--he was coming to Christ. Only when his faith and his focus wavered, only when he removed his glance from the Master to see the furious waves and the black gulf beneath him, only then did he begin to sink. In fear he cried out, "Lord, save me" (Matthew 14:2830).
In some disappointment the "Master of ocean and earth and skies" (see "Master, the Tempest Is Raging," Hymns, 1985, no. 105) stretched out his hand and grasped the drowning disciple with the gentle rebuke "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:31). (See also Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994], pp. 31013.)
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is his true and living Church. He wishes us to come unto him, to follow him, to be comforted by him. Then he wishes us to give comfort to others. However halting our steps are toward him--though they shouldn't be halting at all--his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son. May we come unto him and his gospel and be healed. And may we do more to heal others in the process. When the storms of life make this difficult, may we still follow his bidding to "come," keeping our eye fixed on him forever and single to his glory. In doing so we too will walk triumphantly over the swelling waves of life's difficulties and remain unterrified amid any rising winds of despair.
I pray we will hear this very night that sweet utterance from the Savior of the world: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. . . . And ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:2829). "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid" (Matthew 14:27). I pray this for you and for those you can help, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
Amen, and Amen.
I worked for a few hours, emotionally as I thanked my Heavenly Father for knowing of my every need, and speaking through His apostles just to me! I worked until about 3:30 a.m. when Brad called from home with a little one screaming, and he said "Where are you?" I closed my work up and hurried home to succor the little angel he has sent here to bless my life!
The following morning, the sun came up! Our St. George blue sky was clear and even warm! What every weather station had predicted had not come to pass. Salt Lake received some 12" of snow at Mom and Dad's house. We had blue sky and sunshine! In fact, that early afternoon I was at the job site, and watched as they loaded the sheetrock into the building via a funny sort of crane. Then I returned a few hours later, to find the HVAC units in the sky! Yes. The weather was sooo calm! Mom had called and told me to bring the kids and hurry! They had decided the weather was perfect, and they were flying the HVAC units to the rooftop! Our roof was dried in, and our rooftop units were flown up! There wasn't even a gale of wind! My Heavenly Father had moved mountains just for me! Thank you Father! My little ones loved climbing on their roof, watching as four huge units were lifted up to the rooftop of our building!
Tender Mercies! Las Deo!
The problem with not keeping current in recording miracles, is they are so frequent, that if I don't record them daily, then I miss so many!
The following night, I arose early (not the middle of the night, but after feeding my babe at 3:30) and decided I had so much to do at the office, I would go for a few hours. Once again, the program was just for me! This time, the speaker was Elder Henry B. Eyring, with a talk he gave on my birthday in 2001 which I quote often, but most have never heard. Yes, it was definitely just for me! You see, Brad is speaking today (now Sunday morning) and his topic is on Good, Better, Best or "Of Things That Matter Most" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, (October 2, 2010) and Elder L. Tom Perry "Let Him Do It with Simplicity," (October 4, 2008). For most people, these talks say stop. I don't believe that is the message for me. You see, that these talks in the middle of the night for me both said "Trust Him!"
That night Elder Eyring said:
"It is clear that our first priority should go to spiritual learning. Reading the scriptures would come for us before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more to us than standing first in our graduating class. But it is also clear that spiritual learning would not replace our drive for secular learning.
The Lord clearly values what you will find in that history book and in a text on political theory. Remember His words. He wants you to know "things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations" (D&C 88:79). And He favors not only Spanish verbs but the study of geography and demography. You remember that His educational charter requires that we have "a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms" (v. 79). There is also an endorsement for questions we study in the sciences.
It is clear that putting spiritual learning first does not relieve us from learning secular things. On the contrary, it gives our secular learning purpose and motivates us to work harder at it. If we will keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. We generally know when papers will be due, when tests must be taken, when projects must be completed. And we know when the Sabbath will come. We know when the institute class will be held. We know when the prayers at the beginning of a day and those at the end should come. We know about how long it takes in reading the scriptures before we begin to feel the Holy Spirit. We know about how many hours it takes to prepare and to perform our service in the Church.
When we see life as it really is, we plan for a time and a place for all of those things. There will come crises when there does not seem to be enough time. There will be many instances when one thing crowds out another. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary as a pattern in our lives. Never. That will lead to tragedy. The tragedy may not be obvious at first, nor may it ever be clear in mortal life. But remember, you are interested in education not for life, but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly with spiritual sight, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision.
God Knows What We Need to Know
Part of the tragedy that you must avoid is to discover too late that you missed an opportunity to prepare for a future only God could see for you....
Your life is carefully watched over, as was mine. The Lord knows both what He will need you to do and what you will need to know. He is kind and He is all-knowing. So, you can with confidence expect that He has prepared opportunities for you to learn in preparation for the service you will give. You will not recognize those opportunities perfectly, as I did not. But when you put the spiritual things first in your life, you will be blessed to feel directed toward certain learning and you will be motivated to work harder. You will recognize later that your power to serve was increased, and you will be grateful....
Your service may not be in what the world would recognize as a lofty calling. When the real value of service becomes clear in the judgment of God, some people who worked in quiet anonymity will be the real heroes. Many of them, perhaps most of them, will be the underpaid and under-recognized people who nurtured others.... I never see a mother juggling three little children who are crying while she is smiling, as she shepherds them gently, without seeing in my mind’s eye that day of honor in the presence of the only Judge whose praise will finally matter....
Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And since what we will need to know is hard to discern, we need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad of things we could study we would most wisely learn. It also means that we cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.
For many of us, the feeling bears down on us that we must choose between spiritual and secular learning. That is a false conflict for most of us, particularly for the young. Before we have families there is leisure time in even what is our busiest day. Too often we use many hours for fun and pleasure, clothed in the euphemism "I’m recharging my batteries." Those hours could be spent reading and studying to gain knowledge, and skills, and culture.
For instance, we too often fail to take advantage of the moments we spend waiting. Think of the last time that you sat in a barber shop or a beauty salon or the waiting room of a doctor’s office. It is so easy to spend time thumbing through any magazine that is stacked on a table there. In fact, if you think about it, you will remember how you wondered where they get those old, out-of-date magazines. There is much valuable reading you could do if you took a book with you to fill those islands of time.
From at least the time man was created, there was the written word. The scriptures tell us that from what they teach about Adam and Eve. They were conscious of the need to develop the mind and the power of reading and writing. In the book of Moses we read, "And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled" (Moses 6:6).
It takes neither modern technology nor much money to seize the opportunity to learn in the moments we now waste. You could just have a book and paper and pencil with you. That will be enough. But you need determination to capture the leisure moments you now waste.
God Can Multiply the Effectiveness of Our Time
I realize that there are some, perhaps many, for whom my urging you to capture leisure time cuts like a knife. You feel overwhelmed by the lack of time. You have left unfinished tasks in your Church calling. You’ve carried your scriptures all day but still not found a moment to open them. There is someone in your family who would be blessed by your thoughtful attention, but you haven’t gotten to them yet. You will go to a job tomorrow that barely pays enough to keep food on your table and pay your bills. There is a term paper or a project due soon that you are yet to start and there are examinations looming. Rather than finding ways to capture leisure time for learning, you are trying to decide what to leave undone.
There is another way to look at your problem of crowded time. You can see it as an opportunity to test your faith. The Lord loves you and watches over you. He is all-powerful, and He promised you this: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
That is a true promise. When we put God’s purposes first, He will give us miracles. If we pray to know what He would have us do next, He will multiply the effects of what we do in such a way that time seems to be expanded. He may do it in different ways for each individual, but I know from long experience that He is faithful to His word.
Years ago I was admitted to a graduate program for which I was poorly prepared. The course was arduous. The competition was fierce. On the first day the professor said: "Look at the person on your left and on your right. One of the three of you will not be here at the end. One of the three of you will likely fail." The schedule of classes filled the five weekdays from early until late. Preparations for the next day’s classes lasted until nearly midnight, often beyond. And then late on Friday a major paper was assigned, with no way to prepare until the assignment was given and with the paper due at 9:00 on Saturday night.
I can still remember the hours of frantic study and writing on those Saturdays. And as the 9:00 deadline approached, crowds of students would stand around the slot in the wall of the library to cheer as the last desperate student would dash up to throw in his completed paper just before the box inside the building was pulled away from beneath the slot to let the late papers fall into the oblivion of failure. Then the students would go back to their homes and to their rooms for a few hours of celebration before starting preparations for Monday classes. And most of them would study all day on Sunday and late into the night.
For me, there was no party and no studying on Sunday. The Lord gave me an opportunity to test His promise. Early in that year He called me, through a humble district president, to a Church service that took me from the early hours of Sunday to late in the evening across the hills of New England. I visited the tiny branches and the scattered Latter-day Saints from Newport and Cape Cod on the south to Worcester and Fort Devins on the west and Lynn and Georgetown on the north. I realize that those names mean more to me than they do to you. For me the words bring back the joy of going to those places, loving the Lord and trusting that somehow He would keep His promise. He always did. In the few minutes I could give to preparation on Monday morning before classes, ideas and understanding came to more than match what others gained from a Sunday of study.
I’ve seen that same miracle when there seemed not enough time for my family when they needed me. I had four young sons, a challenging new job, and then came a call from our bishop as the assistant Scoutmaster and the deacons quorum instructor. The Scouts camped out often, taking me from my boys, who were either older or younger than Scout ages. But I gave my heart to teaching and serving, trusting the Lord’s promise. I began to take one of my sons and then another with me on our outings. What seemed a call away from my obligations to my sons, with the Lord’s help, formed a bond with them that will last for eternity. I gave my heart to the Lord’s service in that deacons quorum; He gave me the hearts of my sons.
I cannot promise academic success or perfect families. Nor can I tell you the way in which He will honor His promise of adding blessings upon you. But I can promise you that if you will go to Him in prayer and ask what He would have you do next, promising that you will put His kingdom first, He will answer your prayer and He will keep His promise to add upon your head blessings, enough and to spare. Those apparent prison walls of "not enough time" will begin to recede, even as you are called to do more.
Real Life Is Eternal Life
The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to live the life that He does. We learn both the spiritual things and the secular things so that we may one day create worlds and people and govern them (see The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 386). All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the resurrection. And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most quickly, or for those who enter the most respected professions. It will be given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.
There is another implication in all this for what we should do. We should never fail to thank those who teach us well. It may be the most precious pay they will ever get, and they deserve it. Not only have they blessed you, but through you they will bless those you will teach and serve. Tens of thousands may someday wish they could thank your teacher. Do it for them.
Luckily, we have an historical record that allows me to thank a teacher of long ago whose service blesses us all. The first teacher at the institute here, the first institute teacher anywhere, was named Wylie Sessions. We did not sit in his class, but we received his message and the blessings that flowed from what he did. He taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he did it well enough that now hundreds of thousands are blessed by tens of thousands of institute teachers across the world. And that blessing will go on across generations and into eternity. So, thanks to Wylie Sessions from the hundreds of thousands and what will someday be millions.
As I give him my thanks, I leave you my blessing. It is, first, that you will feel a debt of gratitude to the Master Teacher, your Master Teacher and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I bless you that you will sense the great service that a loving Heavenly Father expects you to give to His children and that you will see the opportunities to learn that He has prepared for you.
I testify to you that He lives, that His Son, Jesus Christ, is our living Savior. And I testify that the keys that give us the hope of eternal life have been restored in His Church and are held by His living prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. He is a man of great capacity. He is a man of great kindness. But I testify to you that he is a prophet of God. He holds the keys, and through those keys it is possible for us to have a hope, indeed, even an assurance of eternal life. I pray for that hope and that assurance for you, and I do it as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
I believe in personal revelation. I am so grateful for tender mercies for me! I am grateful for His watchful eye and guiding hand in my life! Las Deo!