Mom's talk June 14, 2015

I was speaking in Sacrament for our ward plus the Stake YSA.  I do not keep exactly to the words I type, so this is my basic printed talk before I gave it. I did not post the journal entry, but I think most of you have heard the one when I first moved to SLC.  I may have even posted it before. 

"What does Jesus mean to us today ".

“Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”  Jeffrey R Holland

·       Picture a little girl crying on a sidewalk, and elderly lady lost in a parking lot, a couple not speaking to each other, a homeless man, a young man or woman who’s heart is broken, a loved one very ill … someone somewhere is saying,” I know, I know”

My belief is that there is a Heavenly Father, He has a son, Jesus Christ.  They love us deeply. They do know what we are going through. There is a plan, and the Gospel is a plan of happiness.  When we truly seek Him, we shall find Him.  When we do, our lives change for the better.

I was taught about Christ as a young child.  I grew up with images of Him.  We used the nativity every Christmas. I loved that story. We sang beautiful hymns.  We prayed daily. I attended church.  My faith grew as I grew. But as I grew older, I started to question- did all this really happen? Who is this Christ?  Where is He now?  Does He really live? 

By the time I was a ysa age, it consumed me. I thought of it day and night. I longed to know. I prayed, pondered, and asked questions.  I truly did SEEK Him. Like the scripture says, Seek and ye shall find Him. And I did find Him! Because I found His gospel, and it taught me more about Him, and the answers to all the questions I had. And it still does.

Finding Him was like opening a door to happiness. 

Quote by Elder Uchtdorf:  the Door to True Happiness

·       John 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them

·       A hungry person might think about food, talk about food, or even look at pictures of food, but it will do the person no good unless he or she eats the food.    We need to live the Gospel

·       In her talk, Amazed by Grace, Sheri Dew lists 3 things we can do to become better disciples of Christ:

1.    Come to love the Lord

2.    Experience a  change of heart –

3.    Behave like a true disciple

For me, coming to love Christ has been easy.  I truly love Him. And so, I do my best daily to serve Him, and be the best person I can be. That takes continual change.

Jesus Christ endured and completed His eternal Infinite Atonement so that you and I could change

The problem with that is, we can’t make a full transformation of our heart and actions by ourselves, we NEED the Grace and power of our Savior. Grace is the enabling power to handle things we can not figure out, can’t do, can’t over come, or even imagine to overcome on our own.  He may not move mountains in front of us, but He can help us climb them.

·       We are trying to be good because we Know Jesus died for us, and He lived for us, and He paid the price for us

·       Becoming Christlike is a matter of daily growth

Obedience gives us greater control over our lives

·       Did you get away with something this week?  Did you thing evil of someone? Seek revenge? Judge someone?  Lose patience? Fall back into a bad habit?

o   Satan can be very successful at painting things grey.

o   One day you will have to decide who YOU really are.

o    Gospel truth does exist in this world of confusion and doubt.

Take a reality check or quiz, are these virtues visible in our everyday lives?  Developing Christlike qualities can be painful, and it can take time, it is not easy, but it is always worth it. Paul testified, “I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me.”  If we are not feeling day to day inner peace, then there is more we need to work on.

·       Jesus is the supreme example of how we should build are souls.

 He is the only Begotten Son

o   Someday “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord”

o   He gives us the choice to Come & follow Him. This decision is personal, and when we accept Him in our lives, our relationship with Him gets closer, and we will see the fruit and blessings of living such a life

My missionaries taught me that the more I kept the commandments, the more freedom I would feel, and the more I would be at peace. I believed them, and I have seen it come to pass.

·       My personal example of living the Gospel and seeing the fruits- an excerpt from my journal Oct 15, 1980

·       Close with the words of one of my fav songs, Come, thou fount of every blessing:

O to grace, how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be;

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wondering heart to thee

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love,

Here’s my heart, O, take and seal it

Seal it for thy courts above

Brothers and sisters, I have seen over and over the choice and tender blessings we get from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Last night at seminary graduation, Jarek Bucko and Amalee sang a beautiful song “Because He lives”.   On the cover of the program, it had a quote from Joseph Smith that read, “I have learned for myself”.

I have learned for myself, and I do ALL I do – because He lives.