A week ago I was in
my car driving up to school with my sister hoping to make it to Provo in
time for the Worldwide Devotional with President Nelson, which I first heard about
in sacrament meeting before we left. About an hour into our trip she received texts from two different friends asking if we would be there in time
for the devotional. That’s when we found out that we weren’t just trying to
make it in time to hear the devotional, we were trying to make it in time to be there. I’m not going to say exactly how fast I drove up the I-15 but by 5:45 we
were sitting in the Marriot Center ready to listen to an apostle of the Lord. I
guess someone up there knew I would be giving a talk today. (side note) Being an English-based major, I have a really nerdy love for words.
Mostly other people’s and not so much my own. I love being able to see the
teleprompter during devotionals and such so I can tell when they go off script
or change the wording. Reviewing this talk in preparation for my own I’ve noticed
how purposeful and perfect his words are. It’s a goldmine of Relief Society
handouts and Pinterest quotes.
President Nelson
left us last week with some advice to help us become true millennials and
increase in our discipleship. He challenged us to: “Commence tonight to
consecrate a portion of your time each week to studying everything Jesus said and did…Study everything Jesus Christ is by prayerfully and vigorously seeking
to understand what each of His various titles and names means personally for you… Get to know him by
studying all He continues to teach through His living prophets and apostles…
Learn to articulate those truths in your own words.”. Keeping that in mind,
let’s talk about the eternal nature of Christ. He is known by many names over
the course of human history, but his message is always the same. By studying
his teachings to his followers in each of the standard works we can see the
consistency of the gospel. Christ works in accordance with divine laws so his
teachings must be true, and the blessings he promises have to be real. “God’s
truth is really true! What God says is right is right!
And what He says is wrong is wrong!”
In this week’s BYU
Devotional President Worthen talked about the 2016 Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of
the Year, Post-truth, which is defined as “circumstances in which objective
facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion
and personal belief”. We live in a world that is obsessed with information, but
doesn’t always do a good job of spreading true information. It’s no accident
that in recent years our Church leaders have been encouraging us to study
Christ, to become more familiar with the Restoration of the gospel and the
doctrine of the Church. Through the new Sunday school curriculum, re-invigorated
seminary and Institute programs, and growth of missionary work throughout the
church they are trying to prepare us to be the future leaders of the church.
These worldwide Church devotionals and Face to Face events give us the
opportunity to see, hear from, and speak to our current leaders more frequently
than twice a year at general conference. As President Nelson said, “…there need
not be uncertainty in your heart and
mind about what is true and what is not. Uncertainty is born of imperfect or
unknown information.” Our information in the church is perfect, it
is true, it is eternal, but we have to put in the effort to act on those things
that will give us blessings as promised by people who have the authority to
make and honor blessings for obedience to divine laws. Going back to President
Nelson’s challenge, he promised that if we accept it: our love for God and his
laws will grow, our ability to resist sin will increase, we will desire to keep
the commandments, our ability to lead and righteously influence others will
increase, we will eventually be able to come before the Savior as his true
disciple. An apostle of the Lord has promised us these blessings. Additionally,
he blessed us to be able to do all we need to make those blessings a reality.
I know that God
has the power to bless us individually according to our needs and obedience. I
know that He is unchanging in his love for us and desire for us to reach our
full potential as His true millennials. I know that our prophets and apostles
have been called by him to lead us in these days through revelation, and that
he speaks to us individually. I hope that you will take the time to read or
listen to President Nelson’s talk again and make those blessings a reality for
you.
Check out Aunt Wendy's too.
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