A thought on agency and obedience

A bit of background...

For those of you not of my faith, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- I am a mormon. In our church there is no paid clergy, and practically every member of the congregation has a responsibility (a calling). My current calling is as a member of the high council of the Bothell Stake. A Stake is what we call a number of congregational units or wards. In our Stake there are 8 wards, and part of my calling is to give a talk/speech at each of those wards once a year. Tomorrow I will be speaking in the Woodinville ward. I was assigned the topic of "Agency and Obedience". which I share below.

If you would like to learn more about my faith or if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me -- or check out www.mormon.org. 

Why do I post my thoughts here? Mostly because I know some (both members and non-members of the Church) find them useful. It also helps me formalize my thoughts.  Note that what I try to align my writings with the teachings of my faith, but they are ultimately my understanding and/or my own thoughts.

Ok, so here we go...

Agency and Obedience

So lately the best souls have been sent to Earth and it started getting harder for Satan to be effective at keeping people from doing the right. He finally decided he would have a conference with all his minions, and asked them to provide ideas on how to improve his evil plan.

Minion 1 said: "What about we increase the number of temptations...". "We already tried that " -- rebutted Satan, it is not as effective as we thought. Minon 2 said: "What about we tell people that there is no hope for them to get back to Heaven". "Hmmm... that sounds more interesting" -- said Satan. Minion 3 had an even better idea: "Let's just tell them that they are OK as long as they are a bit better than the average person"  -- and to that Minion 4 added "... also, we can tell them that they are already saved... so they can let their guards down!" Satan by this point was very excited, and formed a committee to implement these ideas.

This is my own fictional story, but it does outline some of the deceptions that the adversary uses to keep us from returning to live with Heavenly Father. Let's take a look at the last few. Before that let me explain what we mean by free agency or simply agency. Agency is the freedom we have to chose between good and evil. We all, no matter our circumstances, have the ability to make decisions about our thoughts, our attitude and our actions.

Let's take on each of Satan's deceptions...

The idea that there is no hope in our lives denies the power of Christ and His atonement for each of us. The thing is, we all fall short of the perfect expectations that our Heavenly Father has for us. We all sin. Some more than others, but in our ability to chose between good and evil, we don't always chose good. Sometimes we succumb to temptation, and we chose incorrectly, we sin. Fortunately for us, there is hope. This hope comes is the miracle of forgiveness. Thanks to Christ, we can be forgiven from our sins, as long as we honestly repent from our sins. (More on repentance here)

The prophet Isaiah said:

 “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18)

Then there is the idea of relativism. In order for us to be chose the right we need to understand the difference between right and wrong. In other words we need to understand the Law of God, so that we can obey it. Relativism denies the law of God. Let me explain what I mean by relativism. Relativism has to do with thinking that we are OK as long as we do better than the world standard. We may think, "if I am obedient relative to the rest of the world, I must be OK". The problem with this is that the world has shifting standards, and they can decline. What the the rest of the worlds was an abomination and illegal 50 years ago, may be the norm nowadays. So, in order to obey God, first we need to seek to understand His will.

In Matthew 22:36-40, Christ was asked which were the greatest commandments:

 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So the question then is how do we show our love for God?

In John 14:21, Christ told us how to show our love for Him and Heavenly Father

21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,
and will manifest myself to him.

Obedience is a demonstration of our love for Heavenly Father.


Another technique that Satan may use to keep us from being obedient is to tell us that there is no need for us to do more, to somehow make us believe that we are already saved.  This idea denies that Heavenly Father actually wants us to grow and progress, that by actually following his commandments, we are actually improving. In a sense, this idea denies the efficacy of agency.
Sometimes people believe that there pure belief in Christ is sufficient for them to reach exaltation.
While Chris's grace is necessary for our salvation, it is not sufficient. God requires us to do the best we can.

Moroni, said in his closing remarks in the book of Mormon.

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

“And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.” (Moro. 10:32–33.)

[A really good explanation on the importance of grace and works in our life here]

As a father to two kids, I have come to appreciate a bit more the importance of agency. As your children grow and mature you start giving them a bit more freedom, and even though it's a bit hard, sometime you have to let them fall. If you want your children to learn to walk you have to literally put them into vulnerable situations where they may fall. But children learn and grow!


I have two kids now 10 and 8 -- and I love both of them very much. Sometimes my wife and I hear them argue. Sometimes, it is tempting to interject and stop the discussion (and sometimes we do)... but at times, we also realize the importance of letting them learn to deal with one another. They may or may not make the right choices, and they may even have to suffer the consequences of their actions, but that is part of growing.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He give us the freedom to succeed... and to fail. We have the freedom to chose our actions and thoughts today. That said, I should point out that we don't get to chose the consequences of our actions. And sometimes, those consequences as rough as they may seem, are there to teach us as well.

One thing I should point out is that sometimes people may think that commandments may be restrictive. But in reality they liberate us. Let me give you an example, we follow a commandment that we call the "Word of Wisdom". As part of that, we are told that we should not drink alcohol or smoke. Even though I am free to smoke or drink alcohol, I choose not to, and by doing that I obey this law. Also, because I am obeying this law, I am entitled to the blessings from obeying those laws. For instance, my health is better than if I drank or smoked. Also, who knows, maybe if I started drinking or smoking I would be addicted any of those substances. I have had relatives and friends who have been addicted to these, and I can tell you that they do not feel free when trying to stop consuming them.

So it is with all commandments, they are for our good. To be honest, we may not always understand right away the reason for a given commandment... but in my experience I have noticed that eventually it becomes very clear why Heavenly Father wants us to be obedient to each of them. We gain a testimony of the specific commandment... but sometimes a bit of faith is required.

Heavenly Father's plan, is known as the plan of Salvation, or the plan of Happiness. The main reason is that if we are obedient to His commandments, we can gain Salvation in the life to come, but also learn to live happy lives here on Earth.

I am not sure if my children always understand why I tell them to do what I tell them to do; but as they grow and mature, they also tend to understand the reasoning behind our house rules.

In closing, let me enumerate five ways that help us increase our obedience.

1. Remember obedience is our way to show our love to Heavenly Father.
2. Seek to understand God's will. In order to be obedient to his commandments, we need to understand them first. Remember God gives us commandments because He love us.
3. Seek to gain a testimony of the commandment you are trying to learn... by living it.
4. When you fail, and often you will...Remember the miracle of forgiveness. Remember that Satan wants you to give up and feel like a failure... but Christ wants you to trust Him, and trust that you can be forgiven -- so that His sacrifice/atonement can be effective in your life.
5. Obeying God's will is not always popular, but that's ok. Don't look around you for approval, look up instead.

I have really enjoyed putting this talk together, because it reminded me of the love that God has for each us. I know He is aware of our individual needs, that He knows us personally, and that even though it may seem challenging at times, choosing the right is also what will bring us more happiness, fulfillment; and personal growth. I marvel at the love Heavenly Father has for us, and the 1ove His Son has for us. I know Christ is our Redeemer, and say this in his name. Amen.

Honesty is the only policy

<Story about Amy and my honesty about her food>

I take public transportation to work. One morning, less than a year ago I lost my wallet and I was pretty certain I had lost it while riding the bus. I was a bit sad, because that meant that I had to spend a few hours that morning cancelling credit cards, getting a new driver's licence, a new badge for work, etc. A few days later, I was able to reach the transit authority in Bellevue, and they told me that my wallet had been returned. I was so glad for the person that returned my wallet. I was very glad for their honesty. I had some cash in my wallet and some gift cards that they could have easily used -- but they did not. They simply returned the wallet with all of its content.

I would like to talk today about honesty.

The last article of Faith, which was written by Joseph Smith to describe who the Latter Day Saints were says:

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (A of F 1:13).

When we are honest, we say are true to ourselves, to others and to God. Let me discuss each of these aspects of honesty.

When I was a young kid in Guatemala, I went to a school that was academically pretty tough. We had a lot of homework, and some really hard tests every month. It was not uncommon for a large percentage of the students to not "pass" a given subject -- in which case they would have study during vacation and then retake the exam. So you can imagine, these was a time of a lot of stress for a bunch of the young students. I remember there were some students who would cheat during the tests. They had all kinds of complicated schemes to cheat. Some of them were caught, and I am sure some of them were not. What I know is that those that cheated did not benefit from the quality of instruction that was provided. They were so focused on "getting a passing grade" that they could not focus on actually understanding the principles being taught.  The funny thing is that the students that were thinking they were cheating the teacher, were in reality cheating themselves... and I am sure they continued to struggle in later years, when more complicated concepts that built upon the original principles they did not fully understand were required of them to understand.

Later on when I went to BYU, I learned about the honor code. Karl G. Maeser explained it really well himself:

I have been asked what I mean by ‘word of honor.’ I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls–walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground–there is a possibility that in some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I’d die first!”    -- Karl G. Maeser

 

This code of honor requires everyone to give their word that they will abide by certain standards. And that should be sufficient for each of us to follow those standards. As a matter of fact, the ordinances of the gospel are alot like that. Usually, when we participate in an ordinance, for instance baptism or partaking of the sacrament... we are making a covenant with our Heavenly Father. We are making covenant to follow his commandments. He also makes some promises back to us. In some ordinances we make promises to others as well, for instance when we get sealed to our wife / husband in celestial marriage.

Sometimes, through our lives, things will get a bit more challenging. It will seem hard to be kind when others are not kind to us. Or it will be hard to pay our tithing if we are having some financial struggle. But the thing is that if we are true and honest people, our word will be our bond. The Lord will provide a way for us to maintain our integrity, but it will require the very best of us.

Let us remember the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehites who had made an oath not to take their weapons against their enemies. Consider what it must have been like when they knew that the Lamanites were coming to destroy them.

 16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall ^ago to our God and shall be saved.  (Alma 24:16)

They kept their word, and some of the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi died in the process. That said, there were many more who joined them thanks to their faith, and for keeping their word to God. I also would like you to consider what an example this was to their children (those who were living then, and the ones that were born year later). It was a great example of integrity. As we know, among their children were the 2000 stripling warriors. As we read about 30 chapters later in Alma, their kids where men of integrity as well. It is said that they obeyed with exactness.

21 Yea, and they did ^aobey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their ^bmothers had taught them. (Alma 57:21)

We have a lot of good examples of integrity in the scriptures... sometime even the "bad guys" would take an oath, and actually respect it. In contrast, it is very easy to read the very opposite in our daily news. 

We hear of big companies doing complicated maneuvers in order to avoid paying taxes, we hear of conflicts of interest among government officials, we hear of divorces and people cheating themselves and their partners. "something dies within those that are dishonest" . Conscience chokes, character withers, self-respect vanishes, integrity dies.

He also says:

Was there ever adultery without dishonesty? In the vernacular, the evil is described as “cheating.” And cheating it is, for it robs virtue, it robs loyalty, it robs sacred promises, it robs self-respect, it robs truth. It involves deception. It is personal dishonesty of the worst kind, for it becomes a betrayal of the most sacred of human relationships, and a denial of covenants and promises entered into before God and man. It is the sordid violation of a trust. It is a selfish casting aside of the law of God, and like other forms of dishonesty its fruits are sorrow, bitterness, heartbroken companions, and betrayed children.  (Gordon B. Hinckley)

Brothers and Sisters, we cannot partake of the dishonesty we hear about. A life of integrity and truth is expected of us. We believe in being honest.

But this is the beautiful thing. Honesty begets Trust.

When we are honest in our dealings with our fellow beings, they will learn to trust us. And once we are trusted life becomes much easier:

1. Communications are much simpler. No hidden agendas allow us to understand each other better.

2. If we trust each other, we don't have to pay the taxes of dishonesty. I am reminded of the price of dishonesty when I go back to Guatemala City where I was born. There you can see armed guards in front of businesses, or people that are checking for the safety of your vehicle at parking lots... which you have to pay in order to keep your business or your car safe. These are very visible taxes for dishonesty... but there are many invisible taxes that we pay as well when there is lack of trust.

3. If Heavenly Father can trust us, then we will be blessed with opportunities to serve and grow, but we have to gain his trust. As an example, when we talk about missionary work... we may pray to have missionary opportunities to teach the gospel to a new person... but will Heavenly Father trust us if we have not taken care of those new members that have joined our wards in the past? Or if we are not even taking care of the people we are supposed to home teach?

4. We can be happy and at piece. When we are people of integrity we don't fear anyone, because we now we have dealt justly with others, at least to best of our knowledge.  It is just like going to a test after you have prepared for the test. Since by then you know what you know and what you don't know, taking the test is nothing to worry about.  Honesty is not only the best policy -- it is the only policy.

Let me close by reminding you that the Spirit will guide us to live a life of integrity.

 12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your ^atrust in that^bSpirit which ^cleadeth to do ^dgood—yea, to do ^ejustly, to walk^fhumbly, to ^gjudge righteously; and this is my Spirit.(D &C 11:12)

I know that if we are honest, we will live and die with peace in our conscience. That is a peace that will make our humble bread test better, that will make our friendships and our relationships stronger, a peace that will allow us to be trusted, and to learn to trust others as well.  I know that Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our greatest example of integrity. He never spoke with deceipt, his words were simple and direct. Not only that, but the desires of His heart were pure. I am very grateful for the chance that I have to interact with many of you who are also great examples of integrity, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Rise up, O Men of God

I have added this talk after a hymn widely known in our church. It is written for men voices, but in reality the principles of the talk I am about to share with you apply to both men and women just the same.  The hymn starts with the sentence

"Rise up, O men of God!

Have done with lesser things.

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of Kings."

I really enjoyed the topic I was assigned this month. It is based on Elder Uchtdorf's talk called "You can do it!". I have pasted the video of his presentation below for those reading this talk online. The talk was given for the Priesthood Session of General Conference in October 2013.



When I was a kid, I had a physics teacher that was teaching us Newtonian mechanics, including the concept of Gravity. One thing he mentioned that I remember is that the process of walking is the process of continuously falling, and correcting our position. I am going to talk a little about falling today.

Part of the process of life is falling, for we all have fallen, we all fall and we all will fall. We often times fall short of what is expected of us.  The question is how do we react when we fail. At times, when we fail, we feel guilt and sorrow when we have made a mistake. We feel bad for what we have done. But we have to distinguish between sorrow that leads to repentance and sorrow that leads to despair.

In 2 Corinthians 7:10 it says:

10 For ^agodly ^bsorrow‍ worketh ^crepentance‍ to ^dsalvation‍ not to be repented of: but the ^esorrow‍ of the world worketh death.

Let us contrast these two types of sorrow.
Sorrow of the world
What do we feel? Despair. We continue to feel bad for a long time, because our behavior is not changing. Sometimes, a desire to "throw the towel".
Outcome: No improvement in behavior. Sometimes it may do the opposite, the individual may consider himself/herself hopeless, and just stop trying to follow God's commandments.
In this case, we think we are by ourselves.

The sorrow of the world, is comparable to putting a rock on our backpack whenever we do something wrong. These burdens become heavy to bear over time.
 Godly sorrow
What do we feel? A desire to repent, a desire to be better, to change our behavior.Outcome: the individual improves over time, and becomes happier.
In this case we remember the Savior has taken our guilt upon His shoulders. We realize we are going through this process by the Hand of the Lord, we are doing our part to correct our behavior, but we are actually leaning on Christ in this transformation.Godly sorrow is part of the repentance process. When we repent, we let Christ bear our burdens.

The Savior said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

It is like instead of putting a rock on our backpacks, learning our lesson, and giving it to Christ instead. He will take care of it.

As Elder Uchtdorf says in his talk, however: "our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble, but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off and move forward".

There were a few pieces of advise I really enjoyed in Elder Uchtdorf's talk:

1. Keep our focus on the goal.
When I was a young man, I did a bit of kayaking. One thing I learned is that you are much more efficient when you paddle if you set your focus on a landmark far away that you want to reach. The same applies to our life. 

There have been many men and women who have not reached their full potential because they are focused on their daily failures and sometimes successes, instead of setting their sight on the larger goal of seeing where they want to be on the eternities, and the kind of person we need to become to get there.

When I was a missionary, I remember teaching a very charismatic young man with a lot of potential, a leader. I could see that this young man had the determination to do whatever he set his mind to. At a young age, he had his own business, and he was really talented. He got baptized. I thought, this is a great man. He could become a bishop one day, or a stake president. The years passed, and his activity in the church diminished because of his other goals. He accomplished a few things in his life, but nothing compared to what he would have accomplished, had he set his sight on higher goals.

It is hard to find our way when we don't have a clear goal in sight. I remember another incident when I went on a week long hiking trip with two friend. On one occasion I remember going for a hike not too far away from the cabin where we were staying that night (it was about a 30 minute walk). I remember at one point I was trying to get back to the cabin, but I got lost. I could not see any landmarks around me that could tell me the way to the cabin. Just trees everywhere. Eventually I found the cabin, but I struggled quite a bit -- and was a bit worried. 

Just like it was hard to get back to the cabin without proper landmarks, It is really hard to get back to the straight and narrow if we don't have a set of divine goals to keep our sight on. If we keep our sight on divine goals, it will be easier to get there. Even then, we may fail, but we will know the steps to get up on our feet again.

In the process of becoming more Christlike, we will also gain peace in this world.

23 But learn that he who doeth the works of ^arighteousness‍ shall receive his ^breward, even ^cpeace‍ in this world, and ^deternal life‍ in the world to come.

Related to this, we should:

2. Live our life based on who we want to become, and not because we have been told to
Sometimes we may think we do things "because we have to".
We may not eat something because the doctor told us to, or we may do our home-teaching because we need to report on our visits at the end of the month. But we will not gain much from doing things this way.

What if instead, we change our ways, and rise up to become the type of people that we need to be. What if we do things because we are convinced of their good for others and for ourselves. We will serve with power and determination then. We will not just be home-teachers, we will be friends. We will not just suffer a diet, instead we will become enjoy living a healthy life style.

3. You can do it!
The most important thing I got from Elder Uchtdorf's talk was in the title of the talk: "You can do it!"
Brothers and sisters, no matter how tough things seem sometimes, or how weak we think we are, let us remember that we are not on this alone. Let us remember that Heavenly Father actually wants us to be happy, to have joy.  We are in this together, and we are in this together with Christ. We are much more capable than we can imagine, and much stronger than we realize. Heavenly Father knows our potential, and will not give us any trials that we cannot overcome with His Help.

Brothers and sisters, let us understand the difference between these two sorrows. There may be some of us who have been carrying heavy rocks on our backs for too long. It is time for us to learn to forgive ourselves, and to let Christ take care of those burdens. As I mentioned before, God wants us to have true joy in this life, and that requires us to trust Him. It does not mean that we should not feel sorrow for our failures, but it does mean that the sorrow we feel should be focused on improving us, on making good use of Christ's atonement and to get us closer to our goal of eternal life instead of further away from it. I know that our Savior, who loved us so much to atone for our sins, wants us to make good use of that atonement, and I say this in His name, Amen.

Staying out of trouble: Personal strength through the atonement of Jesus Christ

I was assigned to talk on "Personal strength through the atonement of Jesus Christ" -- How can Christ, and the process of repentance can help us grow and stay away from sin. To be honest, I consider this to be a very tough topic to talk about. The main reason is that I feel like staying out of trouble is for me a constant struggle. There are many times when I feel like Paul who said:

 24 O ^awretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?(Romans 7:24)

or Nephi:

17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great ^agoodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O ^bwretched man that I am! Yea, my heart ^csorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. 

 (2 Nephi 4:17)

So I am deeply humbled in coming to you and sharing this topic. I had a chance to read the talk by Elder Scott: Personal strength through the atonement of Jesus Christ which is the basis for my talk today.

There was a lot of buzz about the super bowl in the pacific northwest during the last few weeks. I did not watch the game and I don't even understand American football, but I know there if you want to win the game you have to understand how your opponent attacks so that you don't fall into a trap.

Satan uses a set of techniques to keep us from repenting and getting better.

Trap 1: Keep us from believing that we can actually be forgiven

The easiest way for him to trick us here, is to tell us not to believe in Christ. Or to believe that Jesus Christ was just an exemplary man, or even just a prophet -- anything that keeps us from believing that Jesus is the Savior and our Reedemer. 

The first principle of the gospel is "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" for this very reason.  Believing in Christ, requires us to Trust Him, and therefore apply His teachings. We know that He has the power to fulfill His promises to us.

When we obey God, He blesses us. He gives us the power to confront the challenges in life and changes the desires of our Heart.

Trap 2: Satan will try to use our memory of any previous guilt to lure us back into his influence.
Many times, when we sin we suffer from the consequences of our actions, even if we have truly repented of our past transgression.  And Satan sees that as vulnerability.

I know of a young teenager that made a lot of bad decisions. While his brother and sister were going to school and doing homework, he got involved with drugs and dropped out of school. He made many bad decision. He ended up having children at a very early age, which resulted in a very early marriage, and later resulted in a divorce. As a grown man, this man had a change of heart, and he tried to come back to Church and get back into activity. But it has been so hard... he had all kinds of troubles that were the result of his previous life: financial struggles, poor relationship with His children, poor work history... This poor man is still struggling to come back to Church.  My heart goes out to Him.

 

While this is probably a very extreme case, we all make mistakes and have to suffer the consequences of our mistakes. We need to remember that we need to face the consequences no matter what. In a sense, that is necessary for the process of repentance. We also need to be aware that if we have truly repented, we should look up, forgive ourselves and move forward. Don't pay attention to Satan, who will try to lead us to believe that we cannot change.

Trap 3: Relative standards
Another trap Satan uses is to let us believe that we are better than "the world". To lead us to believe that as long as we are a little better than the average person on the street, we are doing the right thing. The problem with this belief is that as the world's standards move, so will move ours. Instead we need to pay heed to the standard that God has set out for us. We need to listen to the voice of the prophets. That is a standard that takes into consideration our divine potential and  then we will “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine”? (Eph. 4:14.)


In order to win the game, we need to also understand who is on our side, what we have going for us -- as well as what we need to do to win the game.

1. Understand the miracle of forgiveness
We need to believe that Christ truly paid for our sins, and that there is hope no matter how bad we messed up this time. We can become virtuous and pure.

The lord says:

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

I compare the sinning process like going on a hike. We are walking across the paths of life and when we sin, we pick up a rock and then have to carry them with us as we continue the hike. Sometimes some of those "little rocks" can become a problem. They are a bother in our shoes, or rubbing against us in our pocket. Sometimes we have to pick bigger rocks, they don't fit in our pockets so we have to carry them in our backpack.

There are many of us that are carrying those rocks for too long, sometimes even years. It doesn't have to be like that. The Savior said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

The savior's atonement allow us to repent and not have to carry the rocks anymore. We need to believe in Him and His power. We need to follow the process of repentance:

1. Acknowledge we have sinned.
2. Confess we have sinned to God; for more serious sin, we should also confess them to our Church leaders.
3. Make any restitution necessary.
4. If we have truly repented, we will not do the same thing again.

This last step brings is the hardest for me... how do we keep from sinning again? We need to prepare to face temptation again, by fortifying our life.
 
2. Build strong forts.

In between the many battles, Captain Moroni directed fortification of the weakest cities. “He caused that they should build a breastwork of timbers upon the inner bank of the ditch; and they cast up dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timbers … until they had encircled the city … with a strong wall of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height.”

There are many ways to fortify our lives, one of them was mentioned at Stake Conference last weekend, by a young man preparing to serve a full time mission. He said something like this: "I try to keep moving so that Satan does not have a chance to catch me". What he meant is that he kept himself busy with good wholesome activities so that he did not have time to sin. What a wise young man!

The Lord has told us that “men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

“For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” (D&C 58:27–28.)

In his talk, president Monson mentions 4 things that can help us build fortifications:

•   Make covenants and receive ordinances for yourself. Then steadily and consistently work to provide ordinances in the temple for your own ancestors.

Share the gospel with nonmember or less-active family members or friends. Sharing these truths can bring a renewed enthusiasm into your life.     

 

Serve faithfully in all Church callings, especially home teaching and visiting teaching assignments. Don’t be just a 15-minutes-a-month home or visiting teacher. Rather, reach out to each individual member of the family. Get to know them personally. Be a real friend. Through acts of kindness, show them how very much you care for each of them.

 

Most important, serve the members of your own family. Make the spiritual development of your spouse and children a very high priority. Be attentive to the things you can do to help each one. Give freely of your time and attention.     

Each of these follow a common thread, they are focused on service. As we serve, Satan's temptations lose power over us.

In conclusion,  to each of us our Savior gives this loving invitation:

“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” (Matthew 11:28–30).

I should point out here, that the atonement of Christ is not only applicable to those that have sinned. There are many of us that will face challenges in life that are not the result of our poor choices. Maybe a relative is sick, or our children are not making the right choices in life. Whatever the source of our current challenges, we can trust in the Lord to bear our burdens, and bring comfort and peace to our souls. And I say this in His name, Amen.

Be ye doers of the word...

(Talk to be given in the Kenmore Ward, 1/19/2014)

Brother and sisters, I bring to you the love of the Stake Presidency. This year the Lord is hastening his work, and we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  We are promised a lot of blessings, because a lot is required of us. We are asked to set the expectations we have on ourselves, our families and in our units much higher. The Lord is asking us to do a lot, so He will qualify us to do a lot.

I came to the United States to study Computer Science and Mathematics. My first job at BYU was a little strange; I was a math tutor for the Athletics department. I realized that kids that played for the BYU athletics teams got private tutoring; and while that seemed a little strange to me at the time – I was happy to get a job on campus. I had a chance spend hours with some of the team members of the BYU basketball and football teams. I did not follow sports much, but one day I got a new guy assigned to me. He was a well-known “hero” around campus – the young star of BYU’s basketball team. His name was on the radio, etc.

In our first tutoring session, I noticed that he was pretty self-confident and felt like he could tackle any problem I would give him. I also noticed after the first few sessions that he never did his homework or the additional problems I had given him to work on.  A life lesson soon was apparent to him: “There is no royal path to mathematics”. No matter how smart a person is; a lot of homework and hard work is required to master the subject.

The Lord tells us:

 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a ^bglass:

 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

James 1:22–25

Those are very wise words, and the Lord often reminds us that we need to put to practice the principles we learn. “The doer of the work… shall be blessed”.

Sometimes we think it is sufficient to come and sit and listen to the speakers / teachers. After all sitting through 3 hours of church has to count for something… We may even say in our brains; as long as I believe with the principles taught, I must be on the straight and narrow. Right?

While we can receive invaluable inspiration and learning from sitting here, that is definitely not sufficient if it does not change our daily lives. We need to be doers of the word.

Before the holidays, we had a Stake Priesthood meeting. We went to the stake center, and once the meeting started, president Fox told us to split in pairs and visit our brothers and sisters. Those are my favorite meetings, because instead of just talking about serving, we can actually go out and serve. I appreciate the inspiration of our President in having us learn while doing.

In verse 27 of the same chapter of James it says:

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To ^bvisit the ^cfatherless and ^dwidows in their ^eaffliction, and to keep himself ^funspotted from ^gthe ^hworld.

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So how can be good doers of the word?

There are three principles that I would like to share with you:

1.       Have faith, and understand faith is a principle of action.

2.       Previous preparation prevents poor performance.

3.       Listen to the Spirit -- it will teach you what to do.

Have faith, and understand that faith is a principle of action.

 My parents are from Zacapa, the arid and warm part of Guatemala. Even though I did not live in a farm when I was a kid (By the time I was born my parents were both living in Guatemala City), I did learn a few elementary things about farm life. One of those was that you did not want to find yourself wearing red clothes close to a bull.

On one occasion there were two brothers that encountered a bull. The bull did not look very happy and started to push dirt with his right leg. The brothers we really scared; One of them decided he would kneel down right there and pray that the Lord would save him. The other one was a bit wiser and decided to pray while he was running. What do you think happened?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should just run – there are or will be many challenges in our life that will remind us that we cannot depend on the arm of the Flesh.

“The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh” (D&C 1:19).

And the Proverb:

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

When I was in High-School, I remember a friend of mine advising me “Study as if all depends on you, and pray as it all depends on the Lord.” That formula has been proven to work pretty well.

Previous Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

The 5 Ps: “Previous Preparation Prevents Poor Performance” is something I learned while serving in the Texas Houston Mission. We need to prepare now to be an excellent doer.

How can we be “doers” of the word, without first understanding the “word”? First of all we need to understand the principles of the gospel, the commandments and get a testimony of them.  The pattern: “Listen and Act” is common in the scriptures.

 2 Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my word.

 3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.

Doctrine & Covenants 11:2-3

You can serve others better if you prepare to serve them. How can you help heal someone if you don’t learn a thing or two about nursing? If I don’t know anything about cars, I won’t be of much help when my neighbor’s car stops working. Or if I don’t know anything about computers, I won’t be able to fix my friend’s computer.

There are so many ways we can help others, but the best doers have put a lot of effort to prepare themselves to be efficient doers.

How can you share a word or two of inspiration or guidance if you never read the scriptures?

But don’t worry, as President Uchtdorf says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now.”

Listen to the Spirit, it will teach you what to do

In the same chapter 11 of Doctrine and Covenants, we learn

 12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.

 13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;

 14 And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.

The most important preparation we can have is to learn to listen to the guidance of the Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to do the right thing. It will protect us. It provides direction to our lives.

Of course, there is a virtuous cycle going on here:

1.       As we DO (live the commandments / apply the gospel) we will be in better shape to LISTEN to the Holy Ghost.

2.       As we LISTEN to the Holy Ghost, we will be further guided to DO the right things.

Blessing of doing

We will be greatly blessed if we focus on action, on doing. Christ sure taught us many principles, but most of the time He did that by acting and living His Gospel. As we follow his example, we will receive many blessings, among them:

1.       It changes our focus from “me” to “them”. We will focus on the service of others, that will create a bonding with our fellow being, and will help us put things in perspective.

2.       We gain a testimony of the commandments, of service and of obedience.

3.       Living a life in accordance to the principles of the gospel will bring happiness in this life.

4.       Salvation and Eternal Life.

I testify that you will receive this and many blessing as you work hard on being not only hearers of the word, but excellent doers of the word of our Savior. I say this, in His name, Amen.

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Other experiences / thoughts

1.       Humble servants in Spanish ward, who even though were not “as well versed” in the gospel – put to practice the principles they understood.

2.       “Dog that barks does not bite”. Let’s spend more time out doing and less time talking. Let’s make sure our activities both at Church and in our families are meaningful and uplifting. What’s the meaning? How are we serving others? What are we learning? How is this preparing us to be better servants?