SEEK LEARNING BY FAITH.........

Ultimately, the responsibility to learn by faith and apply spiritual truth rests upon each of us individually. This is an increasingly serious and important responsibility in the world in which we do now and will yet live. What, how, and when we learn is supported by—but is not dependent upon—an instructor, a method of presentation, or a specific topic or lesson format.

Truly, one of the great challenges of mortality is to seek learning by faith. The Prophet Joseph Smith best summarizes the learning process and outcomes I am attempting to describe. In response to a request by

the Twelve Apostles for instruction, Joseph taught, “The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching” (History of the Church, 4:425).

And on another occasion, the Prophet Joseph explained that “reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God” (History of the Church, 6:50).

SEEK LEARNING BY FAITH, Elder David A. Bednar, Address to CES Religious Educators • February 3, 2006

Divorce........

The power of hope expressed in these examples is sometimes rewarded with repentance and reformation, but sometimes it is not. Personal circumstances vary greatly. We cannot control and we are not responsible for the choices of others, even when they impact us so painfully. I am sure the Lord loves and blesses husbands and wives who lovingly try to help spouses struggling with such deep problems as pornography or other addictive behavior or with the long-term consequences of childhood abuse.

Whatever the outcome and no matter how difficult your experiences, you have the promise that you will not be denied the blessings of eternal family relationships if you love the Lord, keep His commandments, and just do the best you can. When young Jacob “suffered afflictions and much sorrow” from the actions of other family members, Father Lehi assured him, “Thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain” (2 Nephi 2:1–2). Similarly, the Apostle Paul assured us that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).

Dallin H. Oaks, “Divorce,” Liahona, May 2007, 70–73

Forgiveness..............

“When it comes to the question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different.  It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing.  Many people seem to think it does.  They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that that there was really no cheating or no bullying.  But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive.  They keep on replying, “But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise. “ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise.  It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart-every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this.  In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.  As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over.  To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life-to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son-how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.”  We are offered forgiveness on no other terms.  To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.”

Falsely Measure Our Fortunes.....

How easy it is to falsely measure our fortunes.  When we have more money, health, honor, or pleasure, are we winning?  Not necessarily, for our ills and fortunes are tests, not grades.

And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things…And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.  But…he rebuked Peter, saying…

Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Even the chief apostle, Peter, early in his growth, found it hard to savor or value what was best.  To savor the wrong things guarantees unhappiness.  Suffering is a time to reeducate our hopes, our savoring reflexes.  It offers us an elevated spot above the landscape, a rare view, a chance at real wisdom.  But haste and self-pity can deny us the solemn and sweet fruit of wisdom, just when it is ripe.  In haste, we forget to reflect.  In self-pity, we ask the wrong questions.

To ask, Why does this have to happen to me?...will lead you into blind alleys,…Rather ask, What am I to do?  What am I to learn from this experience?

What am I to change?  Whom am I to help?

To learn from adversity, we need to slow down, kneel down, listen carefully, and consult the sacred books.  We even make our own sacred record, a book of remembrances and reflections.  We can consider the suffering of those around us.  We can think about him who bore all burdens.

In the day of adversity consider.

If we consider well, without haste and self-pity, the Father’s mind will at length whisper to ours.  We will see past the outward, we will be settled, even in the smallest holdings and poorest fortunes.  We will know that an outward loss opens the door to inner gain.

The emergency in your life may invite my life into action.  You will then be like the blind man who helped others to see.  If we consider well, we may see the mission in our submission.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.

Not far from our life’s lessons is the Teacher.  We endure his lessons well by considering them well, by trusting him, and living what he teaches.

Blessings of God.....

If I believe that it is hopeless to expect any improvement in my life, I am doubting the power of God.  If I believe I have reason for despair, I am confessing personal failure, for I DO have the power to change myself, and nothing can prevent it but my own unwillingness.

Never let me imagine that my satisfaction with life depends on what someone else may do.  This is a thinking error I can get rid of in ARP.  I can learn to avail myself of the immense, inexhaustible power of God, if I am willing to be continually conscious of God’s nearness.

Today’s Reminder
   I am not at the mercy of a cruel or capricious fate, for I have the power to determine what my life will be.  I am not alone.  I have the power to determine what my life will be.  I am not alone.  I have the confidence and faith of all ARP to support my efforts, as it is expressed in the loving concern and help of the friends in my group.  I am not alone, because God is with me whenever I make myself aware of Him.

       “To be without hope is to deny the wonderful possibilities of the future and the blessings of God”

Parents Love.........

Although we bring personal weaknesses to our parenting that may provide real opposition for our children, we do not need to feel that all is lost. We remember that our Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning. (See Abr. 2:8.) He knew beforehand the ignorance, the failings, the confusion, and the spiritual infirmities of each of his children— including those who would become parents. Knowing all these things, the Lord prepared the gospel plan and allowed us the experiences of mortality, with certain compensations and blessings and talents available within the child or along life’s path that would help the child as he or she struggled with opposition. God provides ample opportunity to learn and recover from the opposition (for us and our loved ones). (See 2 Ne. 2:11, 15; Ether 12:27, 37.)

Elder Holland...Personal Faith..............

“My appeal is that you nurture your own physical and spiritual strength so that you have a deep reservoir of faith to call upon when tasks or challenges or demands of one kind or another come. Pray a little more, study a little more, shut out the noise and shut down the clamor, enjoy nature, call down personal revelation, search your soul, and search the heavens for the testimony that led our pioneer parents. Then, when you need to reach down inside a little deeper and a little farther to face life and do your work, you will be sure there is something down there to call upon.

When you have your own faith, you are prepared to bless your family.

Faith to Answer the Call,  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, July, 2011