Sometime in the middle of the month, I was asked to speak in Church on April 25th. Although it was a busy time to prepare a talk, I was also grateful to have something to focus on while I was in the middle of the chaos that moving brings. I could pack boxes and think about prayer or be driving between places and ponder about standing up...I was pretty nervous about it--more than usual I think, because it is a "new branch" for us and it was my first talk in that setting.
We meet in the beautiful chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was nice because I was able to share the link with my family and my dad was able to watch it from his home. Here is the talk (there will be no test.)
STAND IN HOLY PLACES…INCLUDING INSIDE YOUR OWN SKIN…
AND BE NOT MOVED!
A father and
his young son visited a local toy store.
While there, they came upon a bozo bop bag—you might not recognize it by
its formal name, but it is the toy that is painted like a clown on an
inflatable bag and when you knock it down, it will pop back up. After his son had punched it a few times, the
father asked- “Why do you think it pops back up?” The son thought for a moment and then said,
“I don’t know. Maybe he is always standing
up inside.” This story was shared in a conference talk in Elder Gary
Sabin. That concept of “standing up
inside” struck me. Are you always
“standing up inside” even with life and its frequent trials and
complications? Hold on to that concept,
while I explain how this talk came to be.
The day
after President Boushley asked me to speak, he sent me an email with a
conference talk attached—
President Monson Awesome
The title “Stand in Holy
Places” Even as I clicked the link, I
started to think about what I could talk about-- the temple, our chapels, our
homes as holy places.
Then I read the sentence that the
editors put at the top of the talk-
“Communication with our Father
in Heaven—including our prayers to Him and His inspiration to us—is necessary
in order for us to weather the storms and trials of life.”
Oh, the talk is about prayers and trials and
afflictions. I have experienced
those.
I began to read the talk—President Monson starts
by talking about the wickedness of the world and reminded Saints to keep the
Ten Commandments.
A talk about obedience???
It wasn’t until the fifth sentence from the end
of the talk that the words of the title were quoted from Doctrine and Covenants
87:8:
“Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved.”
Stand
in holy places, prayer, trials, obedience—I wasn’t sure what President Boushley
intended me to talk about. I am still
not sure, but I will share what I have prepared. I have titled my talk-
“Stand
in Holy Places Including inside Your Own Skin And Be Not Moved.” There is a related scripture to that; I Corinthians
3:16:
Know ye not that ye
are the atemple of
God, and that the bSpirit of
God dwelleth cin you?
I am going to share a personal story where I learned a bit
about standing and not being moved.
It was in my sixth-grade
math class. We had taken a math test and
as was common at that time, we had switched papers around and were grading a
classmate’s paper while the teacher read the correct answers. A section of the test included several
true-false problems where you decided if the completed problem was correct or
not. Number 16—I have never forgotten
the number—the teacher said false and continued on. I however knew that I had marked true on my
test and was trying to redo the problem in my head. It had to be correct—so around problem 20, I
raised my hand and asked the teacher to give me the answer to number 16
again. She looked at her paper and then
said, “I said that it was false.” “Really?’ Then she did something
unexplainable. She said, “Let’s take a
vote.” How many people said true—a little over half the class raised their
hands. “How many false” the rest voted
for false. Then she said, “I want you
all to redo the problem and then we will take another vote.” What—we are voting for the answer? That is the great thing about math—if you
apply the correct principles, you get a correct answer. The second vote was about 25% for true, the
rest for false. Again, the teacher had
us redo the problem and be prepared to vote a third time. This time only 4 of us voted true. And again, the teacher instructed the whole
class to redo the problem. I kept
looking at the problem, but I couldn’t see anyway that it wasn’t true. It was the correct answer. But I also knew that I might be the only one
that voted true in the next vote. Maybe
I should simply vote false and move on.
Afterall, it was just one single problem. But I knew it was true. This time, the teacher asked for everyone
that was voting false to vote. As I
thought everyone voted false. When she
asked for those who were voting for true, I was the only one who raised my
hand. Then the teacher winked at me and
the boy sitting next to me flung his hand in the air. She turned to him and said, “Patrick, why are
you voting true?” “Because I saw you
wink at Judy and then I knew that she was right.” And then our teacher said that the answer was
true and how important it was for us to not be swayed by others when we know
what was right. I don’t know why my math
teacher took time during grading test to teach this lesson—but I have been
forever grateful. In my life, I had many
times when I needed to stand alone and be not moved for things much more
important than a math problem. I could
stand then because I had learned to stand unmoved that day in my 6th
grade math class.
So how do we learn to
stand and be not moved? Let me share
four important concepts. See if they
sound familiar?
First--Obedience: I had
confidence to “stand and be not moved” about the math problem because I was
confident in the rules of math that applied to the problem. I did them “exactly right” so I knew that I
was right.
Our Heavenly Father has
instructed us through his prophets and through the scriptures to be obedient to
His commandments. The importance of our
obedience is not simply for us to check off the boxes of outward observances,
but for us to be changed on the inside to become more Christlike in who we are
and draw closer to our Heavenly Parents.
If you have been listening to conferences or followed the development of
the Church, this emphasis of changing and becoming Christlike is very familiar
to you. It is the whole direction of the
Church.
In our mission assignment,
we interview mission presidents and their companions about their service. Not surprisingly the topic of obedience is
often addressed as they talk about teaching their young missionaries. One mission president stated that their theme
was “Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.” As we more closely align ourselves with God’s
commandments in an exact way, we can have miracles in our lives. We can stand and be unmoved during the trials
and difficulties in our life because we will have confidence IN the Lord—that
He loves us and will help us and support us.
Exact obedience breeds the same confidence in the direction you are
headed that I had about basic math principles in that sixth-grade class.
2. Prayer—us seeking Him and then listening when
the answers come—Throughout the scriptures we are entreated to “Ask, to Knock,
to pray, to Come!” It is clear that God
wants us to communicate to Him and He can and will respond. It is through these interactions that our
Heavenly Father can guide us through the trials and strengthen us. It is
through prayer that we can start the repentance process and begin to remove the
debris in our lives as instructed in the last conference. Only He is completely
aware of the road ahead for each of us and through our prayers we can be
directed where to make changes and how they should be made.
Teaching the story of the rich man who asked Jesus “What lack
I yet?” President Harold B. Lee taught, “Every one of
us, if we would reach perfection, must [at] one time ask ourselves this
question, ‘What lack I yet?’”5
Maybe daily would be helpful as we
seek to stand in holy places and be not moved.
3. Stand in Holy Places—As we are seeking to
stand in holy places and be not moved—we need to make sure that we are going to
holy places—attending Church meetings when possible, going to the temple when
that special opportunity is again available to us, and making sure that our
homes are places that are peaceful and safe—places where the Spirit can dwell. We need to avoid places where the Spirit
can’t be because of inappropriate behaviors, music, images, or other things
which distract from the Spirit.
While in our homes, we
need to make sure that we are wise in our selection of music, books we read,
shows that we watch, so that we can feel comfortable there. I really hope that BYU football games make
the cut! Our homes should reflect our values and beliefs. We have been encouraged to have pictures of
the temple in our home—but art in a variety of forms can uplift us, calm us, remind
us of important people or events, or make us happy. Seek for art that brings those positive
feelings to your home. A member of the
Church and an artist once stated the importance of art in our home —I am
paraphrasing “The piles of daily living are never so deep that they will cover
the beautiful art on your walls.” I
loved that and found that treasured art has been a great blessing in my life.
Of course, this is not a
complete list of holy places—nature, important historical and religious sites,
graveyards, bedsides, or sitting in a car in the driveway talking to a
friend—all these can be holy places.
Seek them, cultivate them, notice them.
4. And don’t forget—to seek to be holy on the
inside as well! Of course, the first
three things I mentioned will all help with that—obedience, prayer, and being
in holy places. But we have to allow
those things to not just be outward signs but allow them to change us on the
inside—making us holy.
Two aspects of making our
insides a “holy place” are learning to improve our thoughts and cultivating the
ability for stillness. As an aside—I
want to clarify that sometimes people have difficulty managing their thoughts
and feelings due to a variety of mental health issues such as anxiety or
depression or many others. If you find
that your thoughts and feelings often prevent you from doing your daily tasks
of life or meeting typical challenges, then you should seek professional help
from a counselor, a doctor, or other trained people.
Now Researchers claim that
we have between 20,000 to 30,000 thoughts a day—about 70-80% are the same each
day—meeting daily tasks like brushing our teeth or driving to work—the rest is
like our daily playlist. What tune do your thoughts play? Are they generally positive and upbeat,
supportive and confident? Or do you find yourself criticizing yourself, worried
about past failures, or that “no one loves you?” Do you follow the scripture admonition “to
let virtue garnish your thoughts unceasingly?”
Pay attention to your thoughts.
When you notice a negative thought, distract yourself with a positive
thought or feeling. For example, “No one likes me.”—you notice it, but then you
choose to remind yourself of close relationships you do have. It seems like it is too simple—it is actually
difficult to make changes in your playlist, but by noticing and replacing, you
can make a new track. Reading scriptures
and good literature, serving and thinking about others, listening to good music,
repeating a favorite scripture—all of these help you as you strive to be holy
on the inside.
Cultivate the ability to
be still—The scriptures tell us that God speaks in a still small voice. In order to hear that voice, sometimes we
need to be quiet or at least still inside of ourselves. The world calls this state- Mindfulness . There
are many ways to find a place of stillness inside. You have to figure out what works for
you. Prayer, pondering, and listening to
the Spirit—these are practices we have been taught in the Church for a very
long time. These can help us find that
stillness we need to rest our souls and allow the Lord to speak to us. One simple practice that helps me is to take
deep breaths—in through the nose, out through the mouth—slowly, deeply,
noticing the air going in and out. This
leads to physical changes in your body that calms it and slows it down. I try to do this several times a day
including before I have personal prayers and before I read the scriptures—a
preparation for changing from the temporal to the spiritual. What helps you be still?
I love the scripture in Psalms 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.
So, there is the
list: Exact obedience, prayer to repent
and change, go to holy places and create one in your home, seek to cleanse your
inner self by improving your thoughts, and cultivating stillness. These are tools which when used can provide
you with the principles of life which can help you stand in holy
places-including inside of yourself- and be unmoved –because you will be as
confident in the Lord and His principles as I was in that sixth-grade class
about math rules. Then when the winds
come and the rain falls, you will be like the bozo doll—you might fall down,
but you are able to pop back up, because you are “always standing up
inside.” My favorite scripture sums this
up: Doctrine and Covenants 123:17
Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us acheerfully bdo all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the csalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.
testimony
Postscript for those who like boring details- I don't know if I explained that years ago I never wrote out my talks completely, but would make an outline which I used to present the talk. I would keep those outlines, but one time I was reviewing one and came upon the statement: "share story about the ________ (I can't remember now even what story was mentioned)" I had no idea what the reference was talking about. Here was a personal story that I thought enough about to use as an example in a talk and now several years later, I didn't remember it at all. I talked to my mom about it and she mentioned that is one of the reasons she wrote out her talks at least after she gave them. I did that a few times and then just started writing them out before I gave them. It took a bit of time to adjust to presenting with the completed script rather than an outline. Anyway, this whole explanation is to explain that is why quotes and scriptures are in different colors or bigger font because those are things that I am reading during the talk so I want to be able to find them quickly on the page.
No comments:
Post a Comment