Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood

The VT message for April is the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood.

It states, “The more we as sisters understand that the oath and covenant of the priesthood applies to us personally, the more we will embrace the blessings and promises of the priesthood.” It also said, “The blessings and promises of the oath and covenant of the priesthood pertain to both men and women.”

This is a topic I need to learn a lot more about, so I did a little pondering and research about how the oath and covenant of the priesthood applies to other women and to me. I looked up some things on lds.org, including this explanation:

“We receive the holy priesthood by an “oath and covenant.” This means that Heavenly Father gives us His oath that we can have the power and blessing of the priesthood if we covenant with Him to magnify our callings, be faithful in keeping the commandments, and live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/ap/ordinances-covenants/covenant?lang=eng)

While this can certainly apply to young men as they are ordained to the offices of the priesthood, I think everything in there can apply to women, too—as we magnify callings, keep the commandments, and follow God, we invite the power of the priesthood into our lives.

Growing up with divorced parents and my father having left the Church, I HATED the Primary song, “Love Is Spoken Here” as it talked about a home being blessed with priesthood power—because I thought my home WASN’T because we didn’t have a Priesthood holder in our home. It’s only in the psat few years that I’ve come to relize that my home was blessed by priesthood power because my mother honored the covenants she had made and lived a faithful life and invited that power into our home.

Men may be the ones authorized to use the priesthood, but as Elder Russell M. Nelson said, “Incredible blessings flow from this oath and covenant to worthy men, women, and children in all the world.” (https://www.lds.org/youth/article/ready-to-receive-the-melchizedek-priesthood?lang=eng)

President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “The blessings of the priesthood are not confined to men alone. These blessings are also poured out upon our wives and daughters and upon all the faithful women of the Church. These good sisters can prepare themselves, by keeping the commandments and by serving in the Church, for the blessings of the house of the Lord. The Lord offers to his daughters every spiritual gift and blessing that can be obtained by his sons.” (https://www.lds.org/youth/article/ready-to-receive-the-melchizedek-priesthood?lang=eng)

Sister Linda K. Burton invited us to memorize the oath and covenant of the priesthood, found in D&C 84:33-44. I invite you to read these verses and consider them thoughtfully.

I Am a Child of God

For the May visiting teaching message, we get to choose any talk from the April General Conference. I ended up looking at the entire first session:

Elder Hallstrom gave a talk called “I Am a Child of God.” He said while most of us good sing, without seeing the lyrics or music, the song, “the critical question is, do we really know it? Do we know it in our mind and in our heart and in our soul? Is our heavenly parentage our first and most profound identity?”

He also said, “We live in a world that can cause us to forget who we really are. The more distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually, then ignore, and then forget our connection with God.

“In today’s world… it is essential that our preeminent identity is as a child of God. Knowing that will allow our faith to flourish, will motivate our continual repentance, and will provide the strength to “be steadfast and immovable” throughout our mortal journey.

So, how do you know it? How does that become part of your identity?

I think that some of the other speakers provided answers to that. President Eyring, who gave the first talk at General Conference spoke about the parable of the sower and how we can continue to both love God and feel His love—and he said that one thing that can help us is our approach to General Conference: “Today my message to us all is that there will be a precious opportunity in the next few days to choose to have our hearts softened and to receive and nourish the seed. The seed is the word of God, and it will be poured out on all of us who listen, watch, and read the proceedings of this conference. The music, the talks, and the testimonies have been prepared by servants of God who have sought diligently for the Holy Ghost to guide them in their preparation. They have prayed longer and more humbly as the days of the conference have approached.

They have prayed to have the power to encourage you to make the choices that will create in your heart a more fertile ground for the good word of God to grow and be fruitful. If you listen with the Spirit, you will find your heart softened, your faith strengthened, and your capacity to love the Lord increased.

Your choice to pray with full purpose of heart will transform your experience in the conference sessions and in the days and months that follow.”

Sister Mary R. Durham spoke about the Holy Ghost, specifically in relation to children, but the things that she recommended we do to teach our children about the Holy Ghost are all things we could for ourselves, too, and would draw us nearer to God. Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke about priesthood keys, which make it possible for us to return to God, and Elder Steven E. Snow talked about being humble. Examining each of these, we can find ways that we can remember that we are children of God.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan talked about forgiveness. He said, “Even though we may be a victim once, we need not be a victim twice by carrying the burden of hate, bitterness, pain, resentment, or even revenge. We can forgive, and we can be free!” One thought I had with this is that often that second hurt involves not only being hurt through our feelings of pain, resentment, etc. toward the person who hurt us but also toward God for “allowing” that person to hurt us—or, in our view, not sufficiently punishing them for it. But if we can forgive, we can get rid of not only our resentment toward the offender but also any that we might have toward God.

Elder Renlund’s whole talk was about coming closer to Christ; he talked about how we can overcome feelings of entitlement and feel closer to the Savior, particularly through the sacrament. He said, “No matter where you stand in your relationship to God, I invite you to draw nearer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Benefactors and Givers of all that is good. I invite you to attend sacrament meeting each week and partake of the holy emblems of the Savior’s body and blood. I invite you to feel God’s nearness as He is made known to you, as He was to the disciples of old, in the “breaking of [the] bread.”

As you do, I promise that you will feel nearer to God. Natural tendencies to childish whining, disgruntled entitlement, and derisive skepticism will dissipate. Those sentiments will be replaced by feelings of greater love and gratitude for Heavenly Father’s gift of His Son. As we draw closer to God, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will come into our lives. And, as with the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we will find that the Savior has been nearby all along.”

Marriage Is Ordained of God

The visiting teaching message for February is "Marriage Is Ordained of God."

What does ordained mean? Decreed, appointed, determined, prescribed

“Prescribed” particularly stood out to me. When we got to a doctor and get a prescription, I think we expect they are going to give us the best possible prescription. They’re not going to say, “Oh, well, this one might kind of work”; they’re going to give us the tried and true prescription for whatever our ailment may be. 

While our doctors are subject to human fallacies, God is not—and we can trust that what He has prescribed or ordained is what is best. And when it comes to marriage and family, God has ordained marriage between a man and a woman and placed family at the center of His plan.

I love the Primary song “The Family Is of God,” particularly the chorus:

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

God has ordained marriage between a man and a woman and placed families at the center of His plan because He loves us—and because He knows that this is what helps us become like Him and what is what is best for us eternally and will bring us eternal joy. Much more than just writing us a prescription for a temporary ailment, He has prescribed the very plan that leads to Godhood, eternal life, eternal families, and eternal joy—and His motivation is that He loves us and wants us to be happy forever.

Media Choices

This is a talk I gave on October 19th--but I don't know if it was in 2007 or 2008.

Good morning, brothers and sisters. I’d like to to start today by telling you a story that I’ll call “The Parable of the Green Goggles.” Picture, if you will, a pair of green safety gogglese—not just the safety glasses but the safety goggles which cover up about half of your face. They’re ugly, right? Well, I actually have to wear them at work, usually for at least a couple hours every day. When I first found out I had to wear them, as you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy about that because they’re ugly and they don’t look good. But I had to wear them, so I did. And I slowly reached the point where I didn’t’ mind them so much—oh who cares anyway? And hey, green’s my favorite color, so they’re not as bad as they could be.

Then one day, I caught sight of myself in a mirror and realized something was wrong. I looked BAD. So I kept looking, trying to figure out why I looked so bad that day—and I realized what was wrong was that I didn’t have my goggles on. Somehow, over time, I had reached the point where I thought I looked better with the goggles on than I did without them.

So, I was a little upset—and never wanted to wear them again because really, no one should ever think she looks better in those goggles than she does without them. Trust me, they’re ugly and not an improvement to anyone’s looks. Later on, though, I realized that the green goggles had taught me a valuable lesson. Our perceptions of what is normal and what is right are changed by what we are exposed to, and then our desires actually change with our perceptions. I had gone from hating the goggles, to tolerating them, to actually, subconsciously, wanting to wear them.

Like my exposure to the green goggles, our exposure to the media can change our perceptions and our desires. Speaking of the media, President Hinckley said, “Life is better than that which is so frequently portrayed. Nature is better than that. Love is better than that.”

Life is better, nature is better, and love is better than what we see in the media. We need to be incredibly careful about what we watch, listen to, and read, because if we let our perceptions change, we lose sight of what life really can be like. We lose sight of what we’re working for, and we lose our motivation to work for it. We settle for less, and anytime we settle for less than what the Lord wants to give us, we let Satan win. Satan doesn’t need us all to be addicted to pornography or to go commit adultery to destroy us; he just needs us to settle for less than the celestial.

So, how do we keep from settling for less? I think the first thing we need to do is recognize that we are not immune. All of us are affected by the media. The leaders of the Church have warned us repeatedly about the dangers.

President Monson has said, “Whatever you read, listen to, or watch makes an impression on you.”

Elder Ballard warned, “The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.”

Elder Holland said, “What were in my generation carefree moments of moviegoing, TV watching, and magazine reading have now, with the additional availability of VCRs, the Internet, and personal computers, become amusements fraught with genuine moral danger. I put the word amusements in italics. Did you know that the original Latin meaning of the word amusement is “a diversion of the mind intended to deceive”? Unfortunately that is largely what “amusements” in our day have again become in the hands of the arch deceiver.

“Recently I read an author who said: “Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. [That is because] there is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” ⁵ I believe that to be absolutely true, and no such claiming and counterclaiming anywhere is more crucial and conspicuous than that being waged for the minds and morals, the personal purity of the young.”

Please notice that none of these quotes condemned all use of media. In all of the reading I did to prepare this talk, I found nothing saying all media is bad. However, our leaders unanimously warn us about making appropriate choices. And they give us several guidelines for making those choices.

One guideline we can go by is Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ counsel from his talk, “Good, Better, Best.” He said, “Most of us have more things expected of us than we can possibly do. As breadwinners, as parents, as Church workers and members, we face many choices on what we will do with our time and other resources.

“We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.”

He also added, “As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best.”

We’re not just choosing what is good enough; we need to be selecting what is best—both in the content of the media we use and in the amount of time that we devote to it.

Another guideline we can follow is “When in doubt, kick it out.” When I was younger, I played soccer a lot, and that phrase is one that my first soccer coach taught us. “When in doubt, kick it out.” And preferably, kick it a long way out so it takes the other time awhile to get the ball and gives your team some time to reorganize. When we’re making our media choices, if we’re not sure about something, let’s kick it out—and kick it a long way out. We probably won’t miss it anyway, and if we do, we don’t miss it forever. President Monson said, “Don’t be afraid to walk out of a movie, turn off a television set, or change a radio station if what’s being presented does not meet your Heavenly Father’s standards. In short, if you have any question about whether a particular movie, book, or other form of entertainment is appropriate, don’t see it, don’t read it, don’t participate.”

One final guideline I’d like to share comes from Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy in his article The Message: Mushrooms, Music, Movies, and Magazines: “In the very closing verses of the Book of Mormon, Moroni extends the invitation to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moro. 10:32; emphasis added). The real question is not whether heavy metal is worse than hard rock or whether certain TV programs are worse than certain movies. If we wish to avoid being poisoned spiritually, we must ask: Is this music, movie, TV show, or literature ungodly?” We need to deny ourselves of all ungodliness.

Let’s be careful—so careful—in our media choices. Let’s find what’s best and not settle for less. Let’s be aware of how e can and are being affected by the media, and let’s remember what Elder Holland said: our leisure time is a battleground. Satan is fighting against us, so let’s fight back and not let any song, any TV show, any movie, or any book keep us from becoming who the Lord wants us to be and receiving what He wants to give us.

As we seek His help, the Lord will guide us and strengthen us in making our media choices. He loves us, He laid down His life for us, and He will help us to have the sort of life He has—which is way better than anything the world has to offer. As President Hinckley said, life is better, nature is better, and love is better than what we find in the media. If we will follow the Lord, He will show us how beautiful life really is, how beautiful love really is, and how to have that beauty in our lives. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Be of Good Cheer

I gave this lesson to my Relief Society in April 2009, the last lesson I taught in Relief Society, since I got married shortly afterwards and left my YSA ward for a married ward and haven't been called to be a Relief Society instructor since then.

Be of Good Cheer—President Thomas S. Monson

Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith.

President Monson starts off his talk by mentioning some of the calamities in the world—the problems with the economy, moral decline, wars, etc. Then he reminds us that we are to have joy.

As we look at these next few quotes, let’s see if we can pick out HOW we can have joy even in troubled times.

President Monson said, “It would be easy to become discouraged and cynical about the future—or even fearful of what might come—if we allowed ourselves to dwell only on that which is wrong in the world and in our lives. Today, however, I’d like us to turn our thoughts and our attitudes away from the troubles around us and to focus instead on our blessings as members of the Church. The Apostle Paul declared, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” ¹

What stood out to me here were the words “allowed” and “turn.” We need to remember that it is our choice. We can make a conscious decision what to focus on.

President Monson also said, “How might we have joy in our lives, despite all that we may face? Again from the scriptures: “Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.” ³

For me, that scripture is about recognizing that the Lord is with us; He is the source of our joy, and if we don’t focus on Him and realize His love for us, we’re not going to have joy in our lives.

President Monson also said, “The history of the Church in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, is replete with the experiences of those who have struggled and yet who have remained steadfast and of good cheer as they have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of their lives. This attitude is what will pull us through whatever comes our way. It will not remove our troubles from us but rather will enable us to face our challenges, to meet them head on, and to emerge victorious.”

What struck me here was the phrase “they have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center in their lives.” We need to make sure that the Gospel isn’t an afterthought but instead that it is the core of who we are and how we live. In order to have happiness, we have to follow the plan of happiness, and that means that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in our hearts and minds, that it’s central to our entire existence.

President Monson went on to share three stories from church history with us.

First:

“My maternal great-grandparents Gibson and Cecelia Sharp Condie lived in Clackmannan, Scotland. Their families were engaged in coal mining. They were at peace with the world, surrounded by relatives and friends, and were housed in fairly comfortable quarters in a land they loved. Then they listened to the message of the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, to the depths of their very souls, were converted. They heard the call to gather to Zion and knew they must answer that call.

“Sometime around 1848, they sold their possessions and prepared for the hazardous voyage across the mighty Atlantic Ocean. With five small children, they boarded a sailing vessel, all their worldly possessions in one tiny trunk. They traveled 3,000 miles (4,800 km) across the waters—eight long, weary weeks on a treacherous sea, watching and waiting, with poor food, poor water, and no help beyond the length and breadth of that small ship.

“In the midst of this soul-trying situation, one of their young sons became ill. There were no doctors, no stores at which they might purchase medicine to ease his suffering. They watched, they prayed, they waited, and they wept as day by day his condition deteriorated. When his eyes were at last closed in death, their hearts were torn asunder. To add to their grief, the laws of the sea must be obeyed. Wrapped in a canvas weighed down with iron, the little body was consigned to a watery grave. As they sailed away, only those parents knew the crushing blow dealt to wounded hearts. ⁴ However, with a faith born of their deep conviction of the truth and their love of the Lord, Gibson and Cecelia held on. They were comforted by the words of the Lord: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” ⁵

What does this story teach us about being of good cheer?

The fact that they “to the depths of their very souls, were converted” stood out to me. Again, I think this relates to making the Gospel the center of our lives. We need to let the message of the Gospel penetrate our souls.

Another thing I got out of the story was a reminder of what the Lord has done for us. He has overcome the world. Every trial, every struggle, that comes our way, He knows the solution for. He has paid the price so that all things can work together for our good.

The second story is about Meli Mulipola, a blind Polynesian man:

“Brother Mulipola’s vision had been normal until a fateful day when, while working on a pineapple plantation, light turned suddenly to darkness and day became perpetual night. He was depressed and despondent until he learned the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His life was brought into compliance with the teachings of the Church, and he once again felt hope and joy.

“Brother Mulipola and his loved ones had made a long voyage, having learned that one who held the priesthood of God was visiting among the islands of the Pacific. He sought a blessing, and it was my privilege, along with another who held the Melchizedek Priesthood, to provide that blessing to him. As we finished, I noted that tears were streaming from his sightless eyes, coursing down his brown cheeks and tumbling finally upon his native dress. He dropped to his knees and prayed: “O God, Thou knowest I am blind. Thy servants have blessed me that my sight might return. Whether in Thy wisdom I see light or whether I see darkness all the days of my life, I will be eternally grateful for the truth of Thy gospel, which I now see and which provides the light of my life.”

“He rose to his feet and, smiling, thanked us for providing the blessing. He then disappeared into the still of the night. Silently he came; silently he departed. But his presence I shall never forget. I reflected upon the message of the Master: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” ⁶

What does this story teach us about being of good cheer?

I think we learn that we need to be able to recognize the blessings that we have because of the Gospel, rather than demanding blessings from the Gospel. He did come seeking a blessing, but then, whether or not he ever received his sight again, he knew that he already was blessed because he had the Gospel in his life. And we all have that blessing as well, and when we realize that, we can be of good cheer.

The last story:

“In about March 1946, less than a year after the end of the war, Ezra Taft Benson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, accompanied by Frederick W. Babbel, was assigned a special postwar tour of Europe for the express purpose of meeting with the Saints, assessing their needs, and providing assistance to them. Elder Benson and Brother Babbel later recounted, from a testimony they heard, the experience of a Church member who found herself in an area no longer controlled by the government under which she had resided.

“She and her husband had lived an idyllic life in East Prussia. Then had come the second great world war within their lifetimes. Her beloved young husband was killed during the final days of the frightful battles in their homeland, leaving her alone to care for their four children.

“The occupying forces determined that the Germans in East Prussia must go to Western Germany to seek a new home. The woman was German, and so it was necessary for her to go. The journey was over a thousand miles (1,600 km), and she had no way to accomplish it but on foot. She was allowed to take only such bare necessities as she could load into her small wooden-wheeled wagon. Besides her children and these meager possessions, she took with her a strong faith in God and in the gospel as revealed to the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.

“She and the children began the journey in late summer. Having neither food nor money among her few possessions, she was forced to gather a daily subsistence from the fields and forests along the way. She was constantly faced with dangers from panic-stricken refugees and plundering troops.

“As the days turned into weeks and the weeks to months, the temperatures dropped below freezing. Each day, she stumbled over the frozen ground, her smallest child—a baby—in her arms. Her three other children struggled along behind her, with the oldest—seven years old—pulling the tiny wooden wagon containing their belongings. Ragged and torn burlap was wrapped around their feet, providing the only protection for them, since their shoes had long since disintegrated. Their thin, tattered jackets covered their thin, tattered clothing, providing their only protection against the cold.

“Soon the snows came, and the days and nights became a nightmare. In the evenings she and the children would try to find some kind of shelter—a barn or a shed—and would huddle together for warmth, with a few thin blankets from the wagon on top of them.

“She constantly struggled to force from her mind overwhelming fears that they would perish before reaching their destination.

“And then one morning the unthinkable happened. As she awakened, she felt a chill in her heart. The tiny form of her three-year-old daughter was cold and still, and she realized that death had claimed the child. Though overwhelmed with grief, she knew that she must take the other children and travel on. First, however, she used the only implement she had—a tablespoon—to dig a grave in the frozen ground for her tiny, precious child.

“Death, however, was to be her companion again and again on the journey. Her seven-year-old son died, either from starvation or from freezing or both. Again her only shovel was the tablespoon, and again she dug hour after hour to lay his mortal remains gently into the earth. Next, her five-year-old son died, and again she used her tablespoon as a shovel.

Her despair was all consuming. She had only her tiny baby daughter left, and the poor thing was failing. Finally, as she was reaching the end of her journey, the baby died in her arms. The spoon was gone now, so hour after hour she dug a grave in the frozen earth with her bare fingers. Her grief became unbearable. How could she possibly be kneeling in the snow at the graveside of her last child? She had lost her husband and all her children. She had given up her earthly goods, her home, and even her homeland.

“In this moment of overwhelming sorrow and complete bewilderment, she felt her heart would literally break. In despair she contemplated how she might end her own life, as so many of her fellow countrymen were doing. How easy it would be to jump off a nearby bridge, she thought, or to throw herself in front of an oncoming train.

“And then, as these thoughts assailed her, something within her said, “Get down on your knees and pray.” She ignored the prompting until she could resist it no longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in her entire life:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I do not know how I can go on. I have nothing left—except my faith in Thee. I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of my soul, an overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express adequately my love for Him. I know that because He suffered and died, I shall live again with my family; that because He broke the chains of death, I shall see my children again and will have the joy of raising them. Though I do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we may be reunited as a family and return—together—to Thee.”

“When she finally reached her destination of Karlsruhe, Germany, she was emaciated. Brother Babbel said that her face was a purple-gray, her eyes red and swollen, her joints protruding. She was literally in the advanced stages of starvation. In a Church meeting shortly thereafter, she bore a glorious testimony, stating that of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected so that we might live again. She testified that she knew if she continued faithful and true to the end, she would be reunited with those she had lost and would be saved in the celestial kingdom of God. ⁸

If we’re going to be of good cheer, we have to learn to submit our will to the Father’s even when it’s heartbreaking. We have to trust that His plan works and that He will keep His promises.

One thing that I noticed as I listened to President Monson give this talk was that he didn’t tell us the end—he didn’t tell us about some glorious blessing these people received as a result of their faithfulness, something that happens to help them be of good cheer. We don’t find out happens to the family once they reach Zion, or if the man received his sight again, and we don’t know what happened to the poor widow and mother. I think that was intentional—because it’s not about the end. It’s about the journey, about having faith now, about letting that faith grow and sustain us so that we can be of good cheer now. It’s about knowing now that the Atonement is bigger than anything that can happen to us. Yes, it will be glorious later, but the Lord wants us to learn how to be of good cheer now.

President Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth, and this message is the Lord’s will for all of us. The Lord has provided the way; He has overcome the world, not just so we can have joy someday but so that our lives can having meaning now and we can be of good cheer now. I also want to testify that the Lord loves us beyond our understanding. He will be with us, and as we will put our faith in Him, that faith will buoy us up and our futures will be bright. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.