For an institute class on the teachings of the living prophets, I've been compiling a spreadsheet that shows how many times particular Gospel topics are covered in each General Conference. For example, in the April 2000 General Conference, there were three talks that focused on the Atonement, so if you start at the top of the column labeled "Apr'00" and follow that down to the row labeled "Atonement," you'll find a number three. When the spreadsheet is completed, I hope that it'll show me trends of changes in what the General Authorities thought was important to talk about at the time. As times change, pertinent General Conference topics would change, too.
Yet, according to what I've recorded so far, there are some things that don't change. Some topics, such as Faith, Family, the Atonement, and Jesus Christ, come up every General Conference, or at least almost every General Conference. This tells me that, despite changing times, there are a few constants that we can rely on and a few things that will always be important, even as other things wax and wane in importance. Faith will always be the first principle of the Gospel. Families will always be central to God's plan. The Atonement will always be the greatest thing that ever happened to us. And Jesus will always be the Savior of the world and the leader of this church. These are eternal truths. We hear about these things every General Conference because they're always that important. Other topics may come and go, but these topics, along with a few others, will always come up in General Conference, because these are some of the most important things we could ever learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment