During the Sunday Morning session of the April 2017 General Conference, Elder Yoon Hwan Choi gave a talk titled That phrase came from some advice Elder Choi's father gave him a few months after he was baptised. Elder Choi said:
One day, a few months after my baptism, I heard some members criticizing each other in church. I was very disappointed. I went home and told my father that maybe I should not go to church anymore. It was difficult to see members criticize others like that. After listening, my father taught me that the gospel had been restored and it is perfect but members are not yet, neither himself nor me. He firmly said, “Do not lose your faith because of the people around you, but build a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Don’t look around, look up!”This is good advice for many reasons. People aren't perfect, but Jesus Christ and His gospel are. People may let you down, but Jesus Christ and His gospel won't. We're not trying to be as good as or better than other people; we're trying to become like Jesus Christ. There are many reasons to "look around," like looking for opportunities to serve others and making sure they're okay, but there are many more reasons to look up. We look up for inspiration, for aid, and for instruction. We look up to see examples after which to model our behavior and to remind ourselves of where we're ultimately going. We should look up more often, and that probably means spending less time looking around at others.
Of course, I don't think that we should never look around, but I'm probably misinterpreting that part of Elder Choi's Father's advice, and regardless of what he meant by looking around, I agree with him that it's important to look up.
No comments:
Post a Comment