Do What You Can

Elder Gary E. Stevenson must have been terribly nervous about his call to the Quorum of the Twelve. He said that, immediately after accepting the call, he was overwhelmed by a wave of feelings of inadequacy. Admitting his weakness, he declared:

I stand before you as evidence of the words of the Lord recorded in the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “That the fulness of [the] gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the [earth], and before kings and rulers.”

However, he received counsel that is as useful to us as it is to him:

As I agonized over my inadequacies this week, I received a distinct impression which both chastened and comforted me: to focus not on what I can’t do but rather on what I can do. I can testify of the plain and precious truths of the gospel.

He then proceeded to do so.

Sometimes in our lives, we feel overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy and we worry about the things we can't do. But God didn't send us here to teach us all how weak we are. He sent us here to teach us how to exercise the power that we have, even if that power is limited. There are many things that we cannot do, but there are also many things that we can do. I'm sure that God is much more pleased when we do what we can do and leave the rest to Him than when we worry about not being able to do more.

God knows that we face great challenges and have limited abilities. He knows that we aren't always going to be capable of everything that we think we should do. He Himself has given us commandments that we may or may not be able to keep in this lifetime. There will be many times when we feel that we literally cannot do the things we should do, and there will be times when that is true. But during those times, God doesn't want us to focus on our limitations but to focus on our abilities and to try to make the most of them.

I can't d much. I don't have much time, talent, or skill. But I can do some things. I can clean up around the house. I can speak kindly and upliftingly. I can blog. If God can use me to lift another person's spirits, I'm sure He can work similar, if not greater, miracles through you. You can do great things, especially with God helping you. You don't have to be incredibly skilled already. God can use everyone, even Elder Stevenson, and even the likes of me and you.

Like Family

As I was pondering the kind of love which Jesus Christ has for us and which we should have for each other, one of the things I puzzled over was the motivation of His love. If it has so little to do with our actions that no amount of righteousness or wickedness could increase or decrease His love for us, His love must have a different motivation than because we do what He wants us to do.

I also wondered about the intensity and effects of His love. The love of Christ seems to mostly involve feelings of care and concern for us, but not attraction. It's clear that what we're talking about isn't a romantic kind of love, so what kind of love is it? I believe that Jesus Christ's love for us is familial, but in cause and in effect. He loves us as family, and He loves us because we're family. This, I believe, is the kind of love He expects us to have for our fellow man.

In reality, we are all family. We are all sons and daughters of the same Heavenly Father. We are siblings, so we should all love and care for each other as siblings, even if we're not fond of each other as people. Jesus loves us at least partly because He's our Brother. We can love our spirit brothers and sisters in the same way and for the same reason. Our love for each other doesn't have to be perfect or personal. Not yet, anyway. For now, I think the goal is for us to learn to love each other like family.

How Does Christ Love Us?

After President Thomas S. Monson spoke first in the Sunday Morning Session of the October 2015 General Conference, the three newest members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave their first General Conference talks as members of that Quorum. Of these, the first to speak was Elder Ronald A. Rasband, who in his talk, I Stand All Amazed, said:

Now, if I could leave one small message with you today, it would be this: the Lord has said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.”

What kind of love is that? How much is it? Is it even possible for one human being to love another that much or in that way? I suppose it must be, since we've been commanded to do it, but we've also been commanded to be perfect, and I don't see that happening any time soon. Maybe we can learn to love people in the same way and to the same extent that Jesus loves us, but I doubt it for two reasons: first, I'm not fully sure humans can produce love of that kind or quality, and second, I have no idea what kind or quality of love that must be.

Tomorrow, I'd like to look into the love of Christ, to try to find out how and how much He loves us. I'm pretty sure His love for us is infinite, but what does that mean exactly? How is His love defined and expressed? Once I find out the answers to those questions, I'll be in a better position to answer the question of whether or not it's possible for us to love others that much or in that way.

In the meantime, The purpose of my message right now is to remind us all that we should probably love our neighbors more than we do, or at least more purely than we do. Elder Rasband went on to say that nothing we do can affect the Lord's love for us. That may be a good place to start. Learning how to love others, even if you don't love their behavior, will help us develop a kind of love that's more like the kind of love Jesus has for us. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to figure out something about exactly what kind of love that is.

A Selfish Reason to Share

In his Sunday Morning session talk, Be an Example and a Light, President Thomas S. Monson shared a poem, "Lamps" by Lon Woodrum:

I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine.

I paused and let him light

His lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on

And shook the world about.

And when the wind was gone

My lamp was out!

But back to me the stranger came—

His lamp was glowing fine!

He held the precious flame

And lighted mine!

In life, we never know who, among those we help, may return to help us or go on to help another. Yet, by sharing his light, the speaker of the poem not only spread light to another, but effectively preserved his own. Had he selfishly retained his flame, he would have lost it and not got it back. However, because he was willing to stop and share his light, it was restored to him after it had gone out.

Similarly, we have many opportunities to share light with others by treating them kindly and generally being a blessing in their lives. Though, theoretically, we're supposed to do this merely out of the goodness of our hearts, there are certain benefits we can get from it. First, we'll feel the warm glow of God's approval, and our light will grow brighter. That always feels good. Second, the person whom we help may return and help us. And even if they don't, the may go on to help another person, who may go on to help someone else, and so on. Eventually, this chain reaction of kindness will make its way back to you, or at least make the world in general a nicer place for everyone, including yourself.

There will be times when you struggle, times when you need the help of another, and when that happens, you'll be more likely to get help from others if you had helped others first. Of course, looking forward to getting help later isn't the best motivation for sharing your light, and if it's your only motivation, you may not have a whole lot of light to share, but I am certain that if you share goodness and kindness with anyone, for any reason, you're more likely to get help later, when you really need it.

Commandments for our Happiness

In his appropriately named General Conference talk, Keep the Commandments, President Thomas S. Monson shared with us some of the blessings promised to those who keep the commandments of God. Primary among those blessings is happiness.

God’s commandments are not given to frustrate us or to become obstacles to our happiness. Just the opposite is true. He who created us and who loves us perfectly knows just how we need to live our lives in order to obtain the greatest happiness possible. He has provided us with guidelines which, if we follow them, will see us safely through this often treacherous mortal journey.

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May we realize that our greatest happiness in this life will come as we follow God’s commandments and obey His laws!

I would like to  share my witness that keeping the commandments does bring happiness into our lives and that breaking them always brings unhappiness. Some people may not understand how obeying rules can help us be happy, but when we consider that those rules were designed and given by Someone whose greatest desire is our ultimate happiness, we can be sure that keeping His commandments will be the one thing that brings the most happiness into our lives. I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to give us guidelines for our temporal and eternal happiness. May we be wise enough to follow them.

One Plus Infinity

In President Henry B. Eyring's talk, You Are Not Alone in the Work, he said that when we do our part, the Lord adds His power to our efforts. Our efforts don't often amount to much. Using our finite skills and abilities with our limited knowledge and wisdom, there's only so much we can do on our own. However, the Lord's power, knowledge, and wisdom are each infinite. When He adds His power to our efforts, the results can be incredible - far greater than anything we could have accomplished on our own. One plus infinity equals infinity. When we do our part, and the Lord gives us His blessing, we can reach an infinite potential.

Daniel and the Path of Difficult Discipleship

I recently saw a picture quote on Facebook which says that if a door doesn't open, it's not your door. President Uchtdorf's talk, Be Not Afraid, Only Believe, doesn't seem to be my door right now, because I've watched it several times, and no insights have jumped out at me, begging to be blogged about. Now, I'm sure that there are many fantastic insights in that talk, and if those insights stand out to you when you read of watch that talk, that's great, but those don't seem to be the insights I need right now. Either that, or I haven't been listening with the Spirit.

Having prayed and listened one last time, I did hear one insight I could share. When Jerusalem was captured by Babylon (or at least, one of the times when that happened; I think it happened more than once), Daniel was carried away captive, to be instructed in "the language, laws, religion, and science of the worldly Babylon." However, he stayed true to his faith and religion, and when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon demanded that his wise men interpret a dream of his or be put to death, Daniel still had the spiritual power he needed to receive personal revelation and interpret the dream.

President Uchtdorf mused on how easy and convenient it would have been for Daniel to accept the teachings of Babylon, or at least pretend to.

He could have set aside the restrictive code of conduct God had given the children of Israel. He could have feasted on the rich foods provided by the king and indulged in the worldly pleasures of the natural man. He would have avoided ridicule.

He would have been popular.

He would have fit in.

And he would have been cut into pieces when he had the rest of the "wise men" of Babylon failed to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Instead of easy disobedience, Daniel chose the path of difficult discipleship, and that choice saved his life and the lives of his friends. Applying this message to us, President Uchtdorf said:

The ancient city of Babylon is in ruins. Its splendor is long gone. But Babylon’s worldliness and wickedness live on. Now it falls to us to live as believers in a world of disbelief. The challenge is ours to daily practice the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to live true to God’s commandments. We will have to stay calm under peer pressure, not be impressed by popular trends or false prophets, disregard the ridicule of the ungodly, resist the temptations of the evil one, and overcome our own laziness.

 It won't be easy for us, just as it wasn't easy for Daniel, but thankfully, our lives aren't likely to depend on whether or not we live righteously. However, our eternal lives do depend on it. Where we end up eternally depends entirely on how we act now. If we want to live on the highest layer of heaven in the afterlife, we need to be willing to go through a bit of discomfort now. But if we exercise the faith and courage to make the hard decisions now, the results of those choices will be a lot better than being allowed to continue to live in Babylon. If we live as disciples while we're down here on earth, we will be blessed with spiritual power and revelation, which will help us in mortality, and we will eventually be allowed to live with God.

If Daniel was able to maintain his discipleship, even while living in Babylon, we can certainly maintain our discipleship while living in the world of today.