The Songs They Could Not Sing

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday afternoon session of the October 2011 conference.

Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk in this session touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. About a year ago I was pouring out my heart to God and pleading for understanding about what I should do, why I felt like such a failure in life, and just generally wanted some relief from the sorrows I felt. Into my mind came a thought, "Give yourself some grace, you've had a hard life."  That had never occurred to me before. That I'd been given a hard life. I knew that moments have been difficult, but I chalked it up mostly to my own choices. I never thought that Heavenly Father was giving me challenges, but it makes sense overall.

Elder Cook says, "While we do not know all the answers, we do know important principles that allow us to face tragedies with faith and confidence that there is a bright future planned for each of us."

That is so comforting! 

Elder Cook outlines three of the important principles that can help us navigate life.

First, we have a Father in Heaven who knows and loves us personally and understands our suffering perfectly.

Second, His Son, Jesus Christ, is our Savior and Redeemer, whose Atonement not only provides for salvation and exaltation but also will compensate for all the unfairness of life.

Third, the Father's plan of happiness for His children includes not only a premortal and mortal life, but also an eternal life as well, including a great and glorious reunion with those we have lost. All wrongs will be righted, and we will see with perfect clarity and faultless perspective and understanding.

At the final interview with my mission president I expressed that I felt somewhat of a failure because all of the people I taught who chose to be baptized were in the first half of my mission. What happened to my success? Why no baptisms in the second half? He lovingly explained that there are more ways to measure success than just the number of baptisms. He told me that he had given me companions who wanted to go home, but I helped them stay and be successful. (I thought I was the one who wanted to go home!) It was rather eye-opening to me. Perhaps that is what it will be like when we are with Our Father in Heaven and we finally understand all that we went through.

Elder Cook said, We are unaware of hosts of blessings that we receive from day to day. It is extremely important that we have a spirit of gratitude in our hearts. 

The challenges we face in life give us a chance to prove to ourselves and God that we will be faithful no matter what. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (1 Thes. 5:18) EVERYTHING! Not just the good times, the obvious blessings, but when we are being buffeted and challenged, when we can't see clearly the outcome, or when there is no end in sight. That's not easy to do. But Paul also wrote to the Corinthians "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Cor. 2:9)

I await the day when I'll be reunited with our son who left too soon, and didn't finish his songs. Yep, life is hard, but that's the nature of learning and being tested. I want to pass this test!

Elder Cook ended with, "The Savior said, 'Therefore, let your hearts be comforted. . . . Be still and know that I am God.' We have His promise that we with our children will sing 'songs of everlasting joy.'"

True Religion

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the April 2008 conference.

Listening to Elder Uchtdorf's talk reminded me of an experience I had as a missionary. We met an older gentleman who invited us into his lovely home. We learned that he was a Polish immigrant who had served in World War II as an agent for the US forces. He came to the US after the war, met and married his wife, etc. We taught him several lessons and he seemed interested and seemed to know it was true. I had a dream in which I saw this brother dressed in white in the temple. But he couldn't get past his promise to his mother that he would never leave the Catholic church, nor his promise to his wife that he would be a faithful Methodist. I prayed that those good ladies would visit him and tell him that it was okay to join the church, and please do so quick so they could get temple work done. That prayer went unanswered. I was transferred and never heard what happened to Brother Csikos. 

Elder Uchtdorf said, "True religion should not originate from what pleases men or the traditions of ancestors, but rather from what pleases God, our Eternal Father."

We invite everyone on this beautiful planet to taste of His doctrine and see if it is not sweet and good and precious. We ask those of sincere heart to learn of this doctrine and ask their Father in Heaven if it is not true. And by so doing, all can discover, embrace, and walk in the true faith of the Father, which faith will make them whole.

 Influencing family in the other direction, our living families, we can show them by our actions how important the Gospel and church activity is by putting obedience to God and His commandments and work first in our lives. Jesus Christ can give us an eternal family, but our family can never give us salvation and exaltation.

 

Another Notebook Entry

24 May 2015   I keep hearing "The Lord has His own timeline for us." Today I remembered what President [LeGrand R.] Curtis taught us. "Heavenly Father's goal for us can be brought about only with our full cooperation." Perhaps His timeline would move more quickly [and smoothly] if we were more closely living in harmony with His will.

I served in the Florida Tallahassee Mission under President Curtis from February 1979 to July 1980.