I gave my first talk as a YSA in my singles ward yesterday. It was a great experience and the spirit was so strong. This is the talk and I promise if you read it, something in there will stick out to you as it did me.
"Sunday January 12, 2014 Ephraim 15th Ward Sacrament
Meeting Talk
Good
afternoon! My family home evening group has been given the opportunity to speak
to you today. Many of them aren’t here today, but I’m thankful for this
opportunity and I pray that the spirit might be with us as we speak to you. I
hope that not only will you hear these words, but that you will be able to
grasp to them and to take at least one thing home with you by the time I am
done. Part of that goal is that you will leave feeling joy. You can choose for
yourself what you take from church. You can choose for yourself whether you
will make it worth it. My hope is that I might be able to touch at least one of
you with the spirit I have felt while preparing this talk.
When Bishop
Olsen and his counselors came to my apartment this week, I went downstairs,
spoke to them, and was asked to have some people in the group prepare talks and
some to do a musical number. Sadly, after they left, I was scared. The week had
not started out right and it seemed it was beginning to grow worse, as I had
fallen on the ice, spilled nail polish remover all over my bed, got a sinus
infection, seemed to drop everything I picked up, and I had a bad attitude. I
was stressing, since it was the first week of this new semester, with new
classes, new teachers, new schedules, and the typical college student budget.
Well, that night, as I was reading
my scriptures, I was worried about what I would say to you today. I was worried
that I might still be sick when it came time to stand and speak. I felt
inadequate to be in the position of teaching, since I’m one of the youngest and
least experienced almost anywhere I go. As I read in the Book of Mormon, I had
a calm feeling overpower me and I felt still and peaceful. I read about
teaching repentance and faith in Christ, to be humble, to endure, to do good,
to learn wisdom, to keep the commandments, to pray for support, to let all our
doings be done in the Lord, and to always have Him in our thoughts as we live
our lives. One scripture in particular stuck out to me:
Alma 37: 36 which says,
“Yea, and cry unto God for
all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the
Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of your heart be placed
upon the Lord forever. “
I decided to pray for help to know
what to say. I prayed for help to feel happy and to help others be happy. I
needed to have trust and to have faith that things would work out. From then
on, the week began to get much better, but I still didn't know what to do for
my talk. After Emilce told me she would play “Be Still My Soul,” for the
musical number, I felt that joy would be a good topic to speak on. “Be Still My
Soul” is one of my favorite Hymns. It is so comforting and it brings the Spirit
of God each time I hear it or sing it. The lyrics provide peace and help me to
remember the joy the gospel brings in my life. The first verse says:
Be still, my soul: The Lord is on
thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
When we are feeling burdened and as
though life is too hard to bear, we must remember that Christ has felt all of
our pains and sorrows. He knows what we are feeling and how to help us overcome
those trials we face. We must endure patiently. My seminary teacher last year
had a phrase which often sticks in my mind: “Enjoy to the end.” Life can be
tough, but it is so much more fun to go through if we enjoy it. We will have
more joy if we keep the commandments of God and serve others. Doing those
things will give us a lasting joy which we can forever have in our lives so
long as we continue to hold fast and obedient to God’s commands. We must trust
in God that He will help us, but we must continue to work to do what is right.
Alma 38: 5 states that “as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much
that ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your
afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.” Christ is our friend
and wants us to return to Him joyfully to have eternal peace. He will support
us in our trials. The second verse continues:
Be still, my soul: The hour is
hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
As we
endure in this life, we should have the reminder in our minds that this
heartache is not permanent. One day, we will be able to enter into the Lord’s
rest to be away from the sorrows of this life. The sorrow we feel now will one
day make all the joy we will feel so much better because we know how great it
is to have that pure joy. 1 Peter 1: 7 says the trial of our faith is “more
precious than of gold…though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” The third verse concludes:
Be still, my soul: Thy God doth
undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.
God
watches over us in our lives and wants us to live them according as would allow
us to return to Him to live with Him once more. He guides us in the way we
should go and helps us with the voice of the Holy Ghost to feel peace and to
receive direction. We must have hope and confidence that we will do well and
receive mercy at the judgment day. I have a friend from Scotland who, on one
particularly rough day, told me “It’s good to be smart, but it’s also good to
be average. Be kind to yourself. Striving for greatness and to be the best you
can is an admirable goal, but don't push yourself and your expectations so you
are unhappy and discontent with your progress. As long as you are trying your
best, that's what counts.”
After
another trial in my life, I wrote a short song about it to go along with the
spirit I felt after reading my patriarchal blessing and 1 Nephi 8. The lyrics
are:
As I travel through
this world of turmoil, darkness fills my view. I am lost inside a mist of
darkness, so I pray to Him.
Father, help me to find my way back; guide me, I plead. Let thy hand show me
how I could be. Guide me to thee.
Through the trials that I face, I can always overcome, holding fast to the rod
and holding to His word.
Never give up on faith. Keep your eyes on that goal to be there with the Lord
when the vict'ry is won. There when the vict'ry's won.
Father, help me to find my way back. Guide me, I plead. Let thy hand show me
how I could be. Guide me back to thee.
I
decided at that time that we should not be so afraid to shine forth with the
light of Christ; I wanted to be able to hold my head up high, remember that I
am a daughter of God, and that I must follow my divine nature on that
path—leaving behind my natural self and following God. We should not let Satan
lead us away to shy away from shining God’s light or from being joyful in this
life. We must do our best to follow
God’s plan. In Him I do trust. We are not alone in this life. We are near
enough to our Father in Heaven that to pray to Him often and gain knowledge and
guidance from Him. We should strive to live so that the Holy Ghost can reside
and guide us to the salvation we so greatly desire. I do not enjoy feeling that
I am not good enough. I know we all feel this way at times and God does not
want us to feel worthless. President Uchtdorf once said, “Some suppose that
humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves
that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean
denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility
by thinking less of ourselves;
we discover humility by thinking less about
ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and
our fellowman.” I know I will not be perfect in this life, but I want to do my
best to strive to one day become perfect, as Christ is, in a positive way,
learning from the mistakes I’ve made and grasping to the word of God. We all
have a calling in life and we can find it if we hold to the word of God and
never let go. We must not be ashamed of the testimony we hold, but we must
shine forth and stand firm in our faith in God. Our testimonies can give us
strength, no matter how great or small they may be. We have God on our side and
we can take upon the Atonement and be forgiven through the grace and mercy of
Christ. We can be the victor of our own story.
Have you ever had that moment where
you sat back, looked at everything you do, and you realized all those little
things that you do wrong each and every single day? And then you thought, I'm a
failure; I can't even stop messing this up. You feel the tension rise within
you as you sit and tell yourself how ridiculous and incapable you are. If you
think no one is there beside you, think of all the wonderful things in your
life. Why do you think you have those? It’s not magic—those were blessings
poured out to you. Think of the hard times as being at the gym. Would you be
strong if you never lifted a finger, never took steps to walk or run, or even
jumped off the ground? No. So, what about your trials? Can you grow and
understand blessings and good times if you never experience those? No! Trials
are here for a purpose. Sure, things happen that drag you down and if you let
them, you'll lose. But God never loses. He is merciful and will always be there
to help you if you are willing to take the steps of repentance and work it out
with Him. The Atonement is a wonderful thing. It's not just about Christ dying.
He bled for every one of my sins. He bled for every one of your sorrows. He
felt the pain and anguish of those around you. And you know what? He believes
it's worth it for each and every person He did that for. He felt every single
thing you have ever felt in your life. Ponder that for a moment. He felt your
joys, your sorrows, your physical and mental pains. When you have done something
terribly wrong, He knows how you feel about it.
But wait! It doesn't stop there.
Because He knows all those things about you from the Atonement, He is able to
help and lift us when we struggle. We will never be given any trial we cannot
handle--it's been promised. But when you are at your breaking point, the best
place to fall is on your knees in prayer. No matter how dirty your hands may
be, no matter how lost you may seem, if you have faith in His power and His
love for you, He is there to listen. God's not gonna make fun of you if you
ask.
I love
music. It brings such great happiness to me in my life, so I would like to
share just one more song with you, and that is “Daughter of a King,” by Jenny
Phillips.
Do you wonder if He
knows who you are?
Do you wonder if He knows the secret pleadings of your heart?
He has numbered every sand of the sea
and He longs for you to know that He believes in you.
Can you feel the quiet power from above?
Can you feel His strength surround you when your own is not enough?
He has blessed you with His spirit from on high
and He longs for you to know it lives inside of you.
Oh, be true.
You hold the promises
of all eternity,
rights to claim the noble birthright you were sent here to receive
He has loved you since you lived with Him before
Let Him lead you to the gifts He has in store for you
Oh, be true.
I love
this song! It is so wonderful and I'm pretty sure I've cried every time I've
heard it--especially when I try to sing with it. God truly knows us--each and
every one. He knows what you wish, what you hope, and everything that goes on
in your life. All He wants is for you to come to Him in prayer and plead with
Him, because He wants to give you all He has. We are all royalty—children of a
King.
The
scriptures teach us that we must feel the misery in life to fully understand
joy when we receive it. God wants us to have joy, for men are meant to have
joy, but we must also feel pain so that we can be grateful for the joy we do
have when it comes. The scriptures also teach that seeing the joy in others
will help us feel joy. I know that if we will search for light in our lives,
the light will give us joy. If we serve others, we will see that happiness in
their eyes and that gleam of light will infuse such great joy into our souls.
If something in your life, such as something you have done, is preventing you
from feeling joy in your days, I would encourage you to take the Atonement and
apply it where it needs to be. Christ knows how to help you and He will forgive
as you have a change of heart. When you have gone to Gethsemane and back and
received a full change of heart, your joy will be as great as was your pain, as
was stated in Alma 36: 20. The pain stopped Alma from ever committing that sin
again as “What joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was
filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!”
The
world truly does look better through happy eyes. Make a choice from day to day
as you go through your routines to feel confident and adequate rather than
miserable and insecure. For the short time I have lived here in Ephraim to go
to school, I have felt so much more joy in my life. We are so blessed to be
able to attend such a wonderful college in a fantastic town. I am so thankful
for the kindness and friendships I have gained while here. I really do love
this place, the beauty, and the experiences I am having. Everyone is so
wonderful and kind as they say hello when you walk by and ask how things are
going. It is a very different environment from what I was expecting with all of
the college experiences I heard from people who go elsewhere. I now see so much
more beauty around me in my life. I love this ward and I love my calling as a
family home evening group leader. I don’t know where I’ll be ten years from
now, but I know that as long as I follow the perfect example of my Savior, I
will be where I need to be. I am not so afraid because I know the general
direction of where I am heading and I know in whom I do serve. This makes life
more joyful to me!
We each
have something to offer to God and He has something for each of us--everything
He has He offers to us if we will follow Him. He is calling our names. He is
pleading for us to "Come, follow me." How simple is that? So, let us
follow Him in all that we do and say. When trials come and we are about to
break, He is there to lift us up and to be our strength in times of weakness.
Elder Holland stated in the April 2013 General Conference, in his talk titled,
'Lord, I believe,' "These things I declare to you with the conviction
Peter called the “more sure word of prophecy.”16 What was once a tiny seed of
belief for me has grown into the tree of life, so if your faith is a little
tested in this or any season, I invite you to lean on mine." Let us all strive to follow Christ and to gain that sure
testimony in Him. We receive the Holy Ghost at baptism as we are confirmed a
member of the church and are granted the gift of the Holy Ghost. He is there to
guide us. Let us be listening for that still, small voice and obeying the
direction it gives.
I know that each of us are heirs to
God's gifts. "Be loyal to the royal within" and "let your light
shine before men..." and the Lord will bless you with joy as you serve
your life mission and prove yourself worthy to enter into God’s rest. I know
these things to be true and I say them in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ,
amen."
