As part of my calling as the Stake Primary President, I am given the opportunity to travel to different wards in the stake and speak in their sacrament meetings. Each third Sunday, I am assigned to a ward and given a speaking assignment, then a high counselor and I go to that ward as two representatives of the stake leadership. This is one of my very favorite parts of the calling, not only because I enjoy speaking and sharing my testimony - but also because I love that the sister-leadership of the stake is given the opportunity and responsibility and that people can get to know the women leaders, too.
This year I think that I'll copy and paste my talks from each month into a blog post so that I have a record of them.
January 16, 2022 – Thanksgiving Meadows 2nd Ward
Topic: President Nelson Goals for 2022
Good morning Brothers and Sisters, I’m so happy to be here with you this morning. Although I’m speaking as a representative of the Stake, as the Stake Primary President, this is my home ward and I am grateful for the sustaining support I have witnessed here. I know that the Lord loves each one of you and that your Heavenly Parents are rooting for you in the things that you are facing.
I grew up in a small town called Ephraim, Utah and often visited my Grandparents in an even smaller town, Lyman, Wyoming, where they own an Angus Cattle Ranch: Acres and acres of open fields, trees to climb in, and lots of lots of cows.
I want to tell you about my Grandpa Walker and his cows. Each morning my 86 year old grandpa Grandpa gets up before dawn to do his chores and take care of his herd. Going with him and watching this process is amazing for many reasons, but one piece is extra cool to watch. My grandpa will start driving down the middle of the field preparing to feed the cows and they will be scattered all over in the distance. The arrival of the truck doesn’t do much to change their actions, but soon my Grandpa rolls down his window and hollers out the window a special call just for them “Comeboss”. Immediately, those cows, spread all over the field start running toward the sound of his voice.
They listen for his voice and act as soon as they hear him.
They come because they love him and they know his voice. They know that he brings them food, but more than that: they trust and rely on him. He protects them and cares for them. My dad lovingly refers to this as the “call of the shepherd” which is a stretch because they are cows, not sheep, but he’s referencing much more than a ranch call. It often makes me wonder if I am listening to the call of the Lord as quickly and fervently and with as much love and trust.
The Lord is calling for us because he loves us and wants us to come, follow him. We should hear the Lords voice and come just as quickly. The Lord’s voice is easiest to hear when we listen to the Lord’s prophet. When he gives us warnings or asks us to consider something we should come because we love the Lords voice and we want to follow him. We can have faith that through the words of the prophet and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Lord WILL call for us and lead us where we should go.
Earlier this week, we planned a quick family home evening lesson that started by talking about how the people have heard counsel from prophets throughout history. We have the scriptures recording the words of many prophets. Alma gathered people by a river to speak to them. Paul wrote to the early church members from prison. Samuel stood on a wall to declare his message.
Our prophet speaks to us in many different ways, here in the latter days. One of those ways is the incredible use of technology. Yes, our prophet can decide to share a message with us and that very day, very minute, it will pop right up in my social media feed. I took a great deal of delight in pressing the “Follow” button to officially “follow the prophet” on Instagram.
On January 1st of this year, he shared three suggestions that each of us might consider as we make goals for the upcoming year. These are not commandments, not something extra that we must add to our lengthy to-do-lists but something that a loving prophet of the Lord suggests as a way to bring blessings to ourselves and those around us.
“First,” he wrote on Facebook and Instagram, “resolve to strengthen your spiritual foundation. This may involve setting a specific time and place to study the scriptures, praying more often, making temple worship a bigger priority, and letting God prevail in all aspects of your life.
I love this visual representation of strengthening our spiritual foundations and I also love that these suggestions make it clear that there are many ways that we can do this. Each one of us might have something different we can do this year to strengthen our faith. This is where the prophet’s counsel works hand in hand with the guidance of the Holy Ghost. What can YOU do, in the next 12 months, that will be of greatest impact to you?
President Nelson said in his October 2021 address: “It is now time that we each implement extraordinary measures — perhaps measures we have never taken before — to strengthen our personal spiritual foundations,” “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.”
Lest you be overwhelmed at the thought of taking extravagant measures to fit the mold of “extraordinary measures” – I think this parenting analogy is the same for building a spiritual foundation.
My dad has often referred to parenthood as laying a brick wall. A teaching moment here, an evening of laughter there, each memory and experience is laid down into a wall. Afterwards, you will probably have very little recollection of laying each individual brick. It’s not about the individual bricks, it’s about what they can build when they are all together.
But will little adjustments work that “mighty change”5 that you desire? Elder Dunn speaks about this in his talk 1% better. He quotes Elder Maxwell: “Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum.”
This year, I didn’t make any big overarching goals. Rather, I selected a bunch of smaller things that I wanted to do or accomplish within the four areas of the children and youth goals: Spiritual, Physical, Social, Intellectual, and I plan to work on them individually for small amounts of time and hope that by the end of the year I’ll be able to see small bits of improvement across the span of my year. I’m choosing those small things in hopes that it makes me a stronger me.
President Nelson said “The pandemic has demonstrated how quickly life can change, at times from circumstances beyond our control. However, there are many things we can control. We set our own priorities and determine how we use our energy, time, and means. We decide how we will treat each other. We choose those to whom we will turn for truth and guidance.”
What will you choose to do with your energy, time, or means this year to strengthen your foundation so that when the inevitable storms come, you will be secure on your bedrock foundation?
I testify that your efforts matter. Doubts, questions, and uncertainty in one hand WITH EFFORT can turn to faith, understanding, and a firm foundation in the other.
President Nelson’s counsel for 2022 goes on: “Second, resolve to be kind to others. When the Savior Jesus Christ visited the Americas, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, one of the first things He taught was the need to eliminate contention in our lives. So, please be compassionate, be understanding, be slow to judge, and be quick to forgive.
We live in a time of differing opinions and a vast array of information that we are asked to interpret, digest, and act in accordance with our understanding given our backgrounds and life experiences. Frustration mounts when others don’t interpret things the same way as we do, when they communicate differently that we expect, and when things don’t go the way we think they should go.
Ponder this statement: “As a people we are advised not to be critical, not to be unkind, not to speak harshly of those with whom we associate. We ought to be the greatest exemplars in all the world in that regard. Consider the criticism today. Pick up your newspapers and see the unkind things that are being said by individuals about others, and yet many times the individual who is criticizing has a beam in his own eye and does not see at all clearly, but he does think his brother has a mote in his eye.”
This statement is as applicable today as it was 73 years ago, when President George Albert Smith made it in the October 1949 general conference. And again almost 2,000 years ago, we hear the words of Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:1–3, 29, 31–32.)
Clearly, the call for kindness has been relevant through all ages – however, for us, right now, it feels particularly relevant and needed. “We are all children of our Heavenly Father. And we are here with the same purpose: to learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
What can YOU do to share a little more kindness in your life? A little more patience with those around you? A little more understanding for those with viewpoints different than yours and welcoming of those with different life experiences? Please remember, this is all about Jesus. It all comes back to Him. We build our foundation ON Jesus Christ and we strive to follow His example to show kindness to those around us. We can stand steadfastly in our faith in God and as we listen to the counsel of the prophet to strengthen our spiritual foundations and to be kind, we will find peace and strength for ourselves and be able to share that with others. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
(I had to include this picture from Lucy at church. Her favorite thing to do during sacrament meeting is to ask me to "draw Jenna, draw Molly, draw Sadie, draw ME!")
