Lesson: When loved ones let go of "the iron rod"

 

Devon taught a good lesson on what we do when others don't accept our invitation to come to Christ, are numbered among the lost sheep or let go of the iron rod. Whatever metaphor makes sense to you for your situation, these ideas may help.

Devon's young son shared what he learned in Primary recently and the conversation went something like this.

He showed her a picture of a sheep.

When she asked what it meant he said, "We are all sheep!"

"And what happened to the sheep?"

"They were lost."

"Who is the shepherd?"

"Jesus"

"And what will he do?"

"He will find us!"

And He will! But we are asked to help "feed my sheep".

Mists of darkness

In another familiar story we feel with Lehi in his dream of the Tree of Life the heartache of seeing a family member get lost in the mists of darkness or let go the iron rod that leads to the fruit or love of God, that is "precious above all".
 
What are the mists of darkness generally? Nephi tells us in 1 Nephi 12:17,

And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost.

What are some "mists of darkness" in our day?

Philosophies of men, anti-mormon information especially on the internet, hurt feelings, hang-ups, doubts and unanswered questions, mental illness, time/schedules, just drifting away, abuse, crime, drugs, TV, pornography, social media, music, feelings of inadequacies, guilt, insecurities, individual personalities.

It's quite a range of distractions and out-and-out evil that we and our loved ones can choose.

The point is we don't need to judge. We often don't know what is going on in someone's life that causes or effects the decisions they make.

What should we do instead? Just love them.

What we can do

Elder Holland in a talk titled "Because She Is a Mother" encourages us as parents of wayward children:

President Joseph F. Smith pled, “Oh! God, let me not lose my own.” ⁸ That is every parent’s cry, and in it is something of every parent’s fear. But no one has failed who keeps trying and keeps praying. You have every right to receive encouragement and to know in the end your children will call your name blessed, just like those generations of foremothers before you who hoped your same hopes and felt your same fears.

What do you do, or have seen others do when worry or grief for our friends and family overcome us? What can we do to help ourselves and them?

• Respect their agency
• Turn to God, turn them over to Him
• Remember that they were God's before they were ours and He knows them best
• Show unconditional love
• Resist judging
• Absolve ourselves of guilt
• Take care of yourselves first
• Never give up hope
• Understand that temple covenants and promises will be fulfilled
• Bear testimony in unconventional ways
• Know that it's okay to grieve
• Remember that the atonement can heal you and them

We also need to trust that the Good Shepherd knows his sheep. And He will find them.

John K. Carmack in an excellent conference talk titled When Our Children Go Astray seeks to comfort and gives very practical steps we can take. [Well worth reading again!]. He reminds us:

In 1929 Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said: 

“You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don’t give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours—long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, 110).

Don't give up. Don't cast them off
Heavenly Father is far more merciful...and mightier to save than we.

So yes, Maddox, He will find us, all of us!

e

Lesson: The power of kindness

George Albert Smith, Lesson 21,
The power of kindness

Kristen Hinchman did a great job at reminding us of the power of kindness. Read the whole lesson is you get a chance. Here are a few ideas I took away.

Kindness is not always what we do, but the manner in which we do it.

Kindness is the absence of criticism and judgement.

Kindness changes lives.

Kindness changes the atmosphere in our homes.

Kindness can bind up hidden wounds in those around us.

Kindness takes time and patience.

Kindness is giving sincere praise to those around us.

Kindness can lead our children from their mistakes and invite them to listen to counsel.

President Smith:

I pray that the love of the gospel of our Lord will burn in our souls and enrich our lives, that it will cause husbands to be kinder to wives, and wives to be kinder to husbands, parents to children, and children to parents because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a gospel of love and kindness.

Thanks for a great lesson, Kristen.



e

Christ rescues us

Christ rescues us, even if we misbehave.

Lesson recap: Our Father's Love

Margie Clark taught today's Relief Society lesson. She took her materials from two articles.

If you read nothing else this week, read this articles. Your life will be blessed and maybe even changed.

The Doctrine of the Father, by Quentin L. Cook, February 2012 Ensign

... how personal and individual are Heavenly Father’s love for and relationship to each of us. Understanding how He feels about us gives us the power to love Him more purely and fully. Personally feeling the reality, love, and power of that relationship is the source of the deepest and sweetest emotions and desires that can come to a man or woman in mortality. These deep emotions of love can motivate us and give us power in times of difficulty and trial to draw closer to our Father.

Margie reminded us, because sometimes we just forget, how much God loves us.

You are his daughter.

God is a righteous and loving father. Your spirit came into being out of love and a deliberate choice to give you life and opportunity.

As a spirit child you are known individually by our Heavenly Father. He has known you at least from the time you became a begotten spirit.

You are His precious daughter, whom He loves individually.

He knows you by name.

He uses names to express that He knows and identifies you personally and individually.

Within you lies the latent seeds of godliness ...There is power in saying or singing the words “I am a child of God.

Now for those of us who might not have the example of a righteous father to draw on, know this:

Your  relationship with your earthly father may have been lacking, but your Heavenly Father is with you. His presence can be strong in your life. Know He loves you, cares for you, and will always want a relationship with you. Know that He is your Father. And He is not going anywhere.

His Grace Is Sufficient, by Brad Wilcox, July 12, 2011, BYU Speech

The evidence and gift of love God could give us is the Savior.

“Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us."

Elder Bruce C. Hafen has written, “The Savior’s gift of grace to us is not necessarily limited in time to ‘after’ all we can do. We may receive his grace before, during and after the time when we expend our own efforts”. 

So grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves us through the tunnel. Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now. It is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher’s touch (see Hebrews 12:2).

Margie asked that we look for the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior in all the world around us. To remember that he loves us.



e

Revelation from God to His Children

George Albert Smith, Lesson 11, by Ellen King

Early flight serves as an analogy

To teach about the importance of revelation to guide the Church, George Albert Smith told of an experience he had on an airplane flight from Los Angeles, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah.

He tells of severe fog and his anxious worrying about getting over the mountains and finding the airport safely. He questions the pilot...

“In my anxiety I went up into the space that was occupied by the pilot and the co-pilot to see how they knew where we were going. I could not tell whether we were a hundred feet, a thousand feet or ten thousand feet above the ground and I did not know how they could tell, except approximately. I noticed that the pilot had a little device over his ear like operators in telephone offices use to receive with. I inquired of the co-pilot how they could tell whether we were flying in the right direction or know if we were off course. He replied, ‘When we cannot see we are guided by the radio beam.’ "

He was comforted that the pilot was receiving that constant information. The plane descended and they landed safely.

I've never heard a radio beam from the early days of flying, have you?

Go to Wikipedia, scroll to bottom of article and listen to the "on beam" and slightly "off beam"  and "inside quadrant N" to hear radio signals.

President Smith compared that radio beam to guidance from the prophet for the church and by the whisperings of the Holy Ghost to us personally.

I love an analogy...

What are the fogs in our lives?
Media images and messages; distracted by busy-ness, TV, social media, gaming; information overload, confusion about gender, families and marriage, truth in politics, and more.

What are the radio beams?
Scriptures, words of the prophets, the Holy Ghost guiding us personally, going to church every week.

What is the clicking that tells us we are "off-beam"?
Moods; increased crabbiness or complaining; confusion; more "bumps" in life than usual; feelings of rebellion.

President Smith expresses gratitude for these principles

The Lord guides His people through revelation to the President of the Church.

"My soul is filled with gratitude this day to know that as we continue our membership in the Church we do have a pilot who knows the way, and if we will follow his direction … we will not meet the spiritual disasters that the world is meeting but we will go about doing good, blessing mankind, and rejoicing in the companionship of those we love."

We are each entitled to personal inspiration from the Holy Ghost if we obey the commandments.

"I stand here today profoundly grateful for the knowledge that has come to me. I am thankful that I am not dependent upon any individual for the testimony that I possess. Of course, I am grateful for the encouragement I received from others who possess light and truth, and who give encouragement by lives of righteousness, but I do not depend on any of them for a knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of mankind and Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord. These things I know for myself.

"… I rejoice to testify that I know the gospel is true, and with all my soul I thank my Heavenly Father that he has revealed it to me."

The Holy Ghost is a safe guide along the pathway of mortal life.

"The companionship of [God’s] Spirit … is a safe guide along the pathway of mortal life and a sure preparation for a home in his celestial kingdom."

 Elder Richard G. Scott teaches us

In April Conference 2012, one of our prophets has given us instruction on How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life.

It could be that what we need to do to follow this prophet is as easy (or difficult) as it was for King Haman to follow the prophet when guided to bath in the Jordan river seven times to be healed of leprosy!

Listen to the entire talk and pick out the concepts that speak truth to you. Follow that prompting!

Increase your capacity to receive revelation

If you take time to study this talk you'll find that he tells us what will increase our capacity for revelation and what will decrease our capacity.

If you feel like your prayers are not being answered consider what you need to increase or decrease to improve your capacity.



What is holding you back? Choose one of these to work on this week. Tell us in the comments below.

For me, just plain asking more and praying to find helpful scriptures is at the top of my list.

Testimonies

George Albert Smith: 

"The companionship of the spirit of the Lord is an antidote for weariness, … for fear and all those things that sometimes overtake us in life."

Richard G. Scott:

"Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter. It is a sacred privilege. It is based upon eternal, unchanging principles. We receive help from our Father in Heaven in response to our faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency."

Julie B. Beck:

“The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. … It requires a conscious effort to diminish distractions, but having the spirit of revelation makes it possible to prevail over opposition and persist in faith through difficult days and essential routine tasks. … When we have done our very best, we may still experience disappointments, but we will not be disappointed in ourselves. We can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when we feel the Spirit working through us.”

From our RS history, Eliza R. Snow:

She said that the Holy Ghost “satisfies and fills up every longing of the human heart, and fills up every vacuum. When I am filled with that Spirit,” she continued, “my soul is satisfied, and I can say in good earnest, that the trifling things of the day do not seem to stand in my way at all. But just let me lose my hold of that spirit and power of the Gospel, and partake of the spirit of the world, in the slightest degree, and trouble comes; there is something wrong. I am tried, and what will comfort me? You cannot impart comfort to me that will satisfy the immortal mind, but that which comes from the Fountain above. And is it not our privilege to so live that we can have this constantly flowing into our souls?”

Ellen King:
The principle of personal revelation sustains me. It quiets my fears. It still amazes me when it comes. It is very personal and tells me that God cares about me in the small and big things in life. It is a comfort to know that I can seek to know God's will for me everyday and that He will give me the power to carry it out. After studying this lesson, especially Sister Beck's testimony (above), I want every day to seek to increase my capacity to receive revelation.

e