Upon reading, I was reminded that we must make sacrifices and develop humility to strengthen our faith to our full capacity in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this isn’t a one time and done thing, but a continuous, life long process to becoming and staying fully converted. As I shared with the class, our testimonies are like a muscle. We must continuously work it or it will atrophy (decay). In the gospel, as with anything in life, we must always keep moving. It is not possible for us to stay still for long, so we must always keep moving, either forwards or backwards. And while motion is a given, the direction remains our choice. As Jacob shares in 2 Nephi 2:27, we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men (Christ), or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil”.
As with anything, building the foundation to our faith will take time and be slow work. It will grow “one layer, one experience, one challenge, one setback, and one success at a time”. And failure is an important part of the learning and growing process. We cannot reach our full potential without hardships and failures. We will not push ourselves to reach new heights and work harder than we ever have or appreciate that which we accomplish if we always succeed. Success is great, but it doesn’t teach us to persevere or push us farther than we thought we could go, only setbacks can do that. This is similar to what Jacob says in 2 Nephi 2:11, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things”.
We cannot have true joy without experiencing sadness or we can’t appreciate the beauty around us unless we have seen worse places. Opposition is needed, it is not just part of life, but it is in fact part of Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness. I’m not saying that our Father in Heaven creates hardships because He doesn’t. He loves us and doesn’t like to see us go through hard times, but He does know what is best for us and what we need, so He allows bad or hard things to fall upon us in this life. Doctrine and Covenants 122:7, “all these things shall give thee experience and be for thy good”.
Christ suffered every imaginable hardship for us and He never sinned. Hard times does not mean that you are a bad person, but it is an imperative part of this life. An experience that we cannot go through this life without. And sometimes bad things happen to good people and I don’t hold all of the answers but I do know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us very very much. We need to have faith that the Lord knows best, even when He won’t give you the answer or blessings that you seek.
I like this quote that Elder Oaks shared that says “opposition permits us grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become”. When times are tough and it just seems like God doesn’t care, remember that He loves you immensely. And He is a good parent, He does what is best for us even when it is hard. He knows our potential and He pushed us to grow into our best selves by going through the experiences of this mortal life. And “some things can only be learned by faith” (Elder Oaks).
We need to keep working on our physical, mental, and spiritual development, that is one of the reasons that we are here! The earth was created for us because we couldn’t reach our full potential as spirits. We needed to come down here and have mortal experiences with a body to continue progressing and reach our full potential. And we need to remember that development in all areas are different for each person. No one is the same and therefore no one shares the same path or grows/learns the same way. We must not judge other for learning differently than us. What is a struggle for one is easy for another. And this is not a bad thing! We were all created to be different. Being unique is a gift and we should embrace our differences. If we were all the same then we wouldn’t all have different gifts, talents, paths, purposes, etc. We need to be different to work together to share the gospel throughout the world and bring others to Christ. So don’t feel bad if you don’t seem to fit in with the people around you, you weren’t meant too!!
One important part of building our faith is how we spend our time. We must spend our time wisely and not be idle. It is ok to relax a little or just play a game and have a fun time, but there are so many distraction today that if we aren’t careful, we will lose sight of what is really important and not accomplish all that we were meant to do. We will watch tv instead of read scriptures or spend time with family. We will go shopping instead of to church or listen to music instead of learn more about the gospel. We have all done this. I am guilty of this.
But it is imperative that we learn to put spiritual things above worldly things and we make this a continuous habit. The world puts less emphasis on spiritual growth than secular learning or physical triumph, but it is the most important. To develop enduring faith and have the constant companionship of the holy ghost we must remember the importance of the simple things such as church attendance, daily scripture study and prayer, and service. They might seem like small or even unimportant actions but these are the basics of the gospel and we must have a strong foundation to build off of to continue growing.
Everything in the gospel builds off of eachother, so we must have a strong testimony of the basic, simple truths to build off of. These include the cornerstone of our religion, Jesus Christ, the keystone of our religion, The Book of Mormon, and the first prophet of the last dispensation, Joseph Smith. For if one of these aren’t true, then none of it is true.
We also need to remember that everything happens in the Lord’s timing and according to His will. This can be hard sometimes, patience is definitely still an attribute I am working on, but we must continue forward in faith when life isn’t quite what we expected and trust that the Lord knows best. We might still be seeking for a spouse, not have the money saved yet for a mission, or not get into the college we want too, life is full of twists and turns in the path of our goals. I don’t know how things will work out, but I do know one simple truth with all my heart as I have continuously seen it work in my own life. If you put the Lord first and have faith in Him, then everything will be ok. And maybe some things won’t be ok until after this life but I promise that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us very much and wants nothing more than to see us make it back to Him and achieve true joy in this life as well as the next.
One way for us to make sure that we stay on the straight and narrow path back to Him is to try and be like Him. For, one of the main purposes of us being here on this earth is to learn and grow through mortal experiences so that we may become like Heavenly Father ourselves. Psalms 82:6 reminds us that we are “children of the most high” who have the potential to be Gods in the next life if we chose to do what is right now. Perfection is a lifelong process that isn’t fully possible now, but we are asked by the Lord to strive to be perfect even as He is (Matthew 5:48). And 2 Nephi 25:23 tells us that “we will be saved by grace after all we can do”. Christ is the perfect example to emulate and He made it possible for us to have the ability to repent through His Atonement. And if we truly do our best to do our part on this earth, then His grace will make up the rest. We must work hard in this life to become like Christ and to continue to work on changing ourselves for the better.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of change. And it is only through our Savior, Jesus Christ that we can truly change in this life for good. So many people try to overcome addiction and trials in their lives and sometimes they do well for awhile, but the truth is, we cannot do this on our own...and we weren’t meant too! Christ can help us to not only change our habits or our outlook on life, but through Him we can truly change our hearts, which is the key to successful change. We must look to treasure that of heavenly value over the things of the world, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). If we have our heart set on righteous desires then we will seek out the good in this life and we will desire to become more like Christ and to grow in the gospel according to our own agency. It might start with a struggle to read your scriptures daily, say your prayers, or stay all three hours of church, but I promise that if you give it your best effort, the Lord will add his strength to your efforts and help you to succeed.
Sometimes all you have to start with is a desire to gain the desire to do what is right. And that is ok, we all need to start somewhere. How fast you go or where you start at isn’t important, but what is is the direction we are headed. It can be scary to start pushing yourself in areas that you struggle with, especially if others might not understand or even judge you. But “the best place to start is exactly where you are right now” (President Dieter F Uchtdorf). And I promise you that it will all be worth it! The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly worth everything.
One of the greatest desires of our hearts should be to develop unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. It is only by developing this faith that we will be able to stand strong against the whirlwinds of life and make it back to our Father in Heaven one day. We must remember that faith is the most important principle of the gospel and we are the ones that must put in the effort to upkeep and grow our personal testimonies. Remember, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Faith is an action word, so don’t forget to take action according to your faith. The only way to strengthen it is to act on it! We need to remember that anything is possible with faith because “with the Lord all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).
I would like to end on this topic with a scripture that I believe encompasses the simple truths I have tried to discuss tonight.
“It is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the son of God, that ye must build your foundation…, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Heleman 5:12).
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