I love Sundays, but yesterday was extra special. We were able to sit in the same room and be taught by an an apostle of the Lord Elder D. Todd Christofferson and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy Elder Kearon. It was wonderful. So inspiring. I wanted to be better, do better and did not come away feeling like the things I want to be are out of my reach, like I do so often. The meeting strengthened my testimony and my desire to live the gospel more perfectly. It also increased my love for my Father in Heaven. I love it when you feel like you get a glimpse of Him through those who serve him. I love feeling like I know my Father in Heaven better because of being around the people who are trying to be like Him.
I met a young woman who has been a member of the church for 3 weeks! Age 23 yrs. I asked her how about her story and she told me that she was trying to study the Bible again and just felt that there must be a religion out there that followed the Bible more closely than her own Catholic religion. She sought help from a friend, found the missionaries, was taught and baptized. It was REMARKABLE! I was so impressed with the courage and the divine guidance that she received. It is obvious that the Lord's hand is in our lives.
We stayed after the meeting for 45 minutes watching as Elder Christofferson and Elder Kearon interacted and shook hands with the children and the youth in the congregation.
Kelly was able to be in a training meeting with them and 2 other visiting authorities for four hours on Saturday. He loved it and felt inspired by it. Elder Christofferson left a blessing on the bishops that really touched Kelly. He said he feels a desire to live up to what he was promised in that blessing.
Later in the day I was reminded of the counsel of another apostle, which felt so comforting to especially at this time:
Component Number Three: Inviting Children to Act
In the grand division of all of God’s creations, there are “things to act and things to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:14). As children of our Heavenly Father, we have been blessed with the gift of moral agency, the capacity and power of independent action. Endowed with agency, we are agents, and we primarily are to act and not merely be acted upon—especially as we “seek learning . . . by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).
As gospel learners, we should be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). Our hearts are opened to the influence of the Holy Ghost as we properly exercise agency and act in accordance with correct principles—and we thereby invite His teaching and testifying power. Parents have the sacred responsibility to help children to act and to seek learning by faith. And a child is never too young to take part in this pattern of learning. Or maybe too old?
Giving a man a fish feeds him for one meal. Teaching a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime. As parents and gospel instructors, you and I are not in the business of distributing fish; rather, our work is to help our children learn “to fish” and to become spiritually steadfast. This vital objective is best accomplished as we encourage our children to act in accordance with correct principles—as we help them to learn by doing. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17). Such learning requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception.
Are you and I helping our children become agents who act and seek learning by study and by faith, or have we trained our children to wait to be taught and acted upon? Are we as parents primarily giving our children the equivalent of spiritual fish to eat, or are we consistently helping them to act, to learn for themselves, and to stand steadfast and immovable? Are we helping our children become anxiously engaged in asking, seeking, and knocking? (See 3 Nephi 14:7.)
The spiritual understanding you and I have been blessed to receive, and which has been confirmed as true in our hearts, simply cannot be given to our children. The tuition of diligence and of learning by study and also by faith must be paid to obtain and personally “own” such knowledge. Only in this way can what is known in the mind also be felt in the heart. Only in this way can a child move beyond relying upon the spiritual knowledge and experiences of parents and adults and claim those blessings for himself or herself. Only in this way can our children be prepared spiritually for the challenges of mortality.
I felt like that was a tender mercy reminding me that we are doing the right thing with Kelsey-and it is a good reminder for the daughter at home too!
I am so thankful for the opportunity to listen to a prophet and apostles, who are alive and walk the earth, who live in a way to receive the word of the Lord and bless my life.
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