ELDERS QUORUM LESSON – 11 SEPTEMBER 2022
Hello Elders,
This week’s Elder Quorum Lesson topic
will be “Our Heartfelt All” by President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
The Relief Society will be using the
came talk for their lesson.
Our instructor will be Kent Jeppeson
REMINDER – This month’s Ward Temple
Night will be Wednesday, September 28th, at 7pm at the Rexburg
Temple
Here is President Uchtdorf’s Talk
Our
Heartfelt All
If we want the Savior to lift us
heavenward, then our commitment to Him and His gospel can’t be casual or
occasional.
An Offering unto Him
Just days before He gave His life for us, Jesus Christ was at the temple in Jerusalem, watching people make donations to the temple treasury. “Many that were rich cast in much,” but then, along came a poor widow, “and she threw in two mites.” It was such a small amount, it would hardly be worth recording.
And yet this seemingly
inconsequential donation caught the Savior’s attention. In fact, it impressed
Him so deeply that “he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them,
Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which
have cast into the treasury:
“For all they did cast in of their
abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her
living.”
With this simple
observation, the Savior taught us how offerings are measured in His kingdom—and
it’s quite different from the way we usually measure things. To the Lord, the
value of the donation was measured not by the effect it had on the treasury but
by the effect it had on the heart of the donor.
In praising this faithful widow,
the Savior gave us a standard to measure our discipleship in all of its many
expressions. Jesus taught that our offering may be large or it may be small,
but either way, it must be our heartfelt all.
This principle is echoed in the
plea of the Book of Mormon prophet Amaleki: “Come unto Christ, who is the Holy
One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.
Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him.”
But how is this possible?
To many of us, such a standard of whole-souled commitment seems out of reach.
We are already stretched so thin. How can we balance the many demands of life
with our desires to offer our whole souls to the Lord?
Perhaps our challenge is
that we think balance means dividing our time evenly among competing interests.
Viewed in this way, our commitment to Jesus Christ would be one of many things
we need to fit into our busy schedules. But perhaps there is another way to
look at it.
Balance: Like Riding a
Bicycle
My wife, Harriet, and I
love to go bicycle riding together. It’s a wonderful way to get some exercise
while also spending time together. While we’re riding, and I’m not huffing and
puffing too much, we enjoy the beautiful world around us and even engage in a
pleasant conversation. Rarely do we have to pay much attention to keeping our
balance on our bicycles. We’ve been riding long enough that we don’t even think
about that—it has become normal and natural for us.
But whenever I watch someone
learning to ride a bike for the first time, I’m reminded that it’s not
easy balancing yourself on those two narrow wheels. It takes time. It
takes practice. It takes patience. It even takes falling down a time or two.
Most of all, those who
succeed in balancing on a bicycle learn these important tips:
Don’t look at your feet.
Look ahead.
Keep your eyes on the road
in front of you. Focus on your destination. And get pedaling. Staying balanced
is all about moving forward.
Similar principles apply when it
comes to finding balance in our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. How to
distribute your time and energy among your many important tasks will vary from
person to person and from one season of life to another. But our common,
overall objective is to follow the Way of our Master, Jesus Christ, and return
to the presence of our beloved Father in Heaven. This objective must remain
constant and consistent, whoever we are and whatever else is happening in our
lives.
Lift: Like Flying an
Airplane
Now, for those who are
avid bicyclists, comparing discipleship to riding a bike may be a helpful
analogy. For those who are not, don’t worry. I have another analogy I’m sure
every man, woman, and child will be able to relate to.
Discipleship, like most
things in life, can also be compared to flying an airplane.
Have you ever stopped to
think how amazing it is that a huge passenger jet can actually get off the
ground and fly? What is it that keeps these flying machines soaring elegantly
through the sky, crossing oceans and continents?
Put simply, an aircraft
flies only when air is moving over its wings. That movement creates differences
in air pressure that give the plane lift. And how do you get enough air moving
over the wings to create lift? The answer is forward thrust.
The airplane gains no
altitude sitting on the runway. Even on a windy day, enough lift isn’t created
unless the airplane is moving forward, with enough thrust to counteract the
forces holding it back.
Just as forward momentum
keeps a bicycle balanced and upright, moving forward helps an aircraft overcome
the pull of gravity and drag.
What does this mean for us
as disciples of Jesus Christ? It means that if we want to find balance in life,
and if we want the Savior to lift us heavenward, then our commitment to Him and
His gospel can’t be casual or occasional. Like the widow at Jerusalem, we must
offer Him our whole souls. Our offering may be small, but it must come from our
heart and soul.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ
is not just one of many things we do. The Savior is the motivating power
behind all that we do. He is not a
rest stop in our journey. He is not a scenic byway or even a major landmark. He
is “the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
[Jesus Christ].” That is the Way and our ultimate destination.
Balance and lift come as we “press
forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope,
and a love of God and of all men.”
Sacrifice and Consecration
And what about the many
tasks and responsibilities that make our lives so busy? Spending time with loved
ones, going to school or preparing for an occupation, earning a living, caring
for family, serving in the community—where does it all fit in? The Savior
reassures us:
“Your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s
easy. It requires both sacrifice and consecration.
It requires letting some
things go and letting other
things grow.
Sacrifice and consecration are two heavenly laws that we covenant to obey
in the holy temple. These two laws are similar but not identical. To sacrifice means to give something up in favor of
something more valuable. Anciently, God’s people sacrificed the firstlings of their
flocks in honor of the coming Messiah. Throughout history, faithful Saints have
sacrificed personal desires, comforts, and even their lives for the Savior.
We all have things, large and
small, we need to sacrifice in order to follow Jesus Christ more
completely. Our sacrifices show what we truly value. Sacrifices are sacred
and honored by the Lord.
Consecration is different from sacrifice in at least one
important way. When we consecrate something, we don’t leave it to be consumed
upon the altar. Rather, we put it to use in the Lord’s service. We dedicate it
to Him and His holy purposes. We receive the talents that the Lord has
given us and strive to increase them, manifold, to become even more helpful in
building the Lord’s kingdom.
Very few of us will ever be asked
to sacrifice our lives for the
Savior. But we are all invited to consecrate our
lives to Him.
One Work, One Joy, One
Purpose
As we seek to purify our lives and
look unto Christ in every thought, everything else begins to align. Life no
longer feels like a long list of separate efforts held in tenuous balance.
Over time, it all becomes
one work.
One joy.
One holy purpose.
It is the work of loving and
serving God. It is loving and serving God’s children.
When we look at our lives
and see a hundred things to do, we feel overwhelmed. When we see one
thing—loving and serving God and His children, in a hundred different ways—then
we can work on those things with joy.
This is how we offer our
whole souls—by sacrificing anything that’s holding us back and consecrating the
rest to the Lord and His purposes.
A Word of Encouragement
and Testimony
My dear brothers and
sisters and my dear friends, there will be times when you wish you could do
more. Your loving Father in Heaven knows your heart. He knows that you can’t do
everything your heart wants you to do. But you can love and serve God. You can
do your best to keep His commandments. You can love and serve His children. And
your efforts are purifying your heart and preparing you for a glorious future.
This is what the widow at the
temple treasury seemed to understand. She surely knew that her offering would
not change the fortunes of Israel, but it could change and bless her—because, though small, it was her all.
So, my dear friends and beloved
fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, let us not be “weary in well-doing, for [we]
are laying the foundation of a great work.” And out of our small things will
proceed “that which is great.”
I testify that this is
true, as I also testify that Jesus Christ is our Master, our Redeemer, and our
one and only Way back to our beloved Father in Heaven. In the sacred name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
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