Thoughts From General Conference
Every six months we have the opportunity to listen to prophets, apostles, and other leaders of the LDS church as they provide messages that encourage, inspire, and guide us in our daily lives. Elder Ronald A. Rasband - toward the end of the conference - encouraged everyone to record thoughts and testimonies to be reviewed at a later time, perhaps as a reminder for me or maybe for the benefit of someone else. I have decided to follow this counsel and share three main takeaways from this past weekend.
1. Influencing
One of the major concerns I have been seeking guidance on recently is how to influence friends and family members to make better choices. All too often I feel anger over the poor choices of others and almost have the desire to be more controlling in order to help someone close to me get back to the path that will lead them to happiness. Almost immediately I was provided with an answer. I was reminded we cannot pray away someone else’s agency. As hard as it is to watch someone make bad choices it is up to him or her to choose righteousness. Along with this thought I was taught we also cannot speed up the timeline for someone’s conversion. My friend or sibling or whoever will be ready when he is ready not when I want him to be. This does not mean we do nothing. There are still things we can do. For instance we can pray for when to speak and then what would be best to say. And most importantly we can have patience and be kind. Through patient love towards our fellow men and women we can achieve the impossible.
2. Opportunities
Something else I have been pondering a lot recently is how I can personally do better in my life at accomplishing the goals I have set. How can I reach my full potential? As we have been told so often before, it is the choices each of us make that determine the opportunities we will have in this life. Whenever we make a choice - no matter how seemingly small - or don’t make a choice we need to consider whether or not it will cause us to miss out on future opportunities relating to our family or our career or whatever else is important to us. Another way I learned how to improve our opportunities is to identify the various “stumbling blocks” in our life. These could be pride, misplaced trust, procrastination, a lack of discipline or anything else that impedes our growth. You and I need to determine our individual stumbling blocks and come up with a plan to remove them as quickly as possible.
3. Introspection
The final thought I have regards introspection or an interview with ourselves. Many of the speakers challenged us to ask tough questions about our personal standing before God. We should include Him in this interview and seek His counsel on how to adjust course if required. Here are some of the questions we can use to be more introspective: What will I give in return? What are my feelings towards God? Am I prepared to follow God’s path? Am I good enough? Am I content with my current situation? Do I ignore available truths? Does the Spirit flow when I study the scriptures? Have I forgotten any gifts from God? And probably my favorite as tough as it is…Why is God doing this to me? Be honest when asking these questions. Write down the answers. And when we ask God for His help be silent and hear what He has to say.
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