Your Four Minutes

As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught:

“To those of you … who may still be hanging back, … I testify of the renewing power of God’s love and the miracle of His grace. …

“… It is never too late so long as the Master … says there is time. … Don't delay.”

Remember, you are not alone. The Savior has promised that He will not leave you comfortless. You also have family, friends, and leaders who are cheering you on.

Ether 12:27

If they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Jeffrey R. Holland

God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has.  But he can't if you don't pray and He can't if you don't dream.  In short, He can't if you don't believe.

Brad Wilcox

Jesus doesn't make up the difference.  Jesus makes all the difference.  Grace is not about filling gaps, it is about filling us.

Linda K. Burton

The Holy Ghost can do for us physically, emotionally, mentally, and intellectually what no man-made remedy can begin to duplicate. 

Your challenge this week:  Look and pray for ways to make your weaknesses, strengths.

Excerpts taken from Brad Wilcox's talk, His Grace is Sufficient and Bishop Stevenson's talk, Your Four Minutes.

Bringing up Children in Light and Truth

“Father was the perfect student and teacher, one who not only taught us from his great store of knowledge but encouraged us to learn on our own.

“With his children he followed the counsel found in D&C 93:40: ‘But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.’

“He taught us at the breakfast table as he told us stories from the scriptures, and had the ability to make each one sound new and exciting though we had heard it many times before. The suspense I felt wondering if Pharaoh’s soldiers would find the gold cup in Benjamin’s sack of grain is real even today. We learned about Joseph Smith finding the plates of gold, and the visit of the Father and the Son. If Father had time to walk to school with us, the stories continued. We walked past the [Salt Lake] Temple on the way to school and he told us about the Angel Moroni. We learned the temple was a very special place, that you had to be good to go there, and when you got married there it was forever. He taught us by the things he prayed for in our family prayers when we knelt by our chairs before breakfast and again at dinner time.

“Today his teachings not only lift and sustain his descendants but countless numbers of faithful members of the Church as well. What a great privilege and blessing it has been to be his daughter.”

The importance of family unity—love and consideration for one another in the family—cannot be overemphasized. Spiritual solidarity in family relationships is the sure foundation upon which the Church and society itself will flourish. This fact is well knownand appreciated by the adversary, and as never before, he is using every clever device, influence, and power within his control to undermine and destroy this eternal institution. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ applied in family relationships will thwart this devilish destructiveness.

Help your children in every way you can to grow up with a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach them to pray. Teach them to observe the Word of Wisdom, to walk faithfully and humbly before the Lord so that when they grow up to manhood and womanhood they can thank you for what you have done for them and look back over their lives with grateful hearts and with love for their parents for the manner in which those parents cared for them and trained them in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Eternal Marriage

The Lord has given us his everlasting gospel to be a light and a standard to us, and this gospel includes his holy order of matrimony, which is eternal in nature. We should not and must not follow the marriage practices of the world. We have greater light than the world has, and the Lord expects more of us than he does of them.

Nothing will prepare mankind for glory in the kingdom of God as readily as faithfulness to the marriage covenant.

In the great plan of salvation nothing has been overlooked. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most beautiful thing in the world. It embraces every soul whose heart is right and who diligently seeks him and desires to obey his laws and covenants. Therefore, if a person is for any cause denied the privilege of complying with any of the covenants, the Lord will judge him or her by the intent of the heart.

If a man and his wife were earnestly and faithfully observing all the ordinances and principles of the gospel, there could not arise any cause for divorce. The joy and happiness pertaining to the marriage relationship would grow sweeter, and husband and wife would become more and more attached to each other as the days go by. Not only would the husband love the wife and the wife the husband, but children born to them would live in an atmosphere of love and harmony. The love of each for the others would not be impaired, and moreover the love of all towards our Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ would be more firmly rooted in their souls.

Excerpts taken from Teachings of Presidents of the Church:  Joseph Fielding Smith, Chapter 15

Thoughts from Elder Bednar:

The Lord Jesus Christ is the focal point in a covenant marriage relationship. Please notice how the Savior is positioned at the apex of this triangle, with a woman at the base of one corner and a man at the base of the other corner. Now consider what happens in the relationship between the man and the woman as they individually and steadily “come unto Christ” and strive to be “perfected in Him” (Moro. 10:32). Because of and through the Redeemer, the man and the woman come closer together.

As a husband and wife are each drawn to the Lord (see 3 Ne. 27:14), as they learn to serve and cherish one another, as they share life experiences and grow together and become one, and as they are blessed through the uniting of their distinctive natures, they begin to realize the fulfillment that our Heavenly Father desires for His children. Ultimate happiness, which is the very object of the Father’s plan, is received through the making and honoring of eternal marriage covenants.