Last week my turn to speak in sacrament came around again. Considering the size of our ward and the fact that I spoke once already in the last three years we have been here I thought I would have another five years before it was my turn again, but I was not so lucky. My kids don’t believe I have to do anything I don’t like to do. They apparently think that, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, cleaning up after all of them, and telling them not to fight a million times a day is my idea of a great time.
I don’t so much mind the writing of the talk. It is the giving I could do without.
I take that back. I don’t really like anything to do with it but if I had the option to write a talk for someone else to give I would take it over giving it myself. Oh well, it is done and over with now so hopefully I have a few good years to not do it again. I spoke with a friend of ours, Marc Dunn that is on the high council. He said he has spoken around 30 times in the last two years plus probably done 20 lessons on top of that so I could take my time, people hear enough from him. I told him I am really glad I will never be on the high council and my talk was 10 minutes top, maybe 11 if I spoke slowly but considering my nerves it most likely wouldn’t happen and would probably be closer to 9 minutes. He is an awesome speaker though and could easily fill the whole hour and keep people interested.
So here is my talk. My topic was- why we need covenants.
Introduction
A few years back when I was a junior in high school I had decided that I was interested in health care and wanted to go to college to work in some sort of health care profession, maybe a nurse. A short time after making that decision, I came across an opportunity to work part time as a dental assistant in a dental office after school. I was pretty excited and set a goal to do my best and learn as much as I could. About 30 minutes into my first day I was observing a very simple orthodontic procedure and the next thing I knew I woke up on the floor with the doctor, his assistant and the patient standing over me and asking me if I was ok because I had passed out. I was pretty embarrassed but everyone was very kind and made sure I was ok and assured me it was ok, no big deal, no harm done, etc. I worked passed my embarrassment and dared show up again the next day, and once again woke up laying on the floor after passing out. I was mortified and sure that I was going to go home and never show my face in that office again. The dentist must have been really shorthanded though because he pulled me aside and convinced me to give it another try and suggested I should start observing from a chair while I learned everything. With a lot of encouragement I made the goal to get over my embarrassment go to work again, the next day and give it another go. This time I remained fully conscious and successfully made it through the day, and the next and then for two more years until I graduated high school. I quickly realized that I really liked dentistry and decided I wanted to go to school to become a dental hygienist.
So I set my end goal to graduate with my degree as a dental hygienist then began the path to accomplish that goal. Applying to colleges, getting good grades, completing the required courses-including much to my dismay a public speaking class, applying to the program itself, getting accepted, more courses, exams, clinicals, passing boards and licensing and finally graduating and being able to work as a Dental hygienist. It took a lot of time, hard work, effort, sacrifice, learning and preparing along the way to reach the goal. But the excitement and sense of accomplishment I felt when I reached my goal was strong and potent enough that I can recall those feelings easily over 15 years later.
Almost every day of our lives we have goals that we are trying to achieve. Some goals are reached after a short term-a day, a week a month. Some longer, a year, 5 years, a decade, some goals can take a lifetime to achieve. Whatever the goal is there are steps along the way, milestones that have to be reached to move you along. These milestones help you stay focused and continue to progress to the goal until you are finally ready and capable to achieve it. If we don’t make a plan and have those steps or milestones along the way, our goal stays a want, a hope or a dream instead of a reality. No matter how hard I wanted or hoped to be a hygienist, if I wasn’t willing to take the steps and accomplish each of them along the way, my end result would not be a dental hygienist.
Before we came to earth our Heavenly Father presented us with His ultimate goal. In Moses 1:39 God states his goal, “For Behold this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Our Father in Heavens goal is for each of us is to return to Him and live with Him again.
The fact that all of us are here on earth right now is evidence to us that before each of us came to earth we all choose to follow that plan and have the same goal as our Father in Heaven and return to him again. I am sure were all pretty excited and anxious for our chance to come here and prove ourselves and return to Him. When we come to earth we go through the veil and can no longer remember our lives before. We all start a new path that can lead us any number of directions. Some of us find the Saviors path and start down it quickly in our lives, others find it later, and others might even wait until after leaving this earth to find the path again. Coming to earth, rediscovering the truths we knew before and finding our way back to our Father in Heaven looks different for each and every one of us. But whatever the path we take, there are required check points along the way. Covenants and ordinances that we must make and keep to receive eternal life.
After our Father in Heaven told us his goal, He presented us with His plan to achieve that goal. A perfect plan with steps and milestones along the way for us to follow that allows us to course correct and make adjustments when needed so we can follow his plan even though we are not perfect. He accounted for any possible mistake or trouble or heart ache including death we could possibly encounter through the Saviors sacrifice and atonement. Then made that atoning power available to us through the priesthood, which is the power of God. And through the priesthood we have been given ordinances and covenants that we can make with him. These covenants are the stepping stones along the path to return to him.
Last October in general conference Elder Renlund stated, a covenant is a promise and commitment between you and God. Covenants we make with God are serious and solemn. We should prepare for, learn about, and enter such covenants with the intent to honor them. A covenant becomes a pledge of self.
In 2011 at General Conference Elder Russell M Nelson said, the greatest compliment that can be earned here in this life is to be known as a covenant keeper. The rewards for a covenant keeper will be realized both here and hereafter
The first covenant we make on earth is baptism and we are able to renew that covenant each Sunday by partaking of the sacrament. Making this covenant is our first commitment to begin the journey back to our heavenly home. Other covenants we can enter with God are Receiving the priesthood for men and honoring the priesthood for women and magnifying our callings for men and women. Receiving our temple endowments and entering a celestial marriage covenant are also steps along the path to returning to our Heavenly Father. Many of the Lord’s commandments are in the form of covenants promising specific blessings—tithing, or the word of wisdom for example. As we increase our obedience in his commandments we fulfill our covenants with Him. In Alma 37:6 we are taught, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; Each commandment we obey and covenant we make and keep builds toward the next to help prepare us and enable us to be ready to make and keep more covenants with God. Fulfilling the covenants we make is a constant reminder to our minds and spirits to stay focused on our goal and stay close to our Father in Heaven and strengthens our testimony of all the gospel principles.
Making covenants is not a passive activity. It requires vigilance, effort, faith, humility, hope, self-evaluation and determination to do our best to live up to the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father.
We have been given the information we need. Heavenly Father has told us his goal and given us his plan. All the steps we need to complete that goal have been put into place. The Savior came to earth and fulfilled his mission. He overcame death and provided us with an everlasting atonement to use and take full advantage of to make up for where we fall short. We have been given the priesthood and all the keys we need to make covenants and obey and follow the commandments of god. We have been given Prophets to lead and guide us directly. We have the Book of Mormon and other scriptures, prayer, revelation, the Holy Ghost and many other tools to use on our path to immortality and eternal life. We made the choice to come to earth and prove our obedience.
Close
This is our last week of school and we are continuing with last weeks crazy end of the year schedule with concerts, awards, field trips, parties, and everything else! Only two days left!
Checking out the Coy fish in the pond.
