Just What I Needed to Hear

A friend of mine posted a quote and a link. I clicked on it and just listened to exactly what I needed to hear today from a BYU Devotional Elder Jeffery R Holland gave back in 1980:

For Times of Trouble

Do you ever feel untalented or incapable or inferior? Would it help you to know that everyone else feels that way too, including the prophets of God? Moses initially resisted his destiny, pleading that he was not eloquent in language. Jeremiah thought himself a child and was afraid of the faces he would meet.

And Enoch? I ask all of you to remember Enoch as long as you live. This is the young man who, when called to a seemingly impossible task, said, “Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, [I] am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech?” (Moses 6:31).

Enoch was a believer. He stiffened his spine and squared his shoulders and went stutteringly on his way. Plain old, ungifted, inferior Enoch. And this is what the angels would come to write of him:


And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him. [Moses 7:13]

Plain old, inadequate Enoch—whose name is now synonymous with transcendent righteousness. The next time you are tempted to paint your self-portrait dismal gray, highlighted with lackluster beige, just remember that in like manner have this kingdom’s most splendid men and women been tempted. I say to you as Joshua said to the tribes of Israel as they faced one of their most difficult tasks, “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5).

There is, of course, one source of despair more serious than all the rest. It is linked with poor preparation of a far more serious order. It is the opposite of sanctification. It is the most destructive discouragement in time or eternity. It is transgression against God. It is depression embedded in sin.

Here your most crucial challenge, once you have recognized the seriousness of your mistakes, will be to believe that you can change, that there can be a different you. To disbelieve that is clearly a satanic device designed to discourage and defeat you. When you get home tonight, you fall on your knees and thank your Father in Heaven that you belong to a Church and have grasped a gospel that promises repentance to those who will pay the price. Repentance is not a foreboding word. It is following faith, the most encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary. Repentance is simply the scriptural invitation for growth and improvement and progress and renewal. You can change! You can be anything you want to be in righteousness.

If there is one lament I cannot abide—and I hear it from adults as well as students—it is the poor, pitiful, withered cry, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” If you want to talk about discouragement, that phrase is one that discourages me. Though not a swearing man, I am always sorely tempted to try my hand when I hear that. Please spare me your speeches about “That’s just the way I am.” I’ve heard that from too many people who wanted to sin and call it psychology. And I use the word sin again to cover a vast range of habits, some seemingly innocent enough, that nevertheless bring discouragement and doubt and despair.

You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That’s another satanic suckerpunch—that it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it. Of course there will be problems to work out and restitutions to make. You may well spend—indeed you had better spend—the rest of your life proving your repentance by its permanence. But change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come for you as instantaneously as for Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Even if you have serious amends to make, it is not likely that you would qualify for the term, “the vilest of sinners,” which is the phrase Mormon uses in describing these young men. Yet as Alma recounts his own experience in the thirty-sixth chapter of the book that bears his name, his repentance appears to have been as instantaneous as it was stunning.

Do not misunderstand. Repentance is not easy or painless or convenient. It is a bitter cup from Hell. But only Satan, who dwells there, would have you think that a necessary and required acknowledgment is more distasteful than permanent residence. Only he would say, “You can’t change. You won’t change. It’s too long and too hard to change. Give up. Give in. Don’t repent. You are just the way you are.” That, my friends, is a lie born of desperation. Don’t fall for it.

...In this Church we ask for faith, not infallibility.

A New Perspective on an Old Thought

A couple weeks ago at church one of the speakers talked about how we can get stuck thinking the same thoughts and getting the same insight when we read the same passages of scriptures. He suggested this is particularly true if we read the same copy and we have written notes or highlighted verses. I had an experience that made me think there may be some truth to that.

Towards the end of July I participated in a Youth Conference as a leader. One of the speakers challenged the youth to read The Book of Mormon from cover to cover in the month of July. I thought to myself, "that's a great goal for them" and then started to realize that it would be a good goal for me too. This was a daunting task - 531 pages in about 27 days (I started late...) and I knew I would have to read on the train rides to and from work to make this happen. So, I read from a pocket sized edition that I haven't read before and marked up.

All that is a long introduction to one of the insights I had during that intense and rewarding experience in July.

I was reading in 3 Nephi 13 where the Savior is teaching the people on the American continent after his Crucifixion and Resurrection. In verse 24 he says:

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

In the past, I have always felt disheartened by this verse of scripture. I know that I am far from perfect and am acutely aware of my own short comings and all the mistakes I make. I have often wondered if I am a bad person pretending to be good. I have often felt that if I were clinging to God I would not do many of the things that I do, and thus, by deduction, I must cling to/ serve Mammon.

However, as I read this verse this time I realized that I could just as easily be holding to God and despising the times that I fall short and choose to do something that serves Mammon instead of God.

It also caused me to take a step back. I feel that I am very willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and that I want to assume that people are doing the best they can and that they don't mean any harm. I want others to feel loved, and I truly believe that everyone can change and that we all deserve second chances. And I realized that this must be true for me as well. I have to give myself a second (or tenth, or 100th) chance and I have to keep striving to continually serve God and turn back to God every time I find myself moving away.