Talk

So I am speaking in church tomorrow; here it is:

I am a child of God. I am a queen in the making.  I am an eternal being.  You. You are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.  You have royal lineage.  You too are eternal beings.  What does this mean? This means that there is life after death.  This means that the choices we make here on earth will follow us for eternity.  Because we are eternal, so are our choices.  Each and every day brings us the opportunity for decisions for eternity, and these decisions determine our destiny.  We must throw away Satan’s tools of indecision and justification in order to prepare ourselves for the eternal choices we are making.

I have been through my own personal refiner’s fire lately, and through the trials during this process I have recently found a new sense of self worth that sadly had been missing in my life for years.  For so long I was unaware that I was setting my goals and expectations so low until I was finally able to see once again my divine calling: to love and serve God that I might obtain the privilege to become like him! “It is safe to say that the self image is the core personality ingredient which directs every aspect of our being…The way we behave publicly as well as privately is all a commentary on our image of ourselves…Self worth is personally controlled internally by those who posses it” (Ashton).   How cunning Satan is and how quickly we seem to forget that this life is “but an instant,” for we have the potential to be Gods and Goddesses for all of time.  We are royalty in training, nothing less!  What great things we could do every day if only we remembered this.  One way to remember our divine destiny is to treat our bodies that house our precious spirits, as the temples they are: “with your body being such a vital part of god’s plan, it is little wonder that the Apostle Paul described it as a ‘temple of God.’ Each time you look in the mirror, see your body as your temple.  That truth, refreshed gratefully each day, can positively influence your decisions about how you will care for your body and how you will use it. And those decisions will determine your destiny. Your body is the temple for your spirit and how you use your body affects your spirit.”  As important as our bodies are, it is important to remember they are merely a vessel for the greater part of what we are.  Next time you dismiss your worth, or devalue yourself with words or actions, remember this, “Your Heavenly Father has known you for a very long time.  You, his son or daughter, were chosen by Him to come to earth at this precise time, to be a leader in His great work on earth.  You were chosen not for your bodily characteristics but for your spiritual attributes, such as bravery, courage, integrity of heart, a thirst for truth, a hunger for wisdom and a desire to serve others.” In short, remember your potential.  Reach only for things that suit your pedigree, by remembering what you are and how precious you are in the sight of our Father in Heaven.

Despite our best effort at honoring our birthright, we are in fact human, which means we are all prone to failure and mistakes.  The Lord’s plan is always so glorious to me as I view the opposition in all things, which strive to only make us better.  For example, our bodies are of the “clay of the earth” Once our bodies die, they are no more where as our spirit is eternal.  This short sighted, demanding, carnal body often makes it difficult to make the correct eternal, righteous choices we need to gain salvation. In Ether 12:27 we read, “I give unto men weaknesses that they may be humble…for if they humble themselves…and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Unfortunately, when we are not treating these weaknesses as a thing to be overcome, they become the chains that prevent us from reaching our potential and that shackle us with fear and doubt.  When we make choices that are not in alignment with our father in heaven, we are succumbing to addictions and temptations, which on an eternal scale is instant gratification.  How easy it is to be short sighted, but if we can maintain an eternal perspective, clearly eternal salvation is the greater prize to be had.  It is easy to justify our decisions with thoughts of, what will it really matter if I choose this once? Or indulge just a little? Who will it really harm if no one knows?  No matter how we convince ourselves or others with our line of thinking, we know what is expected of us.  This is also true of how we should view sin and temptation in the world around us. “While we are to emulate our savior’s kindness and compassion, while we are to value the rights and feelings of all God’s children, we cannot change his doctrine.  It is not ours to change.  His doctrine is ours to study, understand, and uphold.” By forgoing the instant gratification, we are choosing “the Lord’s way, [which] is the only way for us to experience enduring happiness.” In the end there is no escaping a judgment of the choices we made, “we will account for decisions that we made about our bodies, our spiritual attributes and how we honored God’s pattern.”  As mentioned earlier, our choices are eternal. How blessed are we for our Savior who hung on the cross to act as a intermediary, giving us the mercy to remove choices from our eternal record through the healing power of the atonement as we repent of our downfalls.  Similarly, this is the same gift that enables us to change her on earth. “True change, permanent change, can come only through the healing, cleansing and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”  Because of our Savior, there is no reason we cannot reach the eternal glory we seek.

So how do we gain and maintain an eternal perspective? There are several answers that would work, but “a pivotal spiritual attribute is that of self mastery—the strength to place reason over appetite.  Self mastery builds a strong conscious. And a strong conscious determines your moral responses in difficult, tempting and trying situations.” If we work on building a “strong human spirit with control over appetites of the flesh [then we will become a] master over emotions and passions and not a slave to them.  That kind of freedom is as vital to the spirit as oxygen is to the body! Freedom from self-slavery is true liberation!”  So how do we strengthen our human spirit and gain self mastery?  Once again there are all the obvious Sunday school answers, but I want to focus on additional actions we can take to keep our thoughts eternal.  One such action is fasting. “Fasting helps your spirit to develop dominance over your physical appetites.  Fasting also increases your access to heaven’s help, as it intensifies your prayers.”  By taking the time to separate the needs of the physical from the spiritual, we become more in tune with the spiritual desires of our soul and not just the appetites of our carnal bodies.  How simple this gift is!  By being willing to sacrifice a meal or two we gain a clearer view of our eternity!  Another great tool available to us is meditation and reflection.  As we all know, today’s world is one of work, recreation and movement. For many of us, we almost have to schedule in a time just to sit down during the day.  When our thoughts and bodies as so involved in the present, it is easy to lose sight of the eternal perspective.  It is more than just critical to take time daily and put things in true perspective by reviewing our thoughts, goals and actions.  I personally attempt to do this through prayer and journal writing.  We have this same opportunity at the temple.  This meditation and reflection build to that of something greater: aligning our will with God’s.  This is one of the main reasons we are here on Earth because “if our heart is right, (when we desire what God desires), we also have righteous attitudes and priorities…and our attitudes determine how we react to life’s experiences.” By being willing to understand and humble ourselves to the realization that God knows what is best and to know in our hearts the love and success he wishes for us, then we are truly able to follow Christ as we attempt to the best of our earthly handicaps to be like him. 

I am a child of God.  You are a child of God.  Let us remember our divine birthright as we make simple everyday choices as we keep in mind all of our choices are eternal.  How blessed are we to have a gift as magnificent and all encompassing as the atonement. I want to bear my personal testimony of how difficult it is to remember the impact of every decision, especially as we wend our way through the difficult pit falls and obstacles of trials and of life.  I know without a doubt that as long as we keep an eternal perspective, we will have the happiness we seek.  In the JST of Matthew 6:38 we read “wherefore, seek not the things of this world, but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness.”  I bear my testimony as I have seen it applied in my life, that even in our darkest times, righteousness is happiness and the Lord will reward us for our perseverance to our eternal throne.  I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.