Church Talk, Sunday
Dec. 23rd, 2012
Invitation:
What do you think of when you consider the word invitation? The online
definition describes this word in the following manner:
-Invitation:
Noun; A spoken or written request for someone’s presence or participation
This time of
year, possibly sometimes to our dismay, this request for participation is
usually amplified to an extremely overwhelming level.
Some of our
requests for participation are found in the forms of: dance recitals, piano
recitals, singing programs, family parties, work gatherings, and assisting our
children in their school celebrations and activities.
Our
participation in such events may include: curling hair, ironing clothes,
chauffeuring & chaperoning, cooking turkeys, preparing salads, and baking
mountains of cookies.
One newfound
popular event that I find to be both entertaining and humorous is the trendy
tradition of Ugly Sweater Parties. The scenario for such an event may unravel
as follows:
-10 days
before the event, one receives a written request for such an activity.
-7 days
prior to the event, one begins to stress about what he or she will wear to such
an event. Probable locations to find such an item may include 2nd
hand stores, Grandmas’ closet, or possibly your own 80’s collection (granted of
course, that you held on to such items)
- About 3
days before the event, one may begin to stress about the white elephant gift
that she or he has been summoned to bring with them on party night.
-A day
before, one may begin preparing a potluck dish to share with other ugly sweater
friends or family members
-1/2 hour
before, one will travel in their vehicle to the designated place of celebration
-Party will
proceed as planned. Some of those planned activities may include: partaking of
a scrumptious meal that is served on placemats made of old ugly sweaters,
moving on to a dessert of Gingerbread cookies donning what else but frosting
created ugly sweaters, Participating in the previously mentioned white elephant
gift exchange, and of course, leaving with a gift or 2 to take home for
oneself.
With the amount
of commitments that are expected of us in such events, it is an obvious
consequence that worldly cares would supercede the reasons we have to rejoice
in things that money cannot buy.
An
invitation, what is in an invitation? Consider with me this spoke or written
request for someone’s presence or participation found in Matthew 11:28: “Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.
More often
than not, invitations to events will come to us only once. It is up to us
whether or not we will act upon our request of attendance for the specified
activity. In sharp contrast, we receive
an invitation from the Savior to come unto him 46 times in the Bible and Book
of Mormon. Is this a request for participation that we will make ourselves a
part of?
In our
holiday gatherings, our invitations are generally limited to people that have
something in common. Usually, they are people who share the same place of
employment, family tree, or possibly group of friends. Invites tend to be
closed to a distinct & set number group of individuals.
The Savior’s
admonition to come unto him is an invitation for all to follow. Our common bond
is our lineage with our Father in Heaven. We are all his children.
To the youth of our ward: The
invitation to follow the Savior and come unto him is SO IMPORATNT for each of
you, that the entire new curriculum from which you will be instructed in both
Sunday School & Young Men’s and Young Women’s is entitled “Come Follow Me”.
These
lessons will come from topics that will allow you to build a testimony of your
very own, thus preparing you for future opportunities that will include
Missions, Temple Marriage, and future leadership opportunities within the
church.
Why do you
think the invitation to Come Follow the Savior is so important for you at your
current ages, that the whole basis for all of your knowledge in the church, will
come from a curriculum entitled “Come Follow Me”?
Please
consider yourself, and your spiritual goals and current spiritual understanding
as I read this quote by former Prophet, President Ezra Taft Benson: For
nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance
in the final days before the Second Coming. Every previous gospel dispensation
has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not.... God has saved for the final
inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom
triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that
must be prepared to meet your God...." Make no mistake about it you are a
marked generation.
You, today’s youth of
the church: you are the chosen generation, you are the first string players,
you are the ones that were strong enough in the spirit world to prove that you
can remain completely faithful and obedient while this world is spiritually crumbling around you.
The Savior needs you to do his work.
Even more so, you need the Savior. You need to follow him in your daily lives.
You need to think of the way he treats others when you consider how you may
treat a class mate at school. You need the peace he can bring when you pray to
have understanding of your challenges. You need to diligently keep all of his
commandments so that he knows he can count on you to do the work that needs to
be accomplished.
I know that many of you are familiar
with the Conference address recently shared by Sister Ann Dibb just a couple of
months ago. She talked about a young woman who proudly donned a shirt stating:
“I’m a Mormon, are you?”
Youth of the church, you cannot be
afraid to stand up for what you know to be correct, true, and full of light.
Recently, we had a group of teenagers over at our house for a get together.
Upon their arrival, one young man walked up to me, looked me straight in the
eye, introduced himself by name, and proudly stated “I’m a Mormon too”.
On a similar note, I
was brought to reverence very recently when I observed a table full of
teenagers bough their heads to say a blessing on their food in a very public
food court located inside a shopping mall.
I was impressed that these youth of the church
would be so confident and bold in their declarations and displays of faith and
love for their Heavenly Father and Savior. I am old enough to be the Mother of
these children, but their bravery and stability in their spiritual standing and
development touched my heart and strengthened my testimony.
Allow me to assure you that you are touching
the lives of others as you stand as an example. As you help others gain or
strengthen their own testimony, you will know from the spirit that you are
participating in the magnificent work of your Heavenly Father, and you will be
blessed.
Our special Christmas events
generally offer entertainment, or an activity of one kind or another. Some may
have piñatas at their family parties. Some may play Christmas Bingo. According
to Google, some of the activities for an ugly sweater party include: A fashion
show, an unravel the sweater race, amongst other equally entertaining
activities.
There is a very specific activity
that the Savior lovingly admonishes us to participate in. As we do this, we
will feel the sweet promptings of the spirit manifest the approval of this
activity from our Savior as well as from our Father in Heaven. The Savior
admonishes this loving counsel to us. John 12:26 reads: “If any man serve me,
let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man
serve me, him will my Father honour.
The best manner in which we can
display our devotion to our Savior and Heavenly Father is to serve them by
loving and serving our fellow men. President Spencer W Kimball stated: “God does watch over us and does
notice us, but it usually through someone else that he meets our needs.”
An important realization in this
commandment of activity is that we all have special unique ways to help those
around us. Service does not have to know age, physical, or monetary
limitations.
There is a Long Term Care Center in
West Jordan that I am proud to say I have been affiliated with on and off for
in one way or another for several years. Recently, a news story about the
residents of this facility caught my attention.
The activities Director was having a hard time
convincing the residents to attend the events that the center had scheduled.
Apparently, based on poor attendance, the residents were not interested in
making crafts or treats for themselves.
This dilemma sparked a project that
has proven to be a blessing in the lives of so many individuals. With the hopes
of improving attendance at activities, the staff set up a small service project
for the residents. They provided some dolls in need of repair. They proposed to
the residents that they were going to rally together to repair the dolls,
provide new hairstyles, sew new clothes, and then pass the dolls on to an
organization that would gift the dolls to needy families for the holiday
season.
Suddenly
these activities were no longer just about the residents, yet this was a
service set up for them to participate in blessing the lives of children. These
sweet individuals were so excited by the concept that many began participating,
renewing long lost sewing skills, going through buckets of soapy water to
meticulously clean the dolls, and even providing the dolls with hair styles
similar to their own. As their enthusiasm and attendance grew, the support did,
as the community began pouring in dolls for these residents to repair. This
facility has affectionately been dubbed The Doll Hospital this Holiday Season.
The joy and the blessings are being felt by givers and recipients alike.
President
Eyring eloquently elaborates on this. He states Quote “ The spirit
of Christmas puts in our hearts a desire to give joy
to other people. The celebration of Christmas helps us keep
our promise to always remember the Lord and His gifts to us. And that
remembrance creates a desire in us to give gifts to Him.
He has told us what we could give Him to bring Him joy. You can
give Him the gift of doing for others what He would do
for them.
Each act of kindness to anyone
becomes a kindness to Him because He loves all of Heavenly Father’s children.
And because that brings joy to Him, it also brings joy to His Father, to whom
we owe thanks beyond measure”. Closed Quote
At
this time of year, most of the time, we are expecting to leave our Holiday
Gatherings with something tangible to take home. Likewise, we are generally
attending such events with the intent to also give tangible gifts to those who
mean a great deal to us.
What gifts are given to us because
our Savior, Jesus Christ was born in the flesh? What can be ours if we choose
to follow him? The 2nd verse of the popular Christmas song, Hark the
Herald Angels Sing explains these gifts magnificently. Please picture each
mentioned trait as a gift lovingly given to you by the Savior and Redeemer of
the world:
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Son of Righteousness
Light and life to all he brings,
Ris’n with healing in his wings
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the Sons of Earth,
Born to give them second Birth
Because our Savior was born: We can
be recipients of his light. We can know the exact road map of the way a mortal
life should be lived, and how we can spend our time here on Earth. We can have
a comfort in the knowledge that he is the master healer. That he understands
all of our infirmities and pain: physical, spiritual, emotional. We can know
that we will be blessed to do the work of our Father as we lay our own glory
aside and focus on glorifying our Father in Heaven. We can know with assurance
that we will be resurrected, and that we can live again as whole family units
to live in immortality forever soley because of the sacrifice that he made for
each of us.
Surely this matchless gift of love
can feel SO DIFFICULT to repay. What could we ever give that could begin to
compare to all he has given to us?
The only thing that we can give
back, because it is the only thing that is really ours to give is our free
agency. Everything else we have in our lives has already been granted, gifted
to us by our Heavenly Father, and through his only begotten son. What we do
with those blessing with our free agency and choices determines the extent of
the gift that we have given back.
This week, I had the opportunity to
go to the Temple. As I entered the doors, my heart was heavy with the recent
tragedy in Connecticut. My mind was equally confused as I pondered on such an
event. As I entered the doors of the temple, I walked downstairs, and learned a
grand lesson from the spirit as I observed my surroundings.
It was a busy day at the temple. I
quickly couldn’t help but notice the vast amounts of weddings that were taking
place that day. The other large group of people I noticed were missionaries. As
I looked in the faces of some of these eager young men, my heart traveled back
to the tragic event of a few days earlier. I thought about how this type of
tragedy had happened so many time before, and how almost every single one of
these horrific events had a very similar theme.
The majority of the criminals were
young men. Most were barely more than youth or children themselves. These
missionaries at the temple were the same age as the young man responsible for
the tragedy. The opposition of these 2 circumstances became hauntingly clear in
my mind. I thought about how lost the souls of those who were not choosing the
path of their Heavenly Father must feel. I realized that a series of really
good choices got those Elders to the temple that day, and a series of really
bad choices led to tragic consequences for one that spiritually had the
potential to be everything a loving Father in Heaven would hope to have in one
of his precious children. I knew that the good choices made by those elders had
allowed them to exercise their own free will to align their lives with the will
of their Father in Heaven.
Our choices, good or bad, have
eternal consequences. It is my testimony that as we use our free agency to make
choices that bring about good in the world, good will follow, the largest
possible portion of our gift to our Savior and Father will be given, and our
lives and the lives of others will be blessed on an immeasurable and eternal
level.
I close with this final invitation
given to us in Omni 1:26: “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should
come unto Christ, who is the Holy one of Israel, and partake of his salvation,
and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls
as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the
end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved”.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
