What do I want? Who will I become?

Conference Notes from Mapleton Stake Conference Jan 5-6, 2013 with Elder Corbridge of the Seventy.

Last night and today Marie and I attended our stake conference sessions for the adults and general assembly of the stake. Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge  of the seventy talked at both sessions and gave some very excellent advice and very thought provoking thoughts. His talk last night was on a question that he asked. “What do you want?” and then later “What does the Lord want for you?”

He went on to explain that he could ask us and would like to but didn’t because he didn’t want those who might answer to feel as though they had been “set-up”. He explained during his talk that what motivates us to get up in the morning and to go from day to day is something that we need to think about seriously. He stated that in Isaiah ch 55 that we need to trust in the Lord and that it is really an invitation to elevate our thoughts to be like the thoughts of the Lord. In other words what would be our greatest answer to what do we want would best be to want what the Lord wants and wants for each of us. Then in Alma 7:7 Alma explained that “there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people.”  The invitation has been given by the Lord to Come and fear not, lay aside every sin and keep the commandments. He also explained the scripture in D&C 121:34-36 Many are called but few are chosen and why are they not chosen. Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. So in answer to his question we need to think as the Lord thinks so that the powers of heaven can be part of our lives and that we will use them righteously. Then he quoted from 2^nd John that the world passeth away (things of this world passeth away and doesn’t last.) So if our thoughts are as the Lord’s then they will not be of the world but rather of the Lord’s gospel. Then the power of the Holy Ghost will be able to lift us and edify us even to eternal life.  2 Nephi 32 was quoted next saying that the words of Crist will tell you all things that you can do. And in Moroni 10:4-5 that the Holy Ghost will tell you all things through his power.  Alma explained that the word was more powerful than the sword (or fear of death) and that it would elevate the level of our thoughts and what occupies our minds.  So he admonished us to treasure up the words of Christ and his life continually. Let the scriptures be the standard for our thoughts. He then made an interesting note. He said that there had been a study done by one of the universities in New York where they took two groups of people and gave them each a random set of words that they were to make into sentences. Well the one group was given words such as baldness, grey hair, aches and pains and other words that would suggest old age without ever using the words old age. Then they and the group walk to another building to another room and without their knowledge tracked just how long it took them to arrive at the other location. That group was without question longer in getting to that room suggesting that even though they were not told that they were old that the words subconsciously suggested it to their minds and bodies. He made the comment that if that mere suggestion of words could effect that group so much what other things might the body hear that we do not know and how does it react to those words. Does swearing and other bad influences make such a difference on us without our realizing it. He then stated that he use to think that attending the temple just to get a quota or to just be there that it was not right. However now he believes that no matter the reason for attending that the fact that we are there will have a greater effect on our lives than we realize. The mind will pick up on things that mentally and consciously we may not realize are being registered into our subconscious. It does us good more than we can realize. I went away form that talk having learned some very important principles that I had not realized before.

Well this morning was no different. He reflected upon that question from last night and then posed a new one for today. He first began by stating that we go to church not to just be entertained but rather to worship the Lord. If talks are boring then we are the ones to blame because we are not listening with the spirit of the Lord and allowing the Holy Ghost to speak to our minds. He stated that there are approximately 2600 people in the stake in attendance today. and that for 2 hours we are being instructed in the gospel. Well that equates to 2 and ½ years of 40 hour work weeks being spent in instruction collectively and what a waste if we don’t go away and learn from it and change our lives. He then restated the fact from last night that we need to strive to know what Christ would have us do and be.  The he said he had some other questions. What will have been the greatest work that you have done in this life? Or when you die what will be the greatest accomplishment that will be of the most worth for you eternally. Will your greatest accomplishment be, YOU? Who are you? What kind of person will you be? Will you be like Christ? What kind of knowledge will you have acquired? He wasn’t asking what our profession was or maybe our awards or accomplishments but rather what kind of a person have we become. (It made me thing about Scrooge and the likeness of the questions he was asked.)  Then he quoted from 3 Nephi 22:  What manner of men?  So do we have a plan for who we will be?

Think about it!

Put it onto paper!

Make the plan work!

Just as in building the stake center, it didn’t jus happen, it had to be a thought in someone’s mind and  consider how big, how the rooms would be aligned, what kind of materials , etc. Everything that would be needed had to have been thought out then put onto paper before the builders could come in and build it. Then he made the comment that many people think they cannot change but he said, we are not carved in stone and in fact we cannot STOP changing. We can not only change, but we change daily in more ways than we can imagine.  He then said “The Lord has commanded us to have no other God’s before us.” The first commandment. So, he asked, Who is our God? Do we do things because it is popular with our friends and if so then our friends are our God. Do we do things because of advertisements or media influences then they are our God. If we do what we do because it is the easiest thing to do then our God is “Easy”. If we react to what we red or see then what we read or see is our God. So we need to think differently. If we were to take a group of people and divide them into two groups there would be one group that would know right and wrong and even though they would “want to do what is right” they would always be asking the question of whether it was right or wrong or how close to wrong would it be. They would be walking possibly just on the right side of the line but it would not particularly be correct for their eternal salvation. The other group however would always be trying to do what the Lord wanted and not be worried about how close to wrong it might be and thus they would be far distant from that line. They would always be thinking about what the Lord would do. So we must never believe that we are beyond reach of the Lord’s love. He then gave an analogy that took me quite by surprise. He stated that he didn’t want to offend anyone who might have been in this situation but that he wanted to put across a point. He had apparently written this out some time ago and read it from a paper that he had in front of him. He said that if you were in a marriage and you were totally in love with your spouse and then that spouse decided to not accept your love and would leave you for someone else who was not as good as you and then later your spouse decided to come back to you. Would you then take that spouse back and love them as if nothing had happened. He went on to explain a couple of other things as well that really made the spouse sound bad and that the first spouse was always forgiving. He then told of a husband who loved his wife perfectly. He was perfect in all that he did for her and yet she decided to go to someone else. Later she came back and he healed her and loved her like he had before and again she left for someone else. She came and went many times yet each time he took her back and nursed her back to health.  Well during the explanation of the wife’s disloyalty to her husband and his unwavering love for her I suddenly realized that he was talking about the Savior, The Bridegroom, as He is referred to in the scriptures and the wife Elder Corbridge soon explained was “Israel”.  He then explained that we are Israel and no matter how many times we turn from the Lord he is always there to accept us back and to heal and love us.

His final comments were however that even though the Lord is there to always take us back it is not without consequence. We cannot decide to go have fun, break His heart over and over again without there being a consequence.   Each time we stray we are that much further behind in our spiritual knowledge and growth and that we will never be able to make it up as though it had not happened even with His complete forgiveness. We should want to do as He would do all of the time so tha we can gain eternal salvation and all that the Father hath will be ours because of the Atonement and the Love our Savior has for each of us. So, he said, let our hearts be true. Let Israel do what Israel will do but for us let us be true to he Savior all of our days. It was a wonderful learning experience for me and I truly enjoyed it.