President Uchtdorf

“We see baptism as the starting point in our journey of discipleship. Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

I love how it all starts with baptism.  I have never really thought about the fact that our whole discipleship begins with baptism, and leads to joy and eternal salvation, who wouldn’t want that? It may not be an easy journey, actually it never will be an easy journey, but the answers are easy. We just have to stick to it.

“In this Church that honors personal agency so strongly… we respect those who honestly search for truth. It may break our hearts when their journey takes them away from the Church we love and the truth we have found, but we honor their right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience, just as we claim that privilege for ourselves.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

This is an interesting concept that I never really thought about before. I guess it is hard to think that someone who has been in the church, did not find what they were looking for. But it happens! I am not one to judge them, I don’t know their life, but I do have to honor their agency no matter how sad it may be for me and for their future.

“first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.⁸ We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

I love this! When we have doubts we always doubt our faith first! We give the credit to our doubts rather than our beliefs which doesn’t really make sense. We should question our doubts before our faith. It does keep us prisoner from the joy and love we can experience in our faith from Heavenly Father and Christ.

“If you expect to find perfect people here, you will be disappointed. But if you seek the pure doctrine of Christ, the word of God “which healeth the wounded soul,”⁹ and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, then here you will find them.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

This is a common thing, people think they k now Mormon beliefs so they judge us according to what they have been told, and when we make any sort of mistake they take that to being that the church must be false. How does that even make sense? People who want to know docrine rather than perfect people will be satisfied with the church.

“there may be times in our lives when rising up and continuing on may seem beyond our own ability. That day on a snow-covered slope, I learned something. Even when we think we cannot rise up, there is still hope. And sometimes we just need someone to look us in the eyes, take our hand, and say, “You can do it now!””
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I love this statement of hope. Hope is something that I strongly believe in, and when we lose it, we lose out motivation, our happiness, our drive, our reason for being, so hope is a huge thing. We should all strive to be the one that helps others get up and when the time comes that we need it ourselves, Heavenly Father will bless us with angels of friends and family to help us get back up.

“our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

Patience and endurance in the faith are what help us get up on our own. These two principles are things that I personally need to hone and improve upon. Our ‘destiny’ is something that we choose. We have the agency to get up and keep pressing forward or to stop and give up. We just need to make the right choices

“there is an important difference between the sorrow for sin that leads to repentance and the sorrow that leads to despair.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I just feel like this is an important thing to remember. Growing up, I probably would not have made this differentiation. But it really is so important. When we are in sorrow it can be productive or hindering and I feel like many people just get depressed and never end up repenting and knowing the goodness and joy of being clean again. If only they knew!!!

“when guilt leads to self-loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

               

“We have a champion, a Savior, who walked through the valley of the shadow of death on our behalf. He gave Himself as a ransom for our sins. No one has ever had greater love than this—Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish, willingly laid Himself on the altar of sacrifice and paid the price for our sins to “the uttermost farthing.”⁷ He took upon Himself our suffering. He took our burdens, our guilt upon His shoulders.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I love the vivid words here, it paints such a great picture of Christ and what He went through for us! He is the ultimate example and repenting is just one thing that we can do to attempt to repay Him for what He has given us, which is everything! The potential for everything!

“If we see healthy eating and exercise as something only our doctor expects of us, we will likely fail. If we see these choices as who we are and who we want to become, we have a greater chance of staying the course and succeeding.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

This never really crossed my mind before, I am not a very avid goal setter (I know I probably should be) but it is interesting that we really have to want success to our goals in order to achieve them. I mean yeah we all want to get fit, or get healthy but our actions are what really say what we want. If we want the potato chips more than we want to be healthy, we are going to eat them.

“God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things.¹ It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. It can enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

The power of Heavenly Father’s light is incredible. It can bring peace and happiness to the most desolate situations and lives. It is the letting the light in that I feel like people struggle with. With so much to gain and nothing to lose, what would stop anyone from letting the light in? It is healing, the atonement is part of the light and it can heal our wounds, mend our hearts, give us a future worth living. I personally love light!

“Nevertheless, spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the Light of Christ.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

This is an important principle. To take a step of faith does not require that we know something or believe something, it requires a STEP. Acting to get to believing or knowing is how that works, it doesn’t just happen or appear, we have to do something.

“Yes, we will make mistakes. Yes, we will falter. But as we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbor, the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us. The darkness will surely fade, because it cannot exist in the presence of light. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.⁶ And day by day, the hope of God’s light will grow within us, “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.””
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

                I love that we don’t have to be perfect, we just have to strive for it. It is comforting to know that I am not the only person who makes mistakes, fails, has to start over. Because of the light of the gospel I know that whatever happens, no matter how many times I fail, I get get back up and the Lord will help me succeed.

“patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

I like the “active waiting” phrase to describe patience. Waiting seems like such a boring and pointless thing, but active waiting, I can definitely see how that can be productive and good for us.  It requires work, hope and faith. Those are all key to patience. We obviously need to work because we can’t get anything if we don’t work for it. Hope is so important because like I said earlier, hope is what gives us meaning. Faith, faith is what helps us rely on our Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us and wants so desperately to give it to us. Endure well!

 “As the Lord is patient with us, let us be patient with those we serve. Understand that they, like us, are imperfect. They, like us, make mistakes. They, like us, want others to give them the benefit of the doubt. Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

I like connecting these two things. The Lord is patient with us, so we (taking His perfect example) should be patient with others. I feel like we are all innately a little selfish so we don’t always think about other people and what they might be going through, how similar they are to us, the mistakes that they have made similar to our own.  Again, the example of the Lord is key. Patience can help us think more and help more and be more selfless and kind to those who may be in need of our help.

“We must learn that in the Lord’s plan, our understanding comes “line upon line, precept upon precept.” ⁶ In short, knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

As frustrating as this can be at times, it is true and it is important. If we got all of the information that we wanted at once, we would not be able to handle it and our brains would freak out! Again, this is Heavenly Father doing what is best for us even though we don’t understand it so we don’t agree sometimes.

“Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. It means reining in anger and holding back the unkind word. It means resisting evil, even when it appears to be making others rich.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

                                Amen.