Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,
this post should take four to seven minutes to read from start to finish.
This post focuses on October 1975 BYU Devotional, and it is called "Appreciate Your Opportunities" by Brother Marion D. Hanks. This post is part two, I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional and I hope that you would be able to learn something new whilst reading this post.
Elder Hanks has mentioned the following; "I read from the Book of Mormon: And now, my brethren, I have spoken to you concerning pride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it? Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever. [Jacob 2:20–21] .."
Appreciation for Yourself
Appreciate your own special spiritual heritage and value. ... In this world, where the Lord needs every strong heart and devoted hand and tongue he can find, I think that’s very sad indeed. What I’m saying to you is that we need to appreciate the special heritage and values that have come to us. Think for a moment what particularly distinctive insight the kingdom of God offers you in these matters: God, Christ, man, life, ..., marriage, family, resurrection, eternity.
Special instruction has been given to us concerning conservation, pollution, liberation, population, elections, freedom, abortion, government, Christ. In these and many other very important principles, programs, doctrines, and matters, there are distinctive, special insights we have to share. But just knowing that or hearing it doesn’t really suffice, does it? We must learn to understand these insights and become really converted to them, and to act on them.
... To learn and then to act. I know a man who as a bishop won an award for his great skills and success in training teachers who work among underprivileged people. ... Appreciate your own particular, distinctive heritage and the religious insights which it offers. ...
 |
| "Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them." - William Arthur Ward. |
Appreciate the importance of being humble. Do you remember the wonderful words of an anguished father recorded in scripture? “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Do you remember the wonderful line about matters of greater consequence “weightier matters” the Lord called them judgment, mercy, and faith (see Matthew 23:23)?
... And do you remember the Pharisee and the publican, the one so congratulatory over his religious rigidities, and the other who “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13)?... In the name and worship of Jesus Christ we should be humble.
Appreciation for Responsibility
Two other suggestions and I’m through. Appreciate the responsibility of being an individual in an organized society, a person and a social being with responsibility to others. Avoid, I pray you, that lone-eagle complex that makes some people say, “It’s my life and I’m going to live it. I’m going to do what I want to do in spite of what it does to anybody else, what effect it has on anyone else.” ...
Appreciation for Covenants
Appreciate, please, the need we all have to keep the pledges we have made. ... I remind you to be grateful for your pledges, and to keep them. I exemplify my pledges in an experience I once had. In a small town I had a talk with a lovely young woman about an opportunity she desired and now felt ready for. We were talking about her qualifications.
She was candid and humble and gentle and forthright, anxious for her great opportunity. As we finished, I said to her, “Does anyone else know about the problem that makes this conversation necessary?” She said, “My bishop and my stake president and my parents.” I said (and I have more often felt blessed by the Spirit to ask a question than in answering one), “What was the reaction of your parents when you told them?”
She said, “My father put his arms around me and wept. He said, ‘Ah, sweetheart, how could you carry this heavy burden alone without us to help?’” I said, “Was that his first response? Was that his reaction?” She said, “Yes.”
I said, “Do you know how blessed you are? Could I have the honor of meeting your father before we leave here?” The arrangement was made.
I said to him, “If I can express in my own life the maturity of Christian understanding of the gospel that you have, I will be very grateful.” I bid you remember that, please. It is important to have that quality of character, and that kind of mature understanding of what it is really all about, and that kind of love. I see that as an appreciation of what God really expects us to grow to and is pulling for us to accomplish.
This is a good place to stop, save one, and that one is a scripture:
And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ. ... And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things.[Ether 12:38–39] ..."
If you would like to read the Devotional either now or in your own time, here's the link below.
Stay Tuned until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment