Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening,
this post should take four minutes to seven minutes to read from start to finish.
This post focuses on a BYU Devotional in January 1994, and it is called "Resolutions" by President Joe J. Christensen. This post is part three, 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 while you are reading through this
post.
President Christensen has mentioned the following; "Spiritual Resolutions
Finally, the fourth resolve mentioned by everyone in the poll: I will grow spiritually - I will increase in favor with God.
In order to grow spiritually, there are a few items that are essential. ... If we are to increase in “favor with God,” we must resolve to overcome as much as possible the sin of human pride.
... That means that everyone of us, to one degree or another, suffers from the problem. No one of us is completely free from its effects, but we must do all in our power to overcome its influence. Pride creeps up on us, because as human beings we have a remarkable capacity to fall under its influence even when we think we are in the safest of religious settings. ... Even in Church callings there can be danger.
We may fall into the trap of aspiring to some position or another. ... Where we serve does not matter. How we serve matters a great deal. Pride causes us to become overly concerned as we compare ourselves with others about how intelligent we think we are, ..., to what organizations we belong, ..., how much money we have, what race or nationality we are, what kind of car we drive, to what church we belong, how much education we have been privileged to acquire, and on, and on, and on.
... Your opportunities, your relative prosperity, and our stratified society make overcoming inappropriate pride a genuine challenge. ... Pride of intellect - the arrogance that thinks it knows more than it does, ... , smiles at the cultural crudity of contemporaries, and ... Pride of power - the passion to achieve it, ..., to feel superior to others,
to give orders with a strident voice and move men about like pawns on a chessboard. [McCracken, What Is Sin? pp. 11–12; emphasis added]
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| "One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: to rise above the little things." - John Burroughs. |
Resolve now that you will read from the scriptures daily. President Benson has repeatedly emphasized that we should include some reading every day from the Book of Mormon. It really is another testament that Jesus is the Christ. ... Even slow readers can read two pages in ten minutes or less.
If we started each January first reading just two pages of the Book of Mormon each day, by the time we came to September, we would have finished another reading. Then we could start over and continue to, as Nephi said, “feast upon the words of Christ.”
If you don’t think you can handle two pages per day, do as a friend of mine suggests: Try fifteen seconds at least. Read at least one verse. Every decision of your life could be more inspired if you were to do this consistently.
Next, resolve really to pray and not just say prayers. There is a big difference. Learn to pour out the real in-depth feelings of your heart to your Heavenly Father, rather than merely going through the form of saying about exactly the same trite words and phrases that you have become accustomed to use.
Remember that if we don’t feel like praying, as President Brigham Young counseled, that is the time to pray until we do feel like it. ... Many of you brethren and some of you sisters have already been on full-time missions. For all of you single young men who haven’t, resolve now that you will prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and morally to serve as a full-time missionary. There is no other experience in which you will grow spiritually more effectively and efficiently than you will while serving a full-time mission.
... Next, if you are really serious about growing spiritually, then “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The scriptures tell us that “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work” (Exodus 20:8–10).
... Temptations to break the Sabbath are even greater now than they used to be. Television is a challenge. ... As you know, some of the best games are televised on Sunday, and whether it is Super Bowl or not, the temptation is great. ... Or, maybe for you it is justifying yourself watching other shows on Sunday that are anything but spiritually uplifting.
I have discovered that we can take advantage of technology. You who have them can simply use VCRs to record the program you don’t want to miss on Sunday, and then, in a fraction of the time on another day at your own convenience, you can watch that special event, fast-forward through the commercials and time outs, and not
miss a thing.
... Choose from among the following suggestions from this First Presidency message: As we plan our Sunday activities, ... set aside time for ... meditation, and for service to others. ... Read the scriptures, ..., study the lives
and teachings of the prophets; prepare church lessons and other church assignments [for example, study for
your religion class]; write to or visit relatives and friends; write to missionaries; enjoy uplifting music ... ; read
with a child; do genealogical research, [work on your] personal histories; sing Church hymns; ... develop our appreciation for the cultural arts ... ; friendship nonmembers ...; visit the sick, the aged, and the lonely.
[Spencer W. Kimball, “Therefore I Was Taught,” Ensign, January 1982, p. 3]
Make Sundays special, and they will help make you special in the sight of the Lord. ... Keeping the Lord’s day holy will do the same for you. ... It will take energy and effort to keep the resolutions about which I have spoken this evening. I pray that we will do this so that we can increase in “wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” And, in so doing, we will become more like the Savior every day for the rest of our lives. ... "
If you would like to read the whole devotional either now or in your own time, here is the link below.
Stay Tuned until next time.
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