Our Hearts Knit as One

I listened to a GREAT talk from Elder Eyring this morning. As I listened, I found myself just hanging on every word. Isn’t it incredible how the Lord knows exactly what you need? I immediately re-played the talk and tried to glean more from his words.

Principles that lead to greater unity:

• Revelation - What would He have us do?
  • Keep Him in your decisions - in all of our interactions with others, by keeping this idea in the back of our minds, “what would He have me do?”, we can tap into the decision making power of the Lord… it makes potentially difficult conversations run smoothly and peaceably
• Humility - pride is the great enemy of unity
  • Don’t let a discussion of what is true, become a contest of who is right.
  • Stay open - we are all seeking truth and should be open to discover progress that others have made down that path to truth… and if you’re lucky, it is a path you haven’t gone down yet.
• Learn to be a peacemaker - search for ANYTHING on which you agree.  Have the faith that as children of God, there will be truth that you share… and that is ALWAYS greater than any differences
  • Children of God have more in common than they have differences, and even the differences can be seen as an opportunity - The Lord can help you see a difference NOT as a source of irritation, but as a contribution - He can help you see value in what another person brings which you lack.
  • An experience I had two nights ago really highlighted this for me - Tanner Bowen and I could not have more different political beliefs. He believes Donald Trump is one of the best presidents that we have ever had... while I campaigned for and supported Bernie Sanders and fight for socialist policies. We discussed a myriad of topics and we disagreed on about every single one of them. And then we came to a beautiful realization - “we both love our country and we are both trying to solve problems to make people’s lives better”.  Of course the two parties want us to hate each other and think that the “other side” is stupid, or evil, or malicious. And while it can be easy to fall into that thought process, it's NOT true.
  • When we were able to see the common ground, and realize that it is more powerful than our differences, as stark as they may be, the whole spirit of the conversations changed. 
• Speak well of each other
  • Look for what is BEST in each other, not their worst
  • Search for the good intent and trust that people are GOOD, that their intent is NOT malicious
  • no need to speak ill of others behind their back - it only further divides you. Speak kindly and respectfully of all, especially those who think differently than you.
• The atonement brings the same changes in all of us
  • We all should seek to repent and grow closer to God

Here is the link to the talk:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/our-hearts-knit-as-one?lang=eng

See Their Keys

Last night as I was scrolling through all of the educational posts on my Instagram feed… so many people are teaching about how to dismantle my white fragility and helping me learn how to be a better citizen of the country and fight for anti racist policies.

I came across a post from a friend – a well constructed post, at that – that cited racism in the church as the reason she decided to leave the church.  She listed a few examples of prophets, policies, and quotes that, in the context of the post, seemed really powerful, and looked REALLY BAD.  

Luckily, my testimony of the restoration runs deep, and I believe that the Lord has indeed called prophets in our day.  However, I would be lying if I didn’t say it made me think.  While I am trying SO HARD to dismantle these long-held, deep-rooted pieces of racism, is on of my most treasured possessions (my testimony) rooted in a racist organization?!

Then, this morning as I was riding my bike to work, I listened to the next talk on The Eyring Project.  

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/10/faith-and-keys?lang=eng

Elder Eyring mentioned a few things:

• “Satan will always work on the Saints of God to undermine their faith in priesthood keys. One way he does it is to point out the humanity of those who hold them. He can in that way weaken our testimony and so cut us loose from the line of keys by which the Lord ties us to Him and can take us and our families home to Him and to our Heavenly Father.”
  • This post, and my thoughts after reading it, were focussed on the humanity of those called to their office. They were men living in a different era, and God was working with them as best he could.
• “The warning for us is plain. If we look for human frailty in humans, we will always find it. When we focus on finding the frailties of those who hold priesthood keys, we run risks for ourselves. When we speak or write to others of such frailties, we put them at risk. We live in a world where finding fault in others seems to be the favorite blood sport. It has long been the basis of political campaign strategy. It is the theme of much television programming across the world. It sells newspapers. Whenever we meet anyone, our first, almost unconscious reaction may be to look for imperfections.”
  • We can always find fault in those that God calls.  We need to strive to recognize their effort to align their will with the Lord as they lead.
• “To keep ourselves grounded in the Lord’s Church, we can and must train our eyes to recognize the power of the Lord in the service of those He has called. We must be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. And we need to pray for the Holy Ghost to help us know that men who lead us hold this power. For me, such prayers are most often answered when I am fully engaged in the Lord’s service myself.”
  • What is the remedy – 1.) seek the Holy Ghost and 2.) serve others and do YOUR best to serve as the Lord would have YOU serve.  

I was enlightened by the words of an apostle. I believe that God calls men and women to lead us.  I know that God loves us all regardless of our skin color. I know that Christ is our Savior and, through Him, all of this crap that is so broken and unfair in our current, failing system will be fixed. It sucks we are having such a hard time figuring it out on our own, but I believe if we keep fighting, we can get closer and closer to that ideal. I am willing to struggle and earn that for my fellow brothers and sisters.

WITH THAT – here is a message from our current prophet on the entire situation

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