Sacrament Talk – August 12, 2018
South Pass Ward - Eagle Mountain
The
Best Laid Plans
“The
best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” - Robert Burns
According to legend, Robert Burns was plowing in the
fields when he accidentally
In the early morning hours of mid-January, 1999, I
received a powerful message from Heavenly Father to move to Utah. He then added
a simple command, “and hurry!”
Fast forward. Nine months later, we unloaded our moving
van in Orem, Utah. Two days later, Paul returned to California. That next morning the Lord spoke to me again, letting me
know that “many great and marvelous
blessings” were in store.
After 19 months of being separated as a family with Paul
struggling to sell our business in California, he was finally able to join us
in Orem. We knew that the Lord wanted us in Utah and with a leap of faith,
followed his direction. Once here however, smooth sailing was not part of our
experience.
The economy in Utah was struggling and finding employment
was difficult for Paul. A few years later, we found ourselves in a financial
crisis and my family began doubting that the prompting I had received was of
God.
Angels
Among Us
In addition to requiring assistance from the Church for a
time, we found ourselves being recipients of homemade goodies, bags of food at
Thanksgiving, and a jar of coins at Christmas-time, all anonymously left on our
doorstep.
One evening our sons attended a combined youth activity.
It was advertised as an International Dinner.
John and Peter complained about the theme, but I encouraged them to
attend stating that at least they would get a good meal! Sadly, that was not the case. The youth were
divided up and our sons by the luck of the draw, ended up in second and third
world countries. While eating mush, rice
and beans, those sitting right next to them were served steak and potatoes.
Through tears, I had shared with my close friend in the ward what had
happened. Understanding why this was
hard for me, she later showed up on our doorstep with a package of steaks and a
bag of potatoes.
Being in a position where you are forced to put aside
your pride is not easy. Paul and I have always enjoyed being able to be
“givers”. Accepting help from the church and our neighbors was very difficult.
There is a difference between eating hot dogs because you want to, as opposed
to eating them because that’s all you can afford.
One of the changes we had to make with our finances was
to eliminate car debt. Since I was a stay-at-home mom at the time, we decided
to become a one-car family. Later, I started a pre-school in our home to help
out while still being able to be there for our sons. To keep some sense of
normalcy in our lives for the boys’ sake, we continued with their martial arts
program trading my help at the dojo for a discount in their tuition. I grew up
without a car in our home and we walked everywhere, so walking three-quarters
of a mile to karate was not a huge sacrifice to me. With bags and equipment in
tow, we were fortunate that at this point in time, that the weather was not an
issue. Paul was able to pick us up after
work and we would worry about winter when the time came.
One day a neighbor approached Paul with keys and title to a used Nissan pick-up. The
truck was rusty, had no power steering and no air-conditioning. He simply
stated, “I should have done this a long time ago.” Paul then drove the truck to
work and the boys and I were able to use the car.
The question is often asked, “do bad things always happen
because of our choices or does God place experiences before us”? I believe both
are true. While the prompting to move was real and every step of the way in the
process was nothing short of a miracle, life
happens. Like the little mouse who built his nest to survive the winter,
things don’t always go as planned. To be
fair however, we made some poor choices leading up to this time in our lives and
through this experience, we were forced to take a good hard look at them.
The
State of Self-Reliance
Our family has been blessed with more in our lives than
our parents had. As an uneducated immigrant, my father struggled to provide for
our family. We never owned our own home or a car, but never had to reach out
for assistance. While I have considered myself blessed to have more than my
parents did, I have also found that we were not self-reliant. When met with financial challenges, one of the
first things that we realized was our
bondage to debt. Soon our ability to only make minimum payments on our
credit cards, gave way to increased balances, due to accumulated interests.
While Paul and I both have some college under our belts, we
have come to realize that one’s limitations are magnified when searching for
employment without college experience beyond an Associate’s Degree. Not
continuing my education is one of my biggest regrets. Each time I have
committed to returning to school, life presented situations that prevented me
from doing so.
Last January I signed up to take the Self-Reliance course
offered through the Church, on Education for Better Work. I truly felt
that it was going to happen this time. Shortly after the course started however,
I learned that the company I was working for was in the middle of an
acquisition. There was so much up in the air with my job that I knew once again
that I could not make that commitment.
In May, as I had expected, my nearly 10 year employment
with the company ended shortly after the acquisition was finalized. Again, life happens! Fortunately we had
learned from our experience and are basically debt free. Although it feels
virtually impossible to be 100% self-reliant unless your home is paid for and
you are living off the land, doing your best is critical. While the course I
selected for Self-Reliance, did not lend itself to obtaining my delayed degree,
there was much gained by completing the course during the critical time.
Temporal
and Spiritual
Some well meaning individuals will often say to one
struggling financially, “It’s not about money.” Brothers and sisters, if you
have not experienced this yet for yourself, I testify to you that when you are having
to account for every penny that slips
through your fingers and are doing without, especially when you have children
to consider, it’s all about money.
President Dallin H Oaks said, “Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or
resources we could provide for ourselves, weakens us spiritually and retards
our growth toward what the gospel plan intends for us to be.”
In President Dieter F
Uchtdorf’s talk, Providing in the Lords Way, he said, “The two great
commandments—to love God and our neighbor—are a joining of the temporal and the spiritual. It is important to note that these
two commandments are called “great” because every other commandment hangs upon
them. In other words, our personal, family, and Church priorities must
begin here. All other goals and actions should spring from the fountain of
these two great commandments—from our love for God and for our neighbor.”
“Like two sides of a coin, the temporal and spiritual are inseparable.”
“... our spiritual progress is
inseparably bound together with the
temporal service we give to others.”
“The one complements the
other. The one without the other is a counterfeit of God’s plan of happiness."
The
Lord’s Way
President Uchtdorf goes on
to say, “…the Lord’s way of caring for the needy is different from the world’s
way. The Lord has said, “It must needs be done in mine own way.” He is not
only interested in our immediate needs; He is also concerned about our eternal
progression. For this reason, the Lord’s way has always included self-reliance and service to our neighbor in addition to caring for the poor.”
By
following the Lord’s way, not only are our immediate needs met, but we also
develop self-reliance, alleviate suffering, and grow in love and unity as we
serve each other.
One of our first
experiences of service in the church was to assist a ward family whose paint
business had just burned to the ground. We all met at the site, were organized
into several lines where we handed off buckets of paint with the last person
dumping the contents into a large drum for removal.
Several years ago, a
brother in our ward needed a new roof on his home. Our Relief Society President had previously
had the vision of putting together a booklet which included each member and their
individual skills and areas of expertise. A group was then rounded up and the
roof was installed in a day.
We
Are All Enlisted
A former Bishop of ours once said from the pulpit, “What happens to one happens to all.”
President Uchtdorf said:“This very hour there are many
members of the Church who are suffering. They are hungry, stretched
financially, and struggling with all manner of physical, emotional, and
spiritual distress. They pray with all the energy of their souls for succor,
for relief.”
He goes on to say, “Brethren,
please do not think that this is someone else’s responsibility. It is mine, and
it is yours. We are all enlisted. “All” means all—every Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood
holder, rich and poor, in every nation. In the Lord’s plan, there is something
everyone can contribute.
The lesson we learn generation after generation is that rich and poor are all under the same sacred obligation to help their neighbor. It will take all of us working together to successfully apply the principles of welfare and self-reliance.
The lesson we learn generation after generation is that rich and poor are all under the same sacred obligation to help their neighbor. It will take all of us working together to successfully apply the principles of welfare and self-reliance.
Too often we notice the
needs around us, hoping that someone from far away will magically appear to
meet those needs. Perhaps we wait for experts with specialized knowledge to
solve specific problems. When we do this, we
deprive our neighbor of the service we could render, and we deprive ourselves
of the opportunity to serve…The Lord has placed His priesthood and its
organization at our doorsteps in every nation where the Church is established.
And, right by its side, He has placed the Relief Society.
The Lord’s way is not to
sit at the side of the stream and wait for the water to pass before we cross. It is to come together, roll up our
sleeves, go to work, and build a bridge or a boat to cross the waters of our
challenges. You men of Zion, you priesthood holders, are the ones who can
lead out and bring relief to the Saints by applying the inspired principles of
the welfare program! It is your mission to open
your eyes, use your priesthood, and go to work in the Lord’s way.”
Through our own personal
trials, we have seen what financial bondage can do to a family and how it can
rob you not only of temporal peace, but of your spiritual well being, for they are inseparable. I testify to you that I
have seen the blessings that come from being independent and self-reliant,
especially in the face of life’s storms. It may be extremely difficult, but we have
the Lord on our side. “President Henry B. Eyring said, “When you do your part, the Lord adds His Power.”
John
10:10 reads, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly.”
Through the scriptures there are countless verses that
express the Lord’s desires to bless us, both spiritually and temporally. It is
important that we understand the purpose however. The importance of being independent and self-reliant is not just for our
own sake but so that we can be strong and stable enough to provide help and
resources to others when needed.
We know that Enoch built a Zion society through the spiritual process of creating a people of one heart and one mind and the temporal work of ensuring that there were “no poor among them.”