Sacrament Talks

I don't usually type my talks but felt prompted to do so. So here is my talk I gave in Sacrament meeting today if anyone is interested. (Mostly for our kids later)--

I have been assigned President Monson’s talk from April 2005 General Conference, entitled “Constant Truths for Changing Times.” I have to admit I almost started laughing when Brother Schneider gave me the assignment in light of the changing times our family is going through right now. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the “constant truths” in our changing lives right now. This year is going to be one of many changes for our family. Christina will be turning 12 and going into the Young Women’s Program; Daniel will be turning 8 and baptized this year. This biggest change for our family will be that after a very long and hard process, Clay will be leaving us in about a month to go to basic training for the army and will be gone for about 6 months. So although our family may be separated for a while, we will still have the constant light of the gospel in our lives to help keep our family life as constant as possible.

President Monson said, “Someone has said that our complacency tree has many branches, and each spring more buds come into bloom.

We cannot afford to be complacent. We live in perilous times; the signs are all around us. We are acutely aware of the negative influences in our society that stalk traditional families. At times television and movies portray worldly and immoral heroes and heroines and attempt to hold up as role models some actors and actresses whose lives are anything but exemplary. Why should we follow as a blind guide? Radios blare forth much denigrating music with blatant lyrics, dangerous invitations, and descriptions of almost every type of evil imaginable.

We, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must stand up to the dangers which surround us and our families.”

In this the January 2009 Ensign, there is a story of a family who had planted peach trees in their yard. They had waited a couple of years for the trees to mature enough to produce. The father had wanted to prune the tree, but the mother had refused, wanting to have as much fruit as possible. As the tree grew, they propped boards under the heavily weighed down branches trying to help the tree until harvest. Before harvest came, a storm came. The winds blew the boards, branches and fruit over the yard.

The next year, the trees were pruned. The mother was worried there was not much left of the tree to produce fruit. However, that year the fruit was much bigger and sweeter. I know our family is going through a pruning process right now but I also know that because of our Savior, our family will become stronger than we are now as we continue to turn our lives over to the Lord. As we prune away some of the branches of our complacency tree, we will strengthen those branches that will help us get through these changing and challenging times.

Shortly after I received this assignment, we were reading about King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon. King Benjamin taught some constant truths which were important for his time as well as for ours. King Benjamin was a righteous king who about to die and wanted to tell his people that he had chosen his son, Mosiah, to be the next king and to teach his people some eternal truths for them to remember during their remaining time here on this earth. We are blessed to have living prophets here on earth today who teach us twice a year at general conference just like King Benjamin did to help us remember these constant truths.

First, King Benjamin called his people to gather around the temple. The people came and pitched their tents with the door facing the temple. Every general conference we too are reminded to face our lives toward the temple. This past Thursday, we were blessed to be able to take our children to the Draper Temple open house. What a blessing to be able to take our children inside and teach them about the temple. If you haven’t had the opportunity to go to the open house, I would challenge you to the time to take your family to the temple.

We have tried to make the temple a focus in our family by hanging pictures of temples in our home, taking our children to the temple open houses, going to the temple grounds with our children, and attending the temple ourselves as frequently as possible. When we were dating and first married, we were able to go every week. Although that is not possible now, we try to attend the temple as often as we can for I know that we receive power in the temple that can help us in our everyday lives. When we lived in Iowa we would try to make the trip to Nauvoo, a little over 2 hours each way, about once a month. While my husband and I would usually take turns going inside the temple, our children were able to spend time in the shadows of the temple. They know that the temple is important for us individually and as a family. How grateful I am to know that whatever may happen in this life, our family has been sealed together so that we can live together again some day. I made covenants in the temple before I was married that have helped strengthen me and guided choices in this life.

King Benjamin told his people in Mosiah, Chapter 4, verse 9 “Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.” Our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, is the perfect example in all things for us. We need to have the faith necessary and help our children develop that faith to endure whatever may be before us. I know in my life that when I have faith and follow what the Lord has asked me to do, he has always provided a way. Through our married life, we have learned and still are learning, that we need to hearken unto the Lord’s will and not ours. Our Lord will give us the wisdom that we need to do what is right. President Monson said “Remember that ofttimes the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to men, but the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right.”

President Monson in his talk begins talking about Family Home Evening. Family home evening is a time, usually Monday night, when we get together as a family. We typically have a lesson, pray, sing songs, read scriptures, and play together. Because of our young children, family home evening usually doesn’t take too long and we occasionally we keep our older two up so we can have a more in depth conversation with them after the little ones are in bed. We have not always been very good about this, especially when we were newlyweds, but over the years FHE has become very important to our family. We still struggle at times and may not always have a powerful lesson, but I know that it strengthens our family when we make FHE a priority.

Family Home Evening is a wonderful time to teach our children as King Benjamin taught us. King Benjamin taught us that we as parents need to teach our children of the laws of God. We cannot “suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil” Weekly family home evening is a great way to remind our children of this principle. I know we have needed this lesson more than once. We also need to “teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

I also know that family scripture study has become a constant truth in our family over the past few years. Although we had tried over the years to make scripture study work for our family, we still struggled with keeping our younger children interested. When we lived in Iowa, I had a wonderful friend share we me how they read scriptures as a family. The church has produced wonderful scripture stories for younger children. We read from the scripture stories first and then read the same story from the regular scriptures so our children will become accustomed to the language of the scriptures. After this, I enjoy it when we have the time to counsel with our children and find ways to apply what we have read into our own lives. I know that when we regularly read our scriptures, our family is able to enjoy each other more.

Family prayer has also strengthened our family as we have prayed for one another. This last week, in a morning prayer, Daniel offered a very sweet little prayer for his father which was answered that very day. Our children have taught me to keep my prayers simple, pray frequently, and not be afraid to ask our Heavenly Father, who knows all, for any righteous desire of the heart.

I know that as our family goes through this life changing experience, we will receive the strength we need and our faith will grow. I know there are many things we still need to work on but I know that through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ we can strengthen our family tree and endure these changing times in all of our lives.