How do we always remember Christ?

King Benjamin, the magnificent prophet-king of the Nephites, concluded his life-changing sermon to his people from the tower with these thundering words, “And now, O man, remember and perish not” (Mosiah 4:30). He exhorted the Nephites, and he is exhorting us, to watch our thoughts, words and deeds, and to keep the commandments and be faithful in watching for the Lord to the end of our lives.

Each Sunday during the administration of the Sacrament we renew our covenant to “always remember him,” referring to the Son (see D&C 20:77). So how do we always remember Christ?

First, we can train our minds to think of him. We can try to see others through the Savior’s eyes. We can set our prejudices and judgments aside and look upon our neighbors as weak beings who stumble every day and need the Savior’s Atonement as much as we do. We can recognize that Jesus yearns for each of us to come unto him and accept his help and his comfort. Jesus does not expect us to come to him already perfected. He wants us to bring our imperfections with us and come to him in humility and sincerity. When we see others in the same pitiful conditions as ourselves, we remember Christ.

Second, we can make him our purpose. As we bring out actions in alignment with his will, then we are remembering him. Remembering Christ is as much about what we do as what we think. King Benjamin warned us to watch our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Our actions are a reflection of our thoughts. To act according to Christ’s will requires that we first think according to his thoughts. If we ask for it, the Holy Ghost can inspire us with Christ-like thoughts. Indeed, through the Holy Ghost we can “feast on the words of Christ, for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (see 2 Nephi 32:3). When the Holy Ghost reveals to us the will of Christ and we act according to his will, we are remembering him in the most active, meaningful way.

Third, we remember Christ when we notice his hand in our lives. When we are grateful for the blessings of God and his tender mercies, we remember Christ. It takes practice to sensitize our awareness to the Lord’s hand. President Henry B. Eyring suggests that we keep a daily journal to record the mercies and grace that we see in each day’s events (see “O, Remember, Remember”, October 2007 General Conference). When we make it a habit to pause at the end of each day and ask the Lord to show us how he has touched our lives, he will show us things that we may have missed or overlooked in the hustle and bustle of our busy day. As we are reminded of the blessings that we have received, we will feel our gratitude grow. In gratitude, we remember Christ.

Fourth, we can learn to see the signs of Christ that are all around us. Alma taught, “All things denote there is a God” (Alma 30:44). We can practice being conscious of the symbols that God has given us to remind us of his Son. When we see the sun, we can be reminded that Christ is the Light of the World. We see a flowing stream or take a drink of water and we remember that Christ is the Living Water. We smell the aroma of freshly baked bread and recall that Christ is the Bread of Life. We make our way through a dark storm on our evening commute and remind ourselves that Christ stilled the storm. We view the majestic, immovable mountains and remember that Christ is the immoveable Rock of our salvation. We note the perfect arrangement of the earth and sun to sustain life and see the organization of the universe from the largest galaxy to the tiniest sub-atomic particle in all their perfection, and we see the hand of God. All things testify that there is a God and that his hand is in our lives. And thus, we remember Christ.

There are blessings inherent in always remembering Christ. In the same sermon in which King Benjamin commanded the Nephites to “remember and perish not”, he also gave them counsel about what to remember:
“And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God” (Moaish 4:11). He then listed the following blessings that come to us if we follow his admonition to remember:

• Always rejoice
• Be filled with a love of God
• Retain a remission of our sins
• Grow in the knowledge of God
• Grow in the knowledge of the truth
• Live peaceably  (See Mosiah 4:12-13)

King Mosiah also promises that we will be able to teach our children to live righteously, “walk in the ways of truth and soberness,” and “love one another,” and “serve one another.” (See Mosiah 4:15) These are marvelous blessings indeed that accrue to us and to our families when we remember Christ always.

Jesus has promised never to forget us. We covenant to always remember him. He will keep his promise. Will we keep our covenant?

What role does the Holy Ghost play in teaching the gospel?

Jesus promised to his disciples a marvelous gift of comfort and of knowledge: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26). As latter-day disciples of the Savior, we have the same promise.

When we teach, the Holy Ghost testifies both to us and to the hearer that what we teach is true. As teachers, our job is more than simply imparting information. Knowing the truth does not help anyone if he does not believe it. Satan knows the truth, but he rejects it in favor of his own agenda.

When we teach, we must be as concerned about how the learner feels as we are about what he knows. The Holy Ghost most often works at the feeling level. When we speak the truth, the Holy Ghost testifies to the receptive learner. He convinces him of the truth. When the learner feels that convincing witness of the Spirit in his heart, he is on the road to conversion.

Spiritual preparation is necessary to teach by the spirit

The sons of Mosiah were great gospel teachers. They prepared themselves spiritually to teach as follows: "But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God" (Alma 17:3).

To teach by the power of The Spirit requires spiritual preparation. Prayer and fasting are part of that spiritual preparation. We pray and ask for The Holy Ghost to teach us. We fast to increase our sensitivity to the whispering of The Spirit. When we are prepared, we will teach with authority because we will know what the learners need to hear, and we will know it is true. We teach with power when we bear our testimonies.

Note that we do not prepare lessons, but rather we prepare ourselves. We fill ourselves with knowledge and truth and testimony. The Holy Ghost will teach through us, but he cannot teach from a vacuum. We must have the knowledge with which he can work. So our preparation is two fold. We enhance our knowledge, as guided by the Holy Ghost. And we tune our spirits to be sensitive to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, so that when we enter the classroom or the teaching situation and we look into the eyes of the one we are to teach, the Holy Ghost can bring exactly the right things to our remembrance that the learner needs to hear at that moment.

D&C 11:21 reminds us,  "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." We obtain the Lord's word not only through studying the scriptures but by the communications of the Holy Ghost

Personal examples of seeing God's hand in my life

The hand of the Lord is evident to me in my own life by my introduction and conversion to the Church. I was living in a time and place where the Church was very active, there was a strong youth group in the ward, we had a very youth-oriented bishop, and we had great missionaries. After I joined, the Lord lined up spiritual experiences and excellent teachers for me to help my testimony grow.

I have often marveled at how friends came and went in my life growing up. I had several good friends from whom I just seemed to naturally drift apart as their lives took turns in the wrong direction. It wasn't a conscious decision, it just happened. It was easy for me to become involved in the Church because I did not have a lot of strong negative influences in my life and I had virtually no friends holding me back.

My marriage to Evelyn was a great example of God's hand. Though we had lived all of our lives just a couple of miles apart, we went to different schools and had never met. She joined the Church while I was on my mission and was active in Young Adults when I returned. We were introduced through an ice breaker game at an activity where we had to find someone who drove the same car. She and I were the only two who drove Buick Opals. Even though our friends and even our priesthood leaders said we were wrong for each other, we knew differently. Thirty-seven years later, we know we made the right decision.

Here are some recent, small examples of tender mercies that I have seen in my life. I see daily the abundance of temporal things with which I have been blessed and recognize the poverty in which most of the world lives, and I know that I am in this blessed circumstance so that I can work for the Church and build up the kingdom every day. My Patriarchal Blessing says that I will have a unique career, and it is certainly unique and rare to be working full time for the Church.

In my work for the Church I see the hand of the Lord in bringing people to us with special skills just at the moment that we need them. I was involved ten years ago in designing computer systems that have made it possible for the Missionary Department to keep up with the unprecedentedly rapid growth of the missionary force in the past couple of months since the announce in October Conference of the reduced minimum age for missionary service.

I see the hand of the Lord in this new youth curriculum and the emphasis on raising the bar for the youth. I am blessed to be a part of the introduction of this program of learning because I have much to learn as well.

Recognizing Tender Mercies

Psalms 145:9 "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works."

1 Nephi 1:20 "...behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

We are told that tender mercies are all around us. How do we learn to recognize them? We need to sensitize ourselves to them. One way to do this is through a daily gratitude journal. If we take a few moments at the end of each day to think back over the events of the day and write down the things for which we are grateful, and especially where we have seen the Lord working in our lives, we will grow in our capacity to recognize his hand.

President Henry B. Eyring told a beautiful story of how he learned to see the tender mercies of the Lord. He said,

"When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day.... I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done. 

"More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened."

Watch the video of this talk.
Read the entire talk from General Conference here.

President Eyring learned that we have to look for the hand of the Lord and His tender mercies. When we take the time to look, and to ask Him to show us what He has done for us, He is happy to oblige.

In Alma 30:44 we read, "...The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

Moses taught, "And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me" (Moses 6:63)

How do all things bear record of God? Though the universe may seem random, there is great order in it. The earth is perfectly designed and positioned to support life as we know it. There is complexity and diversity of life and yet there are basic similarities between all things. The very existence of self-sustaining life indicates intelligence, for the natural law of thermodynamics says that order turns into disorder without a force to keep things in order.

The order and design of the universe, from the largest galaxy to the smallest sub-atomic particle, reveal an Intelligence. Numbers and patterns repeat themselves in many ways. For example, Fred Wilson, of the Institute for Creation Research, wrote an fascinating article titled "Shapes, Numbers, Patterns, and the Divine Proportion in God's Creation." In this treatise, he examines how shapes such as the spiral are consistently repeated in " hurricanes, spiral seeds, the cochlea of the human ear, ram's horn, sea-horse tail, growing fern leaves, DNA molecule, waves breaking on the beach, tornados, galaxies, the tail of a comet as it winds around the sun, whirlpools, seed patterns of sunflowers, daisies, dandelions, and in the construction of the ears of most mammals."

Mr. Wilson concludes his article with this assertion, "These shapes, numbers, spirals, and the divine proportion are ubiquitous in their presence throughout all of creation. They are found in living and nonliving phenomena. Their symmetry, beauty, and mathematical preciseness are evident in every aspect of nature. Although absolute perfection is not found in all of these (due to the effects of Adam' sin), their very presence virtually everywhere and in everything argues against their having occurred by blind chance or evolutionary processes. The only rational conclusion is that the Creator of the universe is a personal, intelligent Being, who created these things as a visible fingerprint of His invisible, yet personal existence."

Surely as we look around the universe and in our own lives, we can recognize God's hand and His tender mercies. If we do not see them, it is only because we are not looking and not asking.

How do confessing His hand and obeying the commandments work together?

One more reading of D&C 59:21 "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments."

These two qualities of confessing God's hand and keeping His commandments go hand in hand in at least a couple of aspects. First, we recognize the Father's hand in our lives as revelation through the Holy Ghost. The Spirit bears witness to our hearts that God loves us. It is the influence of the Holy Spirit that makes us aware of the Lord's presence.

The Spirit operates on principles of righteousness. When we are striving to keep the commandments, we draw closer to the Spirit and can more easily feel his promptings and hear his whisperings. When we are sinning, the primary messages we receive from the Holy Ghost are feelings of guilt and promptings to repent. These strong impressions to turn ourselves around and get on the righteous path usually drown out and overwhelm the gentler promptings of gratitude and testimony. Thus, we are far more likely to receive the comforting assurances of the Holy Ghost when we are keeping the commandments.

Second, God operates on the law of obedience. Obedience is the first law of heaven. We receive many blessings from the Lord, regardless of our obedience and faithfulness. The sun shines, the earth turns, the seasons come and go, trees blossom and grow, gravity operates, we eat and drink, and life goes on for most of us even when we are oblivious to God. But there are special blessings that await those who keep God's commandments. He has knowledge and power reserved for only those who obey Him, and such blessings "are predicated - and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated (See D&C 130:20-21).

Thus, when we keep the commandments, our Father has greater blessings to bestow upon us, and there will simply be more of His hand to see and confess in our lives.

What does it mean to confess God;s hand in all things?

Read again D&C 59:21 "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments."

To confess means to declare. The hand of the Lord symbolizes His actions. So our Father wants us to declare His active role in every part of our lives.

Confessing is more than just believing. It involves telling others about it. God wants us to share with others how He has worked in our lives to bless us. Of course, before we can declare God's involvement with us, we must first become aware. We have to look for ways in which He has helped us, comforted us, taught us, and strengthened us. With practice and careful observation, we can learn to see Him in many ways.

Sometimes His actions in our lives are monumental and obvious, as in a miraculous healing. But most often the things He does in our lives are subtle, quiet, seemingly routine, almost imperceptible. If we are not seeking and watching, and if we are not properly attuned, we will miss the ever-so-still whisperings.

Father will continue to bless us, for He blesses all His children and sends sun and rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous, but we will miss the greater meaning of the blessings if we do not recognize them, acknowledge them, feel gratitude for them, and confess them.

Offending God when we do not confess his hand in all things

In D&C 59:21 we read, "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments."

Why is God offended and wrathful when we fail to confess his hand in all things?

To offend means to cause to be upset, annoyed, or resentful. These are negative emotional reactions. We know that God's love for us is eternal and perfect, But it can be momentarily tarnished by negative feelings towards us when we offend him. His joy in us and his feelings of love for us are not full when we disappoint him.

Good mortal parents do not expect to be repaid by their children. Indeed, they know that there is no way that a child can possibly pay back all of the time, effort, love, worry, money, and work that the parent has put into raising the child. But they do expect some appreciation. That appreciation should grow as the child matures and is able to see and understand the effort that the parent has expended on his behalf. Only when the child is fully grown and begins to have children of his own will he comprehend the full scope and depth of effort that his parents put into his upbringing.

However, along the way, the parent can expect the child to acknowledge and appreciate the work and effort of the parent. This appreciation not only validates the parent, but it is how the parent knows that his child is "getting it". He knows that the child is increasing in understanding and maturity when he sees evidence that the child can see beyond himself and appreciate the worth and contributions of others.

The parent has hope for his child when that child begins to see himself less as the center of the universe and expands his horizons to recognize the contributions of others. The parent wants to know that his child will grow up to be a good parent in his own right and that he will give to, and do for, his own children in the manner that the parent has given of himself to his child.

An attitude of entitlement is counter to the attitude of selfless charity that a good parent must have. Receiving appropriate expressions of appreciation from the child let's the parent know that the child is growing up. At the same time, the parent's feelings of love are rewarded and strengthened by words of appreciation.

On the other hand, when a child disrepects the parent and fails to feel and show appropriate appreciation for what the parent has done for him, it is natural for the parent to feel some level of resentment towards the child. Of course, appropriate appreciation is based on the child's age and ability to understand. No parent expects his infant to say thank you for changing his diaper. But at some point, the parent begins to teach the child to recognize favors and service that are rendered to him and to mouth words like "Thank you" in response. The hope is that over time, the child will come to recognize these acts on his own and will say thank you with genuine comprehension.

All of these aspects of parent/child relationships apply to our Heavenly Father and to us as his literal offspring. Our Father is a person with emotions and feelings. He feels joy and sorrow, satisfaction and disappointment. Like any good parent, how God's children behave towards him and towards each other affects him. Our Father gives us everything. He has organized and nurtured our spirits. He has provided this earth for us and has provided physical bodies to house our spirits and to give us a mortal experience. He has given us resources, means, strengths and opportunities.

He has designed a plan whereby we can progress and become like him. He has given us a loving Savior - the best of all his children - to atone for us so that his Plan of Happiness can work for us.

His hand was in the founding of the United States and establishment of a government and a society where freedom of religion and of speech could be enjoyed. He has raised up prophets in these latter days and restored the gospel and the Church.

On a personal note, he has placed me in favorable circumstances where all of my needs and wants can be met so that I can spend my time in consecrated work to build up his Church and Kingdom. I have good health, a worthy and faithful companion, a family, a marvelous place to live, good leaders and teachers and friends. My problems and challenges, compared to most of the world, are practically insignificant. To quote the Psalmist, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." I strive to be grateful every day of my life, for I owe all to God and Christ, and I do not want to offend such a generous, merciful, and loving Father.

"Come, Follow Me"

I teach a youth Sunday school class. It is an awesome responsibility, in the traditional definition of "awesome" as something that inspires awe. I am awed that the Lord would entrust me to help young people develop and increase their testimonies and their understanding of the Gospel. I am certainly not a role model in any sense of the word.

Nevertheless, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a teacher, because it forces me to study and to prepare myself. It is eternally true that the teacher gets far more out of a class than the students. I am thankful that I have this challenge to grow.

At October 2012 General Conference, the announcement was made of the new youth curriculum for Sunday school and the Young Men/Young Women's program. At first, I didn't get it. For the previous two years I had been building up a library of lesson plans based on the Sunday school manuals for the 12-13 year-old class. My hope was that we would start repeating the same lessons from the same manuals, and I could finally coast for a while and not have to work so hard to prepare a lesson every week.

Then along comes "Come, Follow Me". The curriculum is completely different. I would have yet another year of new lessons to prepare. And at the same time my assignment was switched to teach the 17-18 year-old class, so not only are the lesson topics new, but now I have to think about the topics from a more mature perspective. But ok, one more year of writing new lesson plans, and then I could coast.

Then it began to dawn on me, as I studied the new curriculum, that it is not about lesson plans. It is about personal spiritual preparation that leads to teaching with the Spirit. It is about throwing the lesson plans away, and teaching people instead of lessons. It is about teaching the Savior's way instead of my way.

It was this drive for personal spiritual preparation that inspired me to start this blog. As I quit writing lesson plans and starting studying the Gospel topics for classroom discussion, I began to have a much richer, enlivening experience. As the Holy Ghost began to work on me, I realized that I needed to share what I was learning. There is no way I could share it all in the classroom. The blog gives me the space to say what I want to say and to share the insights that are given to me.

Take my writings for what they are worth. I am not trying to write lesson outlines for anyone else to follow. I do not claim any authority to comment on the scriptures or the words of the prophets and apostles. I do not claim to be receiving revelation for anyone other than for myself. I just want to share what I think and feel as I am journeying through this new and everlasting experience of learning.

I say in the most humble way, come, follow me, as I come and follow the Master. If you get anything from reading this blog, it will be because the Holy Ghost is teaching you.

An Invitation

I hope to share, with anyone who cares to read, my love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed through His holy word in the scriptures and through His living oracles. What I shall publish here shall be my own work. Except where I quote the scriptures and the General Authorities with appropriate attribution, my writings are not official doctrine or statements on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is just me, sharing what I am learning by the Holy Ghost. To the degree that I plagiarize the words and writings of others, my apologies to the unrecognized authors. Please find solace in the fact that something you have said or written has been woven into the fibers of my being, even if I do not remember how it got there or where it came from. Sometimes I cannot distinguish my own original thoughts from the words of others that have become so ingrained in my mind that I think I thought them first. If I have made errors, I am happy to take feedback and make corrections.

I also invite comment. If you have read this far, you are, first of all, a glutton for punishment; but secondly, you have earned the right to provide critique and share your own thoughts. You may agree or disagree. The objective here is to learn, not to win, because leaning is winning. We learn best by discussing. When we discuss, the Holy Ghost can teach all parties. If all we do is listen, we only get half of the lesson that the Spirit has in store for us.

Blogging creates a sense of commitment, just in case there is someone out there who is following the blog. Over the years I have developed a fairly consistent habit of writing, so the commitment does not daunt me. I am committed to learning, and I am committed to writing. I am now also committing to sharing.

Please share with me.

Beginning at the Beginning

Every blog has a beginning - a reason to start writing. My blog has two reasons for existing.

First, I like to write. It is how I learn. The finished product is not nearly so important as the process of producing. For years I have studied the Gospel of Jesus Christ by reading the scriptures and pondering, and for me, pondering always takes the form of writing. I have produced several volumes of my scriptural ponderings, which I have shared with my family from time to time. Whether they have read my ramblings is somewhat of a mystery, since I have not received any feedback from them. Nevertheless, I have written, and in the writing, the Holy Ghost has taught me.

If the love of writing were my only reason for blogging, I would not bother to blog. I could happily write in my little vacuum and be content with the result. I would be satisfied that perhaps someday after I am on the other side of the veil someone would find my stack of musings and leaf through them and find a few nuggets worth remembering.

However, the real impetus behind initiating this blog is not about writing, but rather about sharing. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am under a mandate from the Lord to share His Gospel. Recently, the General Authorities have been encouraging the members of the LDS Church to create a presence in the digital community and extend their sharing efforts into the realm of social media. People are doing everything these days on the Internet, from buying cars to dating. We need to go where the people are if we are going to share the Gospel, and the people are increasingly on the Internet. So here I am.