Teach them to Wake Board!

I'm no professional when it comes to wake boarding.  However, I have loved the years I've had at the lake behind a boat.  After a few years of going out with my dad, he finally let me start taking the boat out with just me and some friends.  I became the driver and on several occasions had to teach several of my friends how to wake board.  It was easy to get frustrated as they would have all the right equipment and I could explain over and over how to do it, but it is just one of those things that takes experience and trial.  They could understand the basics by me telling them but they would never get it down themselves until they got in the water and tried it. 

I sometimes feel that same frustration as I try to teach individuals about the restored gospel.  As missionaries we can explain and teach, but until they 'do' they cannot know.  Jesus Christ said "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine..."(John 7:17)  Just like a person who won't get in the water and try wake boarding will never be able to without that first step, so it is with gaining a testimony.  Until a person commits to take a step of faith and move forward, or to act,  they will be stagnate and wonder why they aren't getting an answer.
Especially at this Easter season as we reflect more deeply on the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, I'm grateful that we have a light to follow.  "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."(John 8:12)  To follow takes action.  Just like my friend had to act on their desire to learn to wake board, we also have to act on the desire to grow closer to our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.  It is my prayer that we may each choose to follow the Savior in action and gain a knowledge thereby.

Sacrifice for Salvation??

I've been reflecting on the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for each of us.  Each of us can attempt to comprehend what it was that he suffered for us individually and we will fail each time.  We can't completely wrap our mind around it but we can know that the atonement did take place.  I love the talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "The Inconvenient Messiah."  In this talk Elder Holland pinpoints our role in relation to the sacrifice of the Messiah.  I would encourage all to read it. 

Society today is all about convenience, faster, easier.  How can we short cut this or that?  What's the latest greatest and leave the things of the past where they belong.  Even in the secular world people begin looking for the "easy road to salvation" and there are churches claiming to offer it.  Today people want to attain heaven with no personal sacrifice, no change, no repentance.

If life wasn't easy for Christ, why should we expect it to be a breeze for us.  Though we will never compare to the sacrifice of the Savior, we are required to sacrifice.  Sacrifice has been in the gospel of Jesus Christ since the beginning.

To sacrifice is to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth. As Latter-day Saints, we have the opportunity to sacrifice worldly things for the Lord and His kingdom. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should be willing to make any sacrifice required by the Lord. If we were not required to make sacrifices, we would never be able to develop the faith necessary for eternal salvation.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the great and eternal sacrifice at the center of the gospel (see Alma 34:8–16). Before the Savior carried out the Atonement, His covenant people sacrificed animals as a symbol of His sacrifice. This practice helped them look ahead to the Atonement (see Moses 5:4–8). The command to offer animal sacrifices ended with the death of Jesus Christ. In the Church today, we partake of the sacrament in remembrance of the Savior’s atoning sacrifice.

In addition to remembering the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are to offer our own sacrifice: a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The Savior said: “Ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away. … And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 9:19–20).

To have a broken heart and a contrite spirit is to be humble and receptive to the will of God and to the counsel of those He has called to lead His Church. It also means to feel deep sorrow for sin and a sincere desire to repent. The prophet Lehi emphasized the importance of offering this sacrifice: “Behold, [Christ] offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Nephi 2:7). If we do not offer the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we cannot fully receive the blessings that come through the Atonement.
If you are willing to sacrifice as the Lord has commanded, you will be accepted by Him. He taught: “All … who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me” (D&C 97:8). With an eternal perspective, you can see that giving up the things of the world is really no sacrifice at all. The blessings you receive are greater than anything you ever give up.

As the famous hymn says "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven."  I testify of the truth of these things.

Seeking a more meaningful life?

In the situations I have found myself lately, I've been brought to ponder about our ability to make correct choices and move forward with those decisions. 

What are we capable of as the children of God?

This is the beginning of a new day.  God  has given me this day to use as I will.  I can waste it---or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of life for it!  When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it.  I want it to be gain, and not loss;  good, and not evil;  success, and not failure, in order that I shall not regret the price I have paid for it.

There is only one day that you and I have to live for, and that's today.  There is nothing we can do about yesterday except repent, and there may be no tomorrow.  The thing for us to do when we arise from our beds  as God gives us a new day, is to take whatever comes to our hands, and do it to the best of our ability.

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% what we decide to do about it.

Elder Uchtdorf illustrates well what our potential is when he gave this talk to a large group of women.  Apply its meaning to you!  less than two minutes long!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to preform their labors. (Alma 34:32)

We need to be pro-active.  'Doers of the word and not hearers only.'  Nobody can think straight who does not work.  Idleness warps the mind.  Thinking without constructive actions becomes a disease.  I have generally found that a man who is good at an excuse is good at nothing else.

May we each use this priceless gift of agency or the ability to choose and do with it what our Father in Heaven would have us.  Decide now that you are not going to be a consumer, or an onlooker, but a producer.  Decide not to be a sheep,  or a hireling, but a shepherd.  I know that as we each do this, the world will become a better, happier place.  True happiness comes from righteous action!  The most happiness we can attain in this life can only come to a life that is founded upon the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

(quotes used from "The Missionaries Little Quote Book")