What's In This Blog

I created this blog for my journal. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this blog I keep many of the things I come across as a member of the church. I also share my experiences on the ACE Train and getting to work, my experiences in Manteca where we have lived for three years, and other things I think are noticeable.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Caleb's Sacrament Meeting Talk on Choices

I was asked to speak on the topic of “why do the choices I make matter.” I was a little taken aback when Bro. Morgan asked me to speak on this topic because he said that It was the perfect topic for me to speak on. I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or if I need to change anything because of this, but often times talks are assigned for the speaker just as much as the congregation. So I will try my hardest to help express to you what I have learned while preparing for this morning.
    The first choice that was made by all of us was in the pre-mortal existence. We were given the choice to follow Heavenly Father’s plan or Lucifers. Something I personally think is really cool is that we were all at one time together in a beautiful place. We met with our Heavenly and that’s much like it will be in the Celestial kingdom. Every person who has lived, is living, or will live, made the choice to follow heavenly fathers plan which means that we all have something very important in common.
    The first time a mortal decision was made was in the Garden of Eden, but after Adam And Eve left they were given the Holy Ghost which is the driving aspect behind the choices we make. This is so important because from then on they were able to know the difference between good and evil. Adam and Eve called upon Heavenly Father in prayer. He spoke to them and sent them an angel and gave them commandments. They made an important choice to follow those commandments and continue further communication with Heavenly Father.
    The key to the choices that Adam and Eve acted upon was the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a wonderful helper when it comes to knowing the difference between good and evil and can help us make the correct choices in our lives.
    When I make choices I try to include my heavenly Father as much as possible. If we continue to pray to our heavenly Father daily about questions we have, the Holy Ghost will bare truths in our heart, that we may know what is right. We should always try to include the Lord as much as we can in the choices we make. He is the Father and we should look to him for direction and light.
    The choices that we have made throughout our lives have a direct correlation with the foundation of our faith. The more right we do, the more we will be blessed and have our hearts touched which deepens our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Moroni 7: 16-17 reads...16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

As this scripture states, what ever things we do that help us plant our faith more fully in the gospel are sent from God. They are gifts from him to more fully root ourselves in the faith. President Eyring said in the April 2012 conference:

As a young man I worked with a contractor building footings and foundations for new houses. In the summer heat it was hard work to prepare the ground for the form into which we poured the cement for the footing. There were no machines. We used a pick and a shovel. Building lasting foundations for buildings was hard work in those days.
It also required patience. After we poured the footing, we waited for it to cure. Much as we wanted to keep the jobs moving, we also waited after the pour of the foundation before we took away the forms.
And even more impressive to a novice builder was what seemed to be a tedious and time-consuming process to put metal bars carefully inside the forms to give the finished foundation strength.
In a similar way, the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity.
Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed before us creates the solid ground under our faith. It can begin in childhood since every soul is born with the free gift of the Spirit of Christ. With that Spirit we can know when we have done what is right before God and when we have done wrong in His sight.
Those choices, hundreds in most days, prepare the solid ground on which our edifice of faith is built. The metal framework around which the substance of our faith is poured is the gospel of Jesus Christ, with all its covenants, ordinances, and principles.
One of the keys to an enduring faith is to judge correctly the curing time required. …
That curing does not come automatically through the passage of time, but it does take time. Getting older does not do it alone. It is serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength.
Mosiah 3:19 reads  19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

This scripture state that we should be in the world and not of the world. The natural man is an enemy to god.

I know that the choices I make me affect my eternal salvation for better or worse. When I think about the question, Why do the Choices I make matter? The answer is simple. The choices I make matter solely because to live with my Heavenly Father again I must make good choices. The easiest way to do that is with his help. After the age in the mission change I immediately knew that I wanted to leave right after high school. I had felt the spirit and felt in my heart that it was a good thing. Eventually i realized that I had never asked my Heavenly Father what he would have me do. I asked him in prayer if I could leave right away. Of course he said no to that because I still need to finish high school but, he did say that it is time for me to go when I am eligible. I’m so excited to serve my heavenly father in the mission field. Like I said, everyone that has lived, is living, or will live, made the decision to follow heavenly fathers plan. So I’m excited to help my brothers and sisters who are wandering and pull them back on the path toward Heavenly Father. I know and hope that I will be blessed for the choice I made to serve a mission, but I will also be blessed for making the choice to include Heavenly Father in my decision. I pray that we all can include him as we pray to him on our knees. The choices I make and the choices you make matter because choosing good more fully roots us in the gospel, and we must choose good constantly in order to be with our Heavenly Father again

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