Hey guys, welcome to Closer to Christ, a conference where two friends who love Jesus and His gospel
share our own approach to general conference.
Thanks, Abbie.
First of all, thank you for being here.
Thanks for listening and for joining us.
We love this time together.
It's really brought us so much joy and we love imagining each of you sitting here with
us.
So today we're going to talk about Elder Jack N. Gerard and his talk, Integrity of
a Christ-like Attribute.
Okay, so Abby, what are some of the thoughts you have about this?
As I approach this talk, I have to admit it's not one that I was like putting asterisks
around and like lots of notes on.
I think at the very basic, at the heart of it, I thought, yeah, possess integrity, have
integrity.
How does integrity look in my life because it's a Christ-like attribute?
I think that was my take home from it, just a short little simple look, assess your own
life and do you demonstrate the attribute of integrity like Jesus Christ does.
And in preparing for the podcast, I took a pass at this and I thought, this is probably
not going to be one of the top picks for a Relief Society lesson because it is one of
those that causes so much introspection and assessment in your life.
And I think the things that might come out in a Relief Society lesson could possibly
be too deep and personal or be such a process to start working on having integrity and meshing
how he says a life of integrity requires us to be true to God, to each other, to our divine
identity.
That's like, that's three huge things that are all encompassing.
That covers a pre-mortal life.
It covers every drop of decision that we're making here and it covers into the future
forever and ever.
And I think this topic requires so much time for you to think on individually what you
can do.
Maybe it will come up, but I thought, man, this would be a killer talk for sacrament
meeting because you would, if you're like me, you'll go through when it's in print
and I'll underline a sentence here or there and I'll think, man, that one sentence is
loaded with a lot of things to think about.
And so I've kind of made these little sidebar notes and scribbled, I pretty much filled
every drop of my margins as I was doing a deep study on this.
And so when my initial pass at it would look like, ooh, this isn't long enough to really
make enough material for a Relief Society lesson.
What in fact it is, is a template for study for whatever you need, whatever piece in your
life needs to be your focus on integrity.
And just my conversations with Amy, what she really hit on in this, I'm hoping we dedicate
most of the podcast to that.
But all of the pieces of this are worth taking a little closer look at.
The quotes that he uses, you can tell that it's something he's been thinking about for
a long time.
Right.
And he put it into one document, but it's like, I think it's more of an invitation for
us to ask ourselves where we're at on that Christlike attribute and what we can do to
improve it.
So I mean, at the very basic, the question, as far as us more wanting you to ask the right
questions, as you're taking a pass through this talk, you might say, I'm preparing to
look at this talk on integrity at Christlike attribute.
What's one area in my life that you could see me improve on the way that I exhibit integrity?
That's great.
Yeah, I love that.
So that really wasn't an answer of where I wanted to jump to, but let's go to this quote
by President Spencer W. Kimball, kind of in his opening explanation of integrity.
He says, President Spencer W. Kimball taught integrity is our willingness and ability to
live by our beliefs and commitments.
And so that quote kind of encompasses the first two pieces, actually all three of what
he wanted to talk about, that you can remain true to God and still to each other in your
communities, in your families, in your church life, in your work life, and to your divine
identity, what you promise to do in the presence of Father and generations and generations
there as we were making this decision to come to earth.
So I felt like Senator W. Kimball was quoted a lot in this conference as we're going through
these talks a little bit more, I was like, we're onto something here.
I'll just say the first thing that I stopped and pondered on was about this experience
when Elder Uchtdorf came to reorganize the stake that Elder Gerard was part of.
Did you, that's who he was saying it was in his own, right?
Yes, it was.
And he was asked the question, has there been anything in your life that if brought to the
attention of the public would be an embarrassment to you or to the church?
I don't know.
For me, I thought that feels like temple question language.
And so I, for myself, was impressed to go to the temple recommend questions, which are
published and you can type it into like a Google search bar and it'll take you right
to the churches.
I don't know if those used to be more secret.
I don't think that it is necessary for me to sit and list all of them because I think
that it's something you're going to want to slowly go over each of those.
We get that opportunity every couple of years if you're a temple recommend holder.
But if you're somebody that's preparing that wants to go to the temple, it's not a secret
what it takes to recommend yourself to the Lord.
And so you'll access those temple recommend questions and you'll look at them and your
end of the day, what you get out of it may be a little different than me, but I feel
like at least half of those questions were directly related to the Christlike attribute
of integrity, how we interact with other people.
Do we accept the teachings in the church?
And then that also carries over into our personal life that we still have that integrity in
our personal life.
The way that we treat the Sabbath day, does it look true to the teachings of the gospel
of Jesus Christ?
So like we're not going to sit and hash out like, oh, you do that on the Sabbath day.
That's not right.
That's not our job to decide.
Your job is to decide how you feel about the Sabbath day and then execute that all the
time.
And tithing, whatever parameters you have, yes, we understand it's 10%, but as I've studied
with Church History Matters, that's a really great podcast that I also listened to the
evolution of tithing when people didn't really just carry around cash, you had chickens,
like tithing looks a little bit differently, but once you understand the principle of it
and so you acknowledge like, yeah, I understand that principle and you practice that principle,
does it look all the same all the time or were you getting hungry?
You wanted one more party and you needed one more chicken for yourself.
And so then you kept that back from the Lord versus today that you're like, well, I didn't
really, I mean, he doesn't really need that money or whatever.
I could go off on a million things, but I would just suggest taking a look at the temple
recommend questions more often than on that two year basis as we're entering the temple
so that it's a reminder, like even when you're preparing to go to the temple and you're holding
that recommend, we admit ourselves to the temple now.
I don't know if that's a worldwide church thing, but like for me, I think it's a special
thought, not just the workers don't have to scan your temple recommend.
It's one more step of me saying I'm admitting myself into the temple.
Just a little thought and I'm not sure that it's always, but it just kind of came to me
right there.
So anyway, when I went through the temple recommend questions, I was like, integrity,
that's it, that's on integrity, that's on integrity until finally the last question
that were asked, do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord's house and participate
in temple ordinances?
And so preparing to enter the temple and then holding that current temple recommend, let's
me know if I'm filling like true and honest heart in those questions, it lets me know
that to the best of my ability, I'm living a life of integrity.
Can I slip up?
Absolutely.
Will I have to rely on the savior to make up the difference for when what I thought
was the right thing to do wasn't the right thing to do?
Absolutely.
And so I think out of it, he set the perfect example for what integrity looks like.
What initial thoughts came to you or did you kind of have the same experience when you
passed through this talk?
Like I actually did when I was listening to it, I was like, yep, integrity, this is awesome.
Great.
I loved it.
Yeah.
Good.
And then yeah, going through a second pass, I was like, oh my gosh, there's so much more
in this.
And so I prayed and I was like, Heavenly Father, like what's the thing for me?
And this really stood out at me.
This is just one paragraph, but it's as the only begotten of the father, Jesus Christ
had the power over death, pain and suffering, but he didn't shrink.
And then it says he fulfilled the covenant he had made with his father and in so doing
manifested a Christ-like attribute increasingly important in the world, which we live and
the attribute of integrity.
That's what it is.
He remained true to God, to each of us and to his divine identity.
When I read the divine identity, that's what pierced me.
I was like, okay, there's something there.
So that led to the question, well, what's my divine identity?
How do I identify?
Right?
And really it came down to my divine identity is that I look to God and I follow promptings
and I just go on my way.
Some of them might say that my life looks different all the time, but I would say actually,
maybe the things I'm doing look different all the time, but what I'm really doing is
I'm following impressions and I'm telling the Lord, I want to grow.
I want experiences and I want what I want for my family.
So I love that president Nelson, okay, so back to divine identity, like what does that
look like in your daily life?
Right?
So I love that president Nelson kind of gave as a wonderful prophet that he is, he took
that and he kind of told us what that means in our terms.
He says, overcoming the world means overcoming the temptation to care more about the things
of this world than the things of God.
It means trusting the doctrine of Jesus Christ more than the philosophies of men.
Likewise, we resist the temptation to walk in our own way.
And one of my continued prayers for my kids is, you know, like, like all parents, happiness,
success, coming closer to Jesus Christ.
And so when my husband and I were praying a few years back, we were looking for something
for our kids that would build character, consistency and teamwork.
We felt that was lacking because we moved so many times, four states in four years.
Every time we'd move somewhere, we would like miss the cutoff for soccer or for whatever.
And so my kids weren't in things.
And I know that those things build those characteristics, you know?
So when Gare had the idea to buy three goats, it sounded really strange, but I prayed about
it.
It felt good.
And then we felt like we should get two livestock guardian dogs.
Gare didn't want to leave one of the brothers behind.
So he came home with three brothers that were livestock guardian dogs.
So all of a sudden we have three goats and three dogs.
And to anyone around us, it looked a little bit crazy.
And to be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by this, which is kind of funny looking back.
But my capacity was stretched to the limit.
And is it true or not true you have the two bassets at this point too?
Not yet.
Okay.
But we felt this was a small answer to our kids being happy, successful and learning
teamwork.
So we worked as a family and we learned how to take care of these animals.
This was new to us.
We spent time troubleshooting.
We prayed about the decisions we made for the animals, for their health and their happiness.
And we did this together.
Then three more cute baby goats came and it was such a miracle to witness just new life.
A year later, we had the opportunity to buy a cow.
I said yes to one cow while she was a package deal.
Her mom came with her.
And then the day that we bought her, we found out she was expecting a cow.
So one cow turned into, you know, possibly three.
I will say they're Highlanders.
They're not just any cow.
They're the cutest things in the world.
So sweet.
We love them.
And nine sheep plus seven more goats that were rescues came with the cows.
So it really was a package deal.
So now we're up to 27 animals with a calf expected in the spring.
So six weeks later, Garrett felt like we needed another livestock guardian dog.
Well, when he went to go pick him up was three brothers and then Garrett didn't have the
heart to leave the mom there.
So he brought home three brothers and a mom.
Once we got through the winter, then the sheep started having lambs.
And when the calf came a couple of weeks ago, she made 40 animals total.
So from a family that literally just had one family dog, we are now up to 40 animals.
This is a major investment in time, money, space, and from the outside looking in again,
we look crazy.
I promise things were said from family and friends about us and our growing number of
animals and we totally knew that it didn't make sense to everyone, but it just felt right
to us.
So now fast forward a few more months and my 17 year old says he wants to be a vet.
We didn't know before what he wanted to do and he didn't know either.
But now it's in his heart.
It's part of him.
He cares for the animals, seeing new life and also heartbreaking death.
He's navigated through it in such a beautiful way.
He's a natural at caring for animals.
It's just very apparent and he thinks in creative ways.
He's gentle, strong and compassionate and very low key and the animals absolutely loved
him.
So then as I was thinking about it, I was thinking, you know, most likely without this
animal experience, my son wouldn't have known that he loved animals or that he was really
good at taking care of them.
So he most likely would not have had the thought or the confidence to move through in this
path.
So I know that all parents do this on a, on a, on a level, you know, you wouldn't be sitting
at the game or the recitals or the practices if you didn't feel like it was the best for
your kids, for their highest good.
Cause it takes time and it's taking time from other things.
So you say what, what with this limited time we have is going to maximize those end goals
that we have the most.
Totally.
And I would say too, that it goes into a natural inclination of what you like to do, right?
Of what people's talents are and things like that.
So every family finds their own rhythm and it looks different for everybody.
Um, now I promise you that if I was like president Nelson said, um, if I was walking in my own
way, I would have said no immediately to those first three goats.
And I would have just nipped that in the butt.
I was not looking for more mess.
I didn't want to scoop poop and buy hay and look for sheep or sorry, goats tenders.
And we went on vacation.
You know what I mean?
That's a lot to do.
So, um, I wondered at every single turn and every opportunity we had to get new animals.
I wondered about it and then prayed about it and I felt peaceful that it would be a
blessing to our family.
So I trusted that and I move forward again, divine identity.
You know what I want to say just because I know you and I know Garrett and I got to watch
the evolution of the little farm that you guys have the prayer in your heart may have
been along the lines of finding things that would be the best for your children to do.
Let's be honest when he impressed the growth of the farm and grabbing these animals here
and there that didn't come to you.
Oh no, that came to Garrett when one is good 14 is better.
That's the way that Garrett rolls.
And so the prayer of your heart was answered in your companion, right?
And because he did the prompting to start bringing the animals in and then your logic
side like where are we going to house them?
How, what are we going to do?
The combination of your skill sets really works well because he's the type that's like,
yep, we got the animals coming.
So figure out the barn, figure out the hay, figure out the fencing and you guys work on
that together.
But it's like such a, it's a good team effort because both of you created these children
and both of you had the desire for having the best things come to pass for them.
And in this scenario, it was the animal thing.
And you did save right from the get go that that was the intention to, to teach some responsibility
and these things that you wanted for.
And you've, you've stepped firm to that.
But in the end it's, it's led one of your child to realize that maybe they were a steward
over animals in the pre-existence or something.
The way that it came about and to be like, yeah, veterinarian.
And when you look at your family history and you see that you had family in your family
line, there was also the veterinarian thing.
I think it's a really cool process.
We don't get to pick and choose when, when things become kind of copacetic with, with
the things we're doing in our life, kind of meshing with the things that we must've committed
to back in the pre-existence or the, or the way things are going to look in the life to
come.
We don't, we, if he said, oh, you're going to learn that skill and that's going to be
40 animals and it's going to be this much work, you might be like, I don't really want
that thing that I'd promised you that I would do.
Let's backtrack on that.
But, but he knows and we know, and it's not like he's like, you have to be these things.
I think we decide, we decided that in the pre-existence and he gives us opportunities
in this life to decide whether we're going to be true to what we wanted for ourselves.
So much agency comes into play.
But again, this talk, like who, who would think that this, this is the tangent that
this talk would go off and we're like, what are we going to talk about?
There's a million things we could talk about.
That's why I'm saying like, I think I would be scared if I was like, we're going to do
this from really study.
I mean, it could go left field, right field.
It could go, it could go anywhere, but there's so, so, so many good things.
But Satan, Satan is subtle and blatant in his efforts to distract us and cause opposition
in our lives.
And so sometimes that looks like a unintended fights with our Facebook friends or with our
neighbors when we disagree on certain things.
But I can promise you that if you go back to what the truths are that we know to be
true that we have with God and we sit and reflect on the people that we are divine identity,
I don't think that we can ever really say the wrong thing to our neighbors and friends.
We might not agree on everything, but it doesn't mean we can't have integrity in the things
that we say.
And any last thoughts?
And be loving and kind in it.
I don't think it, I don't think that that's going to be challenging or hard to do when
your heart's in the place that you're not trying to offend anybody.
I agree.
Just because, you know, you may only be X amount of years old on this earth, but this
is not, this is not your spirit's first rodeo.
You don't, I mean, we, we treated each other pretty good there.
We trusted our savior.
We trusted, we trusted that he would set the example that we need to follow.
And as somebody that's the perfect example of what integrity looks like in public and
private with his father in heaven.
Yeah, that's all that we can hope for.
I love that.
So moving on, we're going to be next week, we're going to talk about a different talk.
And just at the very end of this, I just wanted to say what also caught my mind and caught
my heart was what Jesus covenant did to do with the father.
And like Abby said,
Spend some time on that.
That was crazy.
It was huge.
I think we knew that he was foreordained to do this mission, but then the very first paragraph,
Elder Gerard said he said he covenant to do that.
Doesn't that ring true?
Because I was like, Amy, it didn't have like a sub point of where exactly that it specifies
that he covenanted with it.
And what did you say to me?
And I agreed in my heart that rings true with my heart that it was by covenant.
And I think so much so that we witnessed that we witnessed that covenant being made so that
we would be willing to do this hard earth life.
Right?
We heard all the things that we were going to do or you say you're going to do that.
I believe you because I've always trusted things and I'm ready to follow you.
But then I think when we can visualize the fact that that was done by covenant, we're
like, yep, he's going to do that for us.
Yes.
And it's because he had integrity.
We all believed him.
I was on board.
I was like, let's do this.
Yeah.
All right.
It was so fun to spend some time with you guys today.
We hope that you have a blessed day and that there are some things that you can take, take
away from Elder Gerard's talk, not necessarily the things we've talked about, but maybe it
will get your mind thinking.
Maybe you'll spend some time thinking about the way that integrity plays out in your life
for thinking about the interactions you're having with others, maybe especially somebody
that you're struggling with right now that if you don't think that they're upholding
their end of integrity, you really can't do anything about that.
But what can you do for yourself?
What choices can you make on your own?
And that will demonstrate that you understand that that's a Christ-like attribute that you
want to possess or possess a more full measure of.
So thank you for being with us today and we'll catch you next time.
See you next time.