Welcome to Closer to Christ Through Conference, where two friends who love Jesus share their
own approach to studying general conference.
Hey, Abby, how are you today?
I'm so good.
How are you?
Good.
Thanks for being here.
So today we're going to talk about Elder Uchtdorf's talk, and it's a higher joy.
Now, Abby, what is something right now that you're doing in your life that is bringing
joy to you?
Just something simple.
I love camping stuff.
Love campfires.
Love my hair smelling like smoke, but not camping.
People will testify of this.
I just hang out as late as I can stay up and then I get home to my own cozy bed.
Love time with my family.
Loving sunsets right now.
It's bad.
There's a few fires around, so they're making some brilliant sunsets.
They really are.
I love flowers, like making arrangements of flowers.
I love music.
Is that a good enough list?
Love it.
That's all the stuff in the last 24 hours that I've loved.
I know, right?
It's hard to choose.
That's those.
What about you?
I am loving summer.
It makes me so happy to see all the green and the blue and all the animals out.
I love stepping out on my porch in the morning and just being mindful.
I'm just quiet and I look at the sun and the ripples of the water with the light touching.
I just love everything about it.
So I'm loving that.
I love taking walks in the morning.
I love setting a table.
I love yoga and I'm loving being with my animals.
And when I get back from my walk each day, there's one in particular, one of the lambs
that we had in February.
Her name's Maggie.
She waits for me and I just snuggle on her and she puts her head on my shoulder and we
snuggle for like five minutes.
It's the cutest thing ever.
Anyway, simple joys, right?
Simple.
That's a good way to walk us into a talk that's going to eventually get us to the topic of
a higher joy.
Love it.
Okay.
All right.
So he starts out and I love it too.
Elder Updorf said, I didn't hear anything about aviation is what he kept hearing.
So he threw us a bone.
Were you guilty?
Did you think that last time we talked in conference, you're like, what?
Yeah.
When's he going to throw it in, right?
Yeah.
So he starts and he talks about, was about 120 years ago when Wilbur and Orville Wright
first lifted off and flew over the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
It was dangerous, but it changed history.
And then he talked about how that was, you know, flying was very risky in those days.
Their father, Milton was terrified of losing his sons in a flying accident.
So he made them promise that they would never fly together.
This promise was kept.
And the only exception was seven years after the first flight when the brothers did lift
off together.
And then this is the part I love.
After landing, they convinced their father to take his first and only flight and to see
for himself what it was like.
As the plane lifted from the ground, the 82 year old Milton got so caught up in the exhilaration
of flight that all fear left him, Orville rejoiced as his father shouted with delight,
higher Orville, higher.
So then he talks about, you know, the reason the aviation occasionally is in his talks
is that he knows a little something of what the Wrights felt.
The Wrights brothers first flight opened doors of adventure, wonder and pure joy into Elder
Uhtdor's life.
So that's the thing that probably brings him really great joy.
Right?
Yeah.
And then you open the talk with asking what brings joy in our own lives after contemplating
the words he shared and thinking about some of the things that bring joy in your life,
my life.
You know, why do those things bring us joy?
Why did that list come to mind?
For me, I feel like it's when I notice God's hand in my life.
I'm literally just noticing what he's already put there for me.
That's my answer.
It's almost like a gratitude list.
It is, right?
The things that bring me joy, things I'm grateful for, like list those at the end of the day.
Amen.
Yeah.
I was in the air last week.
I'm not like a huge traveler.
I love travel, but don't do it a ton.
But I was traveling and preparing for this talk, knowing that when I got home that we
would be recording and looking out the window and looking at the clouds and looking at the
perspective that you get from so high up.
And I thought you certainly could get 30 years worth of conference talks from the seat of
a plane.
Amen.
Just for him.
Perspective alone, right?
Right.
But on top of the perspective, it's that quiet contemplative time that you can just reflect
and you can make connections to gospel principles.
Oh yeah.
So because I was thinking that, I was thinking, what things am I doing in my life that are
bringing me joy?
And is it because it connects me closer to Jesus Christ and my father?
Absolutely.
Or heavenly parents?
Because like some of these things that I do, I definitely feel a connection to mother more
than father.
Probably with the flower arranging.
For sure.
Things that are beautiful.
Things that are soft and tender.
Like when I'm doing projects with my husband, I'm feeling more like I'm bonding in a different
way.
When I'm creating beauty, that's time with my heavenly mother, for sure.
I love that.
But it's meant to bring joy, like glimpses of joy.
What I want to say is as we get into this talk, it's to point the difference between
these things.
They're not bad, but they're fleeting.
The sunset eventually dissipates into the darkness of night, right?
Or flowers will wither and die.
The snow will come again.
The snow will come.
There won't always be summer in Star Valley.
And then he'll teach us how to achieve higher joy based off of the feelings that we get
when we know we've experienced just like awesome snapshots of joy.
Absolutely.
Also, you know, really quick, as you say that, Abby, it's almost like he's, you know, the
sunsets and the projects with your husband and music and flower arranging.
It's almost like he's giving us a glimpse of what can be forever.
Just the feeling of joy that we feel, but it's like a fleeting thing.
And it's almost like it's something that it builds our trust in him and his character.
You're like, I trust him.
You've helped me feel joy in this moment.
How can I feel it more abundantly?
Yeah.
So I believe you with covenants, right?
Things like that.
Let's quote him directly.
He says, and yet as amazing as that joy is, so picture the joy that you feel in one of
those amazing things that you are experiencing in your life right now.
There is an even higher kind of joy.
Today in the spirit of Milton writes, delight, delighted cry higher or will hire.
I'd like to speak about this higher joy.
So it really prepares us for the more the heavenly fathers always wanted to give us
more abundantly.
So he's awesome.
He must have followed the template because he already provided us with the questions
to ask.
He says, what is higher joy?
Where does it come from?
He says, how does it enter our hearts and how can we experience higher joy in greater
measure?
And if we get all the way to the end of this talk, he also gives us action items.
So we'll save those for another minute.
Still we have time to stew on this awesome talk.
So what is higher joy?
Where does it come from?
He suggested it comes from devoting our lives to our heavenly father and his beloved son.
100% agree.
So not just things that bring us immediate joy and add to our happiness.
It's like another layer.
It's stuff that binds us closer to heavenly father and his son and maybe helps others
on that path.
Does that seem like higher joy?
A good definition.
I went into a kind of pop over.
I did like a footnote search and he talked about how 2,400 years ago, so just before,
just a few years before me and you, Aristotle observed that happiness is one thing all humans
desire most.
In his treatise, Nicodemian Ethics, he taught that the greatest good in life is the thing
we pursue as an end itself, as opposed to things we pursue that are like one step closer
to the thing that's going to bring us more happiness.
Totally.
Always pursuing.
Right.
It's just such a thing.
We always desire happiness for its own sake and never as a means to something else.
Amen.
Love that.
I was like, yes.
He's talking about living in the moment.
Being very present.
Yeah.
Yes, very in the moment.
So he says it goes without saying that everyone wants to be happy.
Nevertheless, it also goes without saying that not everyone is happy.
Sadly, it seems that for many people, happiness is hard to find.
So he wants to talk about joy, but he recognizes that because this life is presented with so
many challenges, the good and the bad come together.
And sometimes all we see is the bad.
It's hard to feel joy.
How can we find a higher joy if we don't even feel joy?
That's really hard.
So he wants to tackle that.
Don't you think that this is a tool Satan's using, like, especially right now?
For sure.
So, you know, maybe he can make you feel what you think is joy with drugs or alcohol.
Yeah, he can mimic happiness and joy because you get this feeling.
But it's true.
It's fleeting.
You have to have like the next hit, the next drink, you know.
And so we could come up with a list of things, but I don't think I need to.
You can come up with a list that's present in your own life.
But if you think back on it, you think it should resonate with you that, yes, I do think
that joy might be the word that I associated with, or that makes me happy.
But how long did that last before you were looking for the next thing?
So when those things that we'd have to put in the category of fleeting joy dominate our
lives, Satan's been successful in his efforts.
If we're searching for joy and we think we find it, but it's in a vice, then I mean,
it's not lasting.
So it was never meant for.
Well, I don't know that that's not that's not exactly true.
If we put all of our hope in that kind of joy that we're always searching for the next
thing, he succeeded because we're settling for second best.
Absolutely.
And also, as President Nelson has said, you're never going to be fine.
You're never going to find happiness if you're looking in places that don't provide it.
So it's like a constant spinning your wheels and nothing's really happening.
You might think that you're in pursuit of it, but you're not ever going to find it there.
Thank you.
That is a good visual.
I can see that like the spinning the wheel.
So what I've noticed, I think a lot of people are noticing it.
Satan is tapping into that mental health challenges as like a way to block people from from joy
right now.
And I think President Uchtdorf really wanted to hit like recognize that is not an easy
thing to overcome.
But sometimes it sometimes you can work through those things on your own.
Sometimes it's going to take a mental health professional.
Sometimes it's going to take medication, whatever it's going to take.
That's the utmost priority is to make it possible to fill joy in your life.
Right.
And when those it takes all three, it does, you know, you know what, what takes, you know,
how high, how hard is it?
Maybe it just takes one thing, but sometimes you need all three of them.
And I think Satan's tool is to make you feel like, like lesser than if you if you have
to go the route of getting some professional help.
There's a stigma still.
Yeah.
So he takes advantage of it and makes you try to feel like a failure for seeking professional
help, and then maybe you're forced to suffer in silence.
So something that could have maybe resolved itself pretty quickly becomes this like years
of hidden pain and suffering.
Anytime he can get us to suffer in silence with shame, then he's one.
Anytime we bring it to light and turn to Christ, we're going to win.
Right.
Think about back in the garden, he wanted Adam and Eve to be ashamed of something and
they wanted to hide that.
That's his best.
Heavenly Father Jesus Christ want us to be out in the open on those things.
Yeah, and then they can help us with they can cover those things.
Not hiding.
Hiding doesn't cover them, doesn't take care of them in that way.
So just wanted to reemphasize the point that he made.
These issues are so complicated.
They might need some extra help.
Maybe it's something you can work out on your own with some tools that are provided to you.
Maybe a friendship, you know, a different relationship in your life can help pull you
out of that sorrow, but hopefully we're talking to somebody that thinks that they have to
hide behind, hide in that and put on just a happy face for everybody.
Not worth it.
Yes, we're talking to you.
You don't have to bring it out into the open.
Don't let Satan win that battle.
Let Heavenly Father Jesus Christ take care of that.
And if you're not exactly sure which step to take, ask them if you know, give them some
options if you're willing to see a professional's help on it.
Let them know that that's an option you're willing to seek.
If you're willing to mediate for it.
Some people aren't.
Some like, I want it to be natural.
Then you say, I'm going to be exploring some natural options.
Help me to know which one is right for me.
And when you say that, you're saying in your prayer.
Yeah, in a prayer.
Absolutely.
Because then once you've worked it out with Heavenly Father, you have more confidence and
you're able to make that first step.
Because sometimes if you don't know what your first step is, that makes it scarier too.
If you're willing to talk to somebody about it, then you could say, I am willing to talk
to a friend about it.
Help me think of the friend that I should approach with the situation.
Absolutely.
If you're willing to seek professional help for it, then you would say, I'm going to
be seeking a professional provider.
Help me find the one that is most equipped to help me deal with this.
Yep.
And then when that name comes, you can also ask again, Heavenly Father, this name came
after I prayed.
Is this the one?
And you'll get that confirmation.
Yep.
So because he prioritized that in his talk to like really hit, we've got to be in a place
where we can't even feel, can even feel a smidgen of joy before we can talk about a
greater joy.
We need to hit that.
So he asked the question, where can I find happiness?
And the answer was, well, we know this life didn't come to just like one series of fun
after the next, right?
Come on Abby.
There's a mixture.
I know.
Because there has to be opposites, you know, in all things.
We know that God himself weeps and the scriptures affirm he does.
Then of course you and I will keep, will weep as well.
Feeling sad is not a sign of failure.
In this life at least joy and sorrow are inseparable companions.
Like all of you, I have felt my share of disappointment, sorrow, sadness and remorse.
Any comment on that?
Yeah, I've definitely been there.
Everyone has different seasons and yeah, I don't want to step over your words, but I
was like, this made me think recently in state conference.
I don't know what impressed me to say this comment, but I was talking about how difficult
it is as members of the church.
I think we were expected to have a happy face on, like always look like we're having joy.
We have the restore gospel of Jesus Christ.
Obviously it brings like so much joy and so we want people to know that we're happy about
it and so we smile.
But I made the comment that that is a truth for me, but that also my happiness didn't
come with its own, it came at the price.
I've known sorrow and the things that have brought me out of that sorrow or the hard
things that I've had to endure were made better by the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and that's why I can smile.
And you've chosen happiness in that time.
Yeah, but I want people, I'm like, I don't want it to look like it's just been an easy
life.
I'm happy because everything's going perfectly in my life.
That's not really what I don't really want that message to be above all else.
I want it to be more like she knows happiness because she's known sorrow.
I totally agree with that.
It's funny because when I was in high school, I was just known as that, well, you're just
always happy and it was kind of like a brush me off type of a thing.
And it was like, you wouldn't know about my sadness because you've never had it.
Well, and it's like, you know, I understand, like, just like you said, the hard one, you
know, type of a thing where I have experienced sadness.
I do understand that there's grief.
I've, you know, I've seen things and I've experienced enough things.
I'm choosing happiness.
So it's not like it's because I'm naive.
It's just I choose it and I like it more.
I love that.
So let me quote something from him.
He talks about, oh, I like this.
He said, I've also experienced myself.
Okay.
He's like, I've experienced sorrow.
Yes.
And he says, I've also experienced the glorious dawn that fills the soul with joy so profound
that it can scarcely be kept in.
I have discovered for myself that this peaceful confidence comes from following the Savior
and walking his way.
And ironically, this conference talk, Suarez talked about covenant confidence.
I'm like, never heard those things too paired.
Absolutely.
And then peaceful confidence.
Yep.
Because we've already done the study on that.
Then we come to this and I was like, peaceful confidence.
So that automatically my mind went to thinking about covenants.
Absolutely.
Which is that bring me the glorious dawn.
Absolutely.
And then like he said, which is following the Savior and walking in his way.
Those are covenants.
Exactly.
So good.
So that one little sentence like brings me back to all the things that I felt from a
previous conference talk and they just mesh and meld so well.
And as we're studying them and adding to them, it's just like bringing more joy to my life
because it's like these eternal truths.
I love it.
So this is higher joy.
That doesn't make you think, oh, yes.
So the peace he gives us is not like what the world gives.
It's better.
It's higher and holier.
Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly.
That word has come up a couple of times already.
Abundance.
Yeah.
We're looking for just like a smidgen of joy.
He wants to bless us abundantly with joy.
Right?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the goodness of great joy.
It is a message of matchless hope, a message of yoke bearing and burden lifting, of light
gathering, of heavenly favor, higher understanding, holier covenants, eternal security and everlasting
glory.
I had to read all of that because this is him explaining to us what the higher joy means
to him.
Those pieces.
And this crowning quote, joy is the very purpose of God's plan for his children.
It is what you were created for and he has not hidden the path of happiness.
It is not a secret.
It is available to all who follow him.
His teachings, his example, making keep sacred covenants and keep the commandments.
That is the recipe for success.
He's outlined it since the beginning of time and he's reiterating that message to the prophets
and it is the message that he wants out.
I love it.
So if you have to listen to Elder Uchtdorf talk because he talks so awesomely.
He does.
But you also need to read this talk and kind of follow the footnotes because the talk was
longer than he was allowed time for.
They'll even beep him off if he doesn't meet whatever time limit they give him.
You have 15 minutes.
So if you push one of his footnotes, he wanted to share more about the parable of the prodigal
son.
So there's a little bit more of his talk inside the footnote and it says, if you have any
concerns about whether or not your Father in heaven will accept you and allow you to
receive his joy, I invite you to perfectly read Christ's parable of the prodigal son.
In that parable we learn how our Heavenly Father feels about his children and how he
awaits and celebrates our return after we have strayed from him.
From the moment we come to ourselves and begin the journey home, he will see us, for he stands
watching and waiting.
What's he waiting for?
For us.
As we draw near to him, he will celebrate our return and call us his children.
So good.
I love it.
We all know people who say that they don't need God to be happy, that they're happy enough
with that religion.
Think of the list we created before.
So when we settle for the most fleeting joy, and one of those activities could bring takes
precedence over the higher joy that life centered on Jesus Christ does bring.
So again, there's some beautiful things.
Yeah.
So we do feel like we can put a lot of time and effort into them.
But if we're just happy at that level of it, he's like, I have a higher way.
And I can allow you to take that little snippet of joy that you feel and make it much bigger.
Right.
I can allow you.
I'm seeing people broadcast that though, like on social media.
Never been happier.
Yeah.
I'm so happy.
Sunday, fun day.
And it's like definitely something that's taking them out into nature or like a thrilling
activity.
And I'm like, totally get that.
I find joy and a lot of fun in those things too.
Because I want more of the higher joy.
I agree.
I want the things that require some effort on my part.
And that's a covenant.
He promises blessings.
If I promise, you know, and I make promises to warrant those blessings, I don't know,
does that sound good?
You know, it's almost, you know, as you're saying that, it's almost for me, like, so
I see Jesus in everything, like in the sunset, in the water.
And we should.
And it's great.
And it like propels me to want to know him at a deeper level.
And that's why I seek after covenants and keep them.
Right.
And that, that gets, and I'm not going to get into a Facebook fight with somebody, but
they're like, I've done the religion, but I've been to heck and back and now I'm just
living spirituality.
Well, he is in, he's in beauty in everything.
He created, Jesus Christ created this earth through the direction of his father's, you
know, and the beautiful things.
I always think mother, like she was like, put this in the plan.
They're like, flowers, what's that for?
You know, the beauty, I think, you know, the feminine touch is definitely a big part of
that.
So I'll combine all of these creators.
They did these things for us to find them in, in math, in, in the sunset, in architecture,
in paintings, everything, anything and everything.
But if you subscribe to that as being the end all be all and not a way to get to Jesus.
Yep.
Yeah, totally.
That's, that's, that's what I'm trying to say.
I'm like, I don't want to sound like campfires are like Satan winning.
No, it's just, it's like, we can't take a minute away from the campfire and go find
our way into a church and gather together and make covenants.
It's another important part of that.
He says it better.
If I, if I can find where he quoted that.
Oh, he said this.
He has filled the world with beautiful, wholesome pleasure and delights, both the please the
eye and glad in the heart for me flying broccoli happiness.
Others find it in music and art and hobbies, nature.
So all the stuff we pretty much mentioned.
These are beautiful things, but there's more.
Right.
That's, that was the point.
He was like, I don't want to negate any of the beauty and the joy that you can find in
these things.
But let me promise you that there's more out there.
There is a higher and more profound joy that transcends anything this world has to offer.
One that endures heartbreak, penetrates our diminishes loneliness.
That's all him saying.
And I could just really read this whole time.
And also that godly joy is eternal because God is eternal.
Yes.
I love that part.
Beautiful.
Do you feel there could be more of this kind of joy in our lives?
This is where he nailed it.
He made his own invitation.
So he says, I want you to embark on a journey of following Jesus Christ in his way.
It's a journey of a lifetime and beyond.
So what he's saying to me is this isn't just like a checkbox item.
You found joy, you keep the joy and the joy is always with you.
No, realistically, every day there's going to be some sorrow.
There's going to be some joy.
There's going to be some lasting joy.
There's like, it's going to be cyclical, but he gave us some action items that in his
talk right from his own words and the way that he presents it, it's very line upon line.
Take what you can, do what you can, do a bite size, just the way that we like it.
So he suggests, I'm going to just quickly mention his action items are to draw near
unto God, look for it, and then he asks the question, what shall we do then?
Okay, so I think we have time to go into it.
I don't think we've rambled too long, or you can just pause and then listen again on a
later day because we have promised to keep these short, but this is a good talk with
too much to just cut out.
So what did he go, what did he talk about when he was talking about drawing near to
God?
The woman with an issue of blood, right?
And so this woman has been endured bleeding and illness for 12 years.
She gave all of her money to physicians, but her sickness only got worse.
And then she heard of Jesus, his power to heal was well known.
But then her thought was, could he heal her?
And then she was in the crowd and she reached for, also, she wasn't supposed to be around
people because she was unclean, right?
So that's why she went about it a different way.
She was on the ground and reached for his hem and …
But she came to him.
Oh, absolutely.
And knew that just …
Sought him.
… proximity to him, coming, drawing, using her agency to test the theories.
If you approach Jesus Christ, can you be fixed?
Yes.
And then finally, when she did extend her hand after she was brave and went after him,
she was healed.
And I like how he asks, aren't we all like that woman?
Because it just reminds us, what is the thing that you want healed?
What do you go after Jesus for?
But you also second-guess yourself that you're not able to hesitate on bringing that thing
to him.
That's Satan's tool.
Maybe you're going to face ridicule or condemnation or it's pride or we think that's such a simple
thing that he doesn't want to hear that thing.
That's never been his way.
He wants to hear all of it and he wants to help with all of it and he's made it possible
to help with all of it.
Totally.
He's very approachable.
So there's no distance that's too great.
No sin that's too much.
So like this woman, Elder Uchtdorf says, I have learned that if we draw near to God and
reach out to touch him, we can indeed find healing, peace, and joy.
What a promise from a stud.
I love them.
And it's so true.
Oh, okay.
Here was another action item.
I missed this because it wasn't really bolded, but he said, seek and ye shall find.
Love it.
Simple phrase.
It's not only a spiritual promise, it's a statement of fact.
So this is the idea of, okay, first you have to be in a mental state that you can actually
do this, but like looking back through your day and being like finding the things that
brought you joy, things that you're grateful for, some sort of a gratitude running through
of the day.
Totally.
I saw this thing the other day that reminded me of this, it said your brain, one of its
jobs is to find evidence of the things you tell it.
So if you're telling it, you know what, nothing ever works out for me.
Like I'm always the one that gets crap.
Life is terrible.
Then guess what?
Your brain picks that up.
Here's this to remind you, kind of reminds me Inside Out too, it came out, we watched
that.
Oh, did you like it?
Yeah, I really did love it actually.
This is, I know it was good because it brings like embarrassment and anxiety and...
Brings it to the table.
And the, the, like the, and one other one.
What's the other one?
I don't know.
It was so funny.
So good.
But yes, like if we seek reasons to be angry or to doubt or to be bitter or alone, we will
find those.
And if we seek joy and look for reasons to rejoice and to truly happily follow the Savior,
we're going to find that too.
What an important thing.
Like that's for me, that's where we, that's almost a starting place.
It's a buildable skill.
Right.
If you're, if you're not feeling the most joy, start a gratitude journal and maybe even
have the, maybe make the list of the things that you think, um, like you're picked on
and are, are run so you can process them, that you can get them out and then you like
burn that, shred it.
Garbage can it.
Cause that can be true at the same time.
They totally, they totally do.
What's gonna, what are we gonna let like rise to the top?
Like, what are we gonna shake out?
Like what, what?
Yes.
How long do we like doing that?
If, if there's an actual mental, um, illness going on, then that we could be talking months
and years that those things persist because brain chemistry doesn't allow it to process
past that.
But so, so definitely agreeing back to the beginning of the talk of all of, of, of all
else, like address that if, if something has been holding you back for that many years
or you're fixated on the future so much that it's bringing you a ton of anxiety, then you're
not in the present enough to fill the joy that he's talking about.
Anyway, that was just a reminder, whatever you're seeking for, you're going to find it.
And I love that you brought in that idea because that totally resonates that, you know, your
brain's kind of meant to compartmentalize and then categorize and like make long-term
things.
Okay.
Another one was bear one another's burden.
That was a good one.
So good.
What can we say about that?
So Jesus taught it's more blessed to give than to receive.
Um, can it be that in our search for joy, the best way to find our joy is to bring it
to others?
Love that.
Why not?
If you bring it to others, that means you've already identified it yourself.
So it's like the internal work identified it yourself, meaning it's something that brought
you joy and you're helping them see it.
Or you're like, Hey, something like, I'm not feeling the most joy.
I'm going to do something for somebody else.
What are you saying?
I feel like that's where you're bringing someone joy, like sharing the joy that you have, or
you're noticing that they're lacking something.
And so you're bringing whatever it is that will bring them joy, whatever it like with
this bread, if it's help is just sitting with them, just being aware of them.
Totally.
They're on your mind.
I love that.
That's my, that's my best way to like snap out of like, if I'm in a funk, my best way.
Absolutely.
So I just wanted to testify of that.
I'll do something for somebody else.
Yes.
You know, even if that's like getting up, getting the kids breakfast, like I'd rather
be in bed.
I'd just rather be like, this is a day I don't even want to do.
Yeah.
Get up that service.
And I love that too, that you say that because one of your gifts is you're very good at looking
at and doing things.
So I feel like the Lord, like look for your gift and then see how you can share that with
somebody.
Yeah.
Because whenever you feel good about what you're offering, you feel better.
I love that.
Oh, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Okay.
I think the last one was, okay, that was it.
Those are the action items I jumped to.
Yeah.
What shall we do then?
During the, so this is his, this is his timeline.
During the coming days, weeks and months, may I invite you to spend time in sincere,
full hearted effort to draw near to God.
Seek diligently for everyday moments of hope, peace and joy.
Bring joy to others around you.
Isn't he the best?
Yes.
And it's true.
Doing all of these things really does cultivate joy.
It helps us to recognize it.
It helps us know that God is there and that he's left little divine signatures all over
for us.
I love that too.
And then he, he, he, he's kind of, he's kind of made this like a prophetic promise.
Can you say that?
Oh yeah.
Apostolic promise.
Apostolic, there you go.
Yeah.
And he would say something like, um, search for God in a deep, search for the word of
God for a deeper understanding, get a deeper understanding of God's eternal plan.
Accept these invitations.
So he says that and I'm thinking we can pick those up or not.
We can, we can be miserable and continue to be miserable or we can find joy.
We can find abundant joy.
We can find greater joy if we accept the invitation to do so.
Bite size, line upon line.
Um, and strive to walk his way.
You will experience, that feels like a promise if we follow the invitation, you will experience
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding even in the midst of sorrow.
So he's not saying everything has to be made right before you can fill the joy.
He's promising it.
It won't be.
He's promising that you can feel joy despite anything else that's going around you.
We've heard that before.
Absolutely.
The dawn of celestial light will penetrate the shadows of your trials.
Doesn't that sound like a neat promise?
Oh yeah.
Celestial light is so great.
And sometimes we feel like the darkness that's surrounding us couldn't get any deeper.
If you've got celestial light to penetrate that darkness, that seems, that seems like
we can achieve.
Yeah.
Achieve it.
Okay.
And then he says, you will begin to taste the unspeakable glories and wonders of the unseen
perfect heavenly sphere.
You will feel your spirit lifting away from the gravity of the world.
I love that.
And like Milton writes said, higher father, higher.
So may we seek to find that higher joy that comes from devoting our lives to heavenly
father and his beloved son.
That is my earnest prayer.
I so testify of these things, Abby.
Like it really is true that if you seek to look for joy and to find it, that you're just
a happier person.
I can't say it any better than that.
Thanks for being here today.
May you feel more joy and feel it more abundantly and feel it higher and holier.
We'll see you next time.
B R U M P E S T I M E