Welcome to Closer to Christ, the General Conference, where two friends share our own approach to
studying general conference. Today we get to talk about trust in the Lord. It was done
by Elder Paul B. Piper of 70. So, just to sum it up, this talk is going to introduce
us to ideas about our relationship with God and how it'll grow in degrees as we're willing
to put more and more trust in Him. Is that sure and sweet?
That's it.
So, what approach did you take as you were preparing to talk about this talk, Amy?
So, thank you, Abby.
Oh, hey everybody, welcome!
Welcome.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for being here. So, the first thing that stood out to me was the type of relationship
Heavenly Father seeks with each of His children. And it said the relationship that God seeks
with each spirit child is one so close and personal that He will be able to share all
He has and all He is. I love that. This tells me that He wanted to hold back nothing. The
God of the universe and Heavenly Father to us all wants nothing to stand in between each
of us and all that He is and has to offer. Which leads me to the second thing. He talks
about how really the whole relationship He started based on trust. If you think about
it, He has worked from the beginning to communicate absolute trust for the divine potential of
His kids. So, number one, He would teach us eternal laws. Then He would create an earth
for us, provide us with mortal bodies, give us the gift to choose for ourselves, and allow
us to learn and grow by making our own choices.
When you were talking, I was picturing us in the premortal existence and a chunk of
these things happened there.
Oh, yeah.
And so, like, you'll see people, like, when they hear truth, this is a psychology thing.
Like you'll hear this in college campuses and that, you know, there's this idea that
truth that you hear isn't really the first time that you've heard it. It's a relearning
of truth that you recognize. So, they're not really, they're not talking about, like, God
when they're talking about it on a college campus necessarily. They're saying that, like,
in these brains that we have, that those things are there and they're ready to be tapped into.
But when I heard that, I was, like, thinking about God and I was like, yeah, I think you'll
see that. People will experience the gospel and they're like, I feel like I knew that,
or I feel like I knew you, or I feel like I knew that truth before, and, like, you just
reminded me of something I knew.
For sure.
So, I was thinking, you know, as far as relationships go, like a lot of us, it takes us some time
and some effort to build relationships that we have. And we may not remember the relationship
that we had with God, but he remembers the relationship that he built over eons of time.
And like, for us, our perspective, like, we got to watch the earth be created and then
we weren't the first humans to be sent there, so then we got to maybe watch as...
Oh, yeah, we had thousands of years to watch.
So, that gives us even more trust. And that's a piece of, like, the testimony that I have
of Eve and, like, the trust that he put into her knowing that she would be so intuitive
and she would start the ball rolling on that plan. And maybe it took, like, a long time
in the garden and passing that tree all the time, but I've seen women, like, push limits
in the relationship, like the husband's like, no, we've got, you know, this set of things
to follow by and she's like, I'm thinking there's something more and like pushing the
limits and getting them as a team. This is nothing against her Adam, my Adam, you know,
your Adam. Anyway, all these Adams we have. But I'm just saying, I came to understand
this truth as I was considering Eve.
Totally.
There's trust, like, there was so much trust there. And then we got to watch Eve do it
and like have children. Then we're like, okay, we could do that. We could go to earth and
we could do that because we saw Eve do that.
And then where did she learn it from? From Mother, right?
Yes.
So anyway, all of that resonated truth to me. So, we don't, it just didn't, it just
didn't happen overnight. Like, we built a relationship with him over eons of time, I
would say you would agree.
And he modeled.
Yes.
Perfectly.
So, we've established that trust is an important foundation to this relationship with our Heavenly
Father. We were kind of incorrectly trying to quote something Elder Renlund said last
time. But I know, yes, so the talk was this. Elder Renlund said his father's goal, his
goal in parenting is not to have his children do what is right. It's to have his children
choose to do what is right and ultimately become like him.
So like, he's given us the perfect example of our Savior to mirror what it looks like
to choose to do something right, rather than be told or forced into doing something right.
And do something against our will or something that's like not part of us. That's totally
contrary.
So, contrary. So, let's ask a question. What if you're someone who's currently struggling
with trust issues in general? It's difficult to trust authority or others, let alone God?
Like what advice or like what would you say would kind of spur that process of getting
the trust that we would need?
I think it's interesting because, you know, God is someone who we don't remember. And
we usually are going to base relationships that may seem nebulous, you know, like one
with God, meaning one that's not physical. We might base that on our relationships here,
right? Because that's what we have to work with. That's what we have. And so, if something
has gone wrong, let's say with a father figure in this life, it's going to be harder to look
at God and have that trust in him. So, I did appreciate that he talked about if a prior
loss of trust is keeping you from trusting God, please consider these things. Patiently
continue to learn more about Heavenly Father, his character, his attributes, and his purposes.
This sounds familiar from President Nelson. Look for and record experiences in feeling
his love and power in your life. This one's huge, right? If you're just looking for something,
like we've said before, our brain's job or the ego part of our brain's job is to
look for evidences of whatever it is that we tell ourselves. So, if we're looking for
experiences of his love and his power in our life, that's what's going to come to us.
And then our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, has taught that the more we learn
about God, the easier it will be for us to trust him. I have totally felt that to be
the case. I felt when he asked us to learn about God and how he works, that has been
pivotal for me and for my life because it helped me to learn more about the nature of
God, that he follows laws. He himself follows laws. And it's not just like on a whim, ah,
you can do this or you can't, or I'm going to let you come live with me and maybe not.
Like on a good day, if he's in a good mood, he's going to say yes. It's not that kind
of thing. His nature is unchanging. His laws are unchanging. And that's kind of a breath
of fresh air. Like we know what we're getting. There aren't surprises.
And what he has to offer is an abundance. And there's not like a limit of how many people
could achieve to have that ultimate thing of having all that the Father has.
Yeah, there's no cap on that, huh?
You were talking and I was thinking, the plan, the plan as it was put into play was established
with the mindset that families would be the, I don't want to say the catalyst, but like
the vessel for which we would learn these life lessons. So I did come from, I was born
to a home where my parents lived. The gospel of Jesus Christ taught it to me and, you know,
to the best of their ability, they raised me with these truths as they understood and
knew them. And I know that's true of you too. I know that we're reaching an audience that
that's not the case for everybody. Like you can't even trust the parents that you were
born with. There might have been a bit of abuse or neglect or, you know, maybe there's
an adoption situation or, you know, there's like such a myriad of whatever. But if we're
talking about ideals, like he did mean to send us down in these family units and those
parents are designed to mirror what he and mother were doing for us in these family units.
Right. Like a laboratory.
Yeah, right. Offering us like, that's like a glimpse of, you know, heaven. Like we were
organized in like these family units there and then we restructured that here on earth
because like you say, like we kind of, because of the veil, we forget the actual relationship
with we have with father. But for those fortunate enough to be born to home with like a strong
mother and father, they get to see those. And then for those that aren't, it's just
another piece of their mortal experience and their learning. They have to recognize what
they have isn't the ideal and then make the like the obvious choice to do completely opposite
of what they're seeing. They don't mirror the thing that they're seeing. They look at
the thing they're seeing and saying, something doesn't jive. This doesn't jive. Yeah. You
haven't earned my trust as a parent in this situation and so for my own children, I'm
going to make this change in our life. So it can go either way, but at the end of the
day, you know, it resonates with us what that relationship should look like. So anyway,
when I...
I love that, Abby. That's really good. And also with, you know, I've looked back at the
things that President Nelson has taught and as I've looked back to 2018, he really helped
me reshape my prayers and I pray completely differently than I used to. One of the things
I looked back in his is that over and over and over in his talks, he says, ask God, he
says, ask him to tutor you in this thing. Ask him to help you see X, Y, Z. So in this,
I would say, you know, if there is something where you are not wanting to trust authority
figures or whatever, then I would just say, ask Heavenly Father to show you what a real
father would do in this situation or what... When I say a real, I mean him, the true and
perfect father. So I would just ask to go in prayer as far as that goes.
So I don't really know how to phrase this question, but maybe it comes back to this,
like, was there like a single most important message that you took from this talk, like
an overlying theme, or do you feel like...
Yeah.
Did you already hit on that? Did you say what you wanted to say about it?
No, I would say... So I feel like the first two things that we talked about were definitely
like preparatory and they were the foundation of what we talked about. And then now, moving
forward without a doubt, it would be finding the pattern of trust building experiences
that God gives to us.
Okay, I can see that. What did you get from that?
So if I'm going to be vulnerable and share this real quick, I did have a misstep when
I was going through my year of cancer. It really was like, while I valued the lessons
that I was learning, I couldn't wait to wash my hands and just be done with the whole situation.
Right? Like I was done with it. Leave it all behind. It was beautiful. It was great. Thanks
so much, Holy Father. Tap out. And also to move on and to be trouble-free. It's not exactly
what I experienced. What I found out was that God had provided me with one big experience
to learn and to trust in His hand and His guiding spirit through this challenge.
And Elder Piper in his talk puts it this way, God invites us to grow by trusting His spiritual
tutoring through soul-stretching experiences. Therefore, we can be sure that whatever trust
we may have demonstrated in God in the past, another trust-stretching experience lies just
ahead. God is focused on our growth and progress. Because He's always stretching us to help
us realize more of our divine potential, we will always include a future – sorry, it
will always include a future invitation to trust in just a little bit more. That's what
I love is the whole part on sometimes we're like, okay, I'm done with trials. You know,
like I'm out of here. But really, it's just a preparatory thing. Everything is preparatory.
And he did touch on Nephi, how he talked about – remember how he had to go back and get
the plates? That was something that helped to build confidence in God. It certainly wasn't
in his brothers. He got that done.
God just getting an idea of if I ask you to go back for these plates, that doesn't seem
like the nicest thing to make you do. You just left. Will you go back and do it? And
they will. And then it wasn't the easiest thing. Maybe Laban would just have nicely
given the plates, but that really wasn't the scenario. But they had some gold and stuff
left behind that they kind of – I feel like they kind of took that to inspiration. Like
how should we present this to Laban? Like we're going to trade gold for the plates.
It should be nothing to you or whatever. He loved the gold, so he kept it. But then they
ran him off. And so to have to go back into that situation again, like another matter
of prayer, and it's like, he'll provide the way for you. So again, he just showed
trust in Rui going back into this scenario and then delivered Laban into his hands.
Exactly. And then you think of it like was that the end of Nephi's woes? Nope. We hear
other stories like when he broke his bow and he asked his dad where to get ore and then
he made the bow, right? So both of these things, again, Nephi chose to trust in God and the
family was saved because he built his bow or built the bow and got food. And these successive
experiences gave Nephi even stronger confidence in God for the enormous trust stretching task
that he would have in doing what was the biggest thing that he did.
It comes to the promised land where all that the father had to offer him was made available.
And then the promise that he – I mean, I've read this in my – when I read the Book of
Mormon quickly, I see this story unfold that it's like, you know the destruction of the
Nephites and the Lamanites kind of comes, but the promise was that their ancestors would
still have the word and I'm holding the Book of Mormon in my hand as I'm saying that. And
in some way, I'm one of those ancestors, right?
Yeah.
Is that fair to say?
I mean, we benefit from it for sure.
Right. I'm like, I don't know how closely we're related, but maybe somewhere in there.
But I was like, God fulfilled his promise because those words and the promise he made
to you, like, whether that's me or whether that's somebody that I'm going to affect
missionary work on too, they'll get these words back in their hands because he made
that promise to them.
Right. And we're all connected through being at the house of Israel.
That's really what I'm saying.
The promise is to them, the promise is to us.
Yeah.
Yeah. So that was the biggest thing.
We're all ninth cousins.
That's true. That's funny.
That's the thing.
Yeah. So building the ship was the biggest thing and I mean, that was preparatory for
the next, just like you said, receiving all of the Father has.
Well, we were having this conversation about this analogy with Nephi and like watching
the way that the Lord builds trust with us with like more small, simple, achievable things.
But if the Lord had told me how you're going to leave and then quickly after you get out
there, I'm going to send your boys back.
Your wife's going to be really mad at you.
Then they're going to get the plates and they're going to come back.
And then I'm going to send them for wives.
And then, you know, just like the rundown of all that.
Yeah. The rundown of the trials that they're going to experience and like wandering through
the wilderness and having babies and figuring out how to build a boat that's never been
built before.
I think he would be overwhelmed with knowing all of those things at once.
And so he doesn't throw like, he sees this perspective and he knows the steps that are
going to lead us to, you know, what the end goal is eventually getting to the promised
land.
And I had a lot of beautiful years there.
A lot of beautiful things happened, even though there was contention with siblings and Moors
and things of this nature.
There were a lot of beautiful things that happened also.
And anyway, I think it's just like a generous way to look at it.
Like we show trust in the Lord and he trusts us with what we're able to handle.
And like it says, it gives us the tools necessary to handle it in the moment.
And then that goes into the hard one lesson, like you've taught us about, you know, you've
verbalized that enough times that it's like, he did me right in that experience.
And so when he asked me to do the next thing, it may seem a little bit harder in comparison
to the last one that I did, but it's just as achievable to do because of the experience
that I brought with me from the last thing that I trusted him with.
Absolutely.
You know what's funny, you say that, those are some of the takeaways and questions we
have.
Okay.
And like you said, it builds on things.
Each time we accept and act on an invitation, our trust in God grows.
If we ignore or decline the invitation, our progress stops until we're ready to act on
a new invitation.
I really like looking at it that way because again, it puts it back in our hands.
The Lord doesn't operate in a way, but we're learning in the way he works.
He doesn't just say, ah, you haven't been doing stuff anymore, cut everything off from
heaven.
No, it's us.
When we accept his invitations, we get closer to him.
When we accept more invitations, we continue it until we stop accepting and then it stops
for the time being, until we start again.
Like I love that.
It truly is in our hands and to whatever degree we're willing to learn these laws and to live
them, he will bless us.
I think that's totally true.
Elder Piper ended with this thought.
It said, the good news is that regardless of the trust we may or may not have chosen
the place in God in the past, we can always choose to trust God today and every day moving
forward.
So, in a way that sounds-
That's positive.
No, it sounds like a great action item in a way that assesses the level of trust that
you have in him.
And if you're pretty comfortable with where you're at or if you want to say, I don't know
how I would verbalize this, but something to actually, what I think I would do is assess
some of the times that he has just absolutely fulfilled his end of that trust, that relationship.
Love that.
Right?
I would say, well, he gave me the things that I needed to weather that storm and so he's
shown that trust.
So, I would actually isolate some real solid experiences that nobody could take away from
me that I've definitely experienced in my own life of why he deserves me to even put
further trust in him.
And then I would just say, what can I do to build an even stronger relationship with you?
I love that question.
It actually reminds me of you, like, Claire, back at the beginning, you were talking, let
me see if I can verbalize it the way I was feeling it.
I should have said it back then, but he knows us and he doesn't have the veil blocking his
memories of the relationship that we have together.
And so, for me, it was kind of like, he gives us, because of the piece of agency that exists
there, he gives us the time that we need to develop the trust that we're willing to put
into him.
Oh, yeah.
And so, just doing on that and thinking about that as we've been talking about the talk,
that I'm like, he's already 100% invested in a relationship and it's us that have to
let the barriers of trust or trust him to make ourselves equal partners in that relationship.
Absolutely.
I totally love that.
You know, as we've been talking and as you have said things over and over and over in
my mind, I'm like, oh, that's the gift of discretion.
So if we know Heavenly Father and we want to learn more about him, he perfectly displays
and models the gift of discretion.
And discretion is knowing how much, when, and what to share.
So it's kind of like he always strikes the perfect balance.
He doesn't just vomit all these things on us.
He doesn't vomit knowledge on us.
He doesn't vomit blessings.
It fits more than we know what to do with, do you know what I mean?
Or more than we have worked up to.
He gives us just the right amount, wherever we are, he meets us perfectly and that is
the gift of discretion.
So for me, again, knowing and having trust in God, knowing that he's perfect in that
gift of discretion, it gives me more trust and confidence in him.
So it nods back to just the last episode that we recorded with Elder Renland, like to be
that perfect instructor, knowing exactly to insert yourself into what degree.
Yes.
And when and how much to say, right?
Yeah.
And we're wanting to grow in these experiences that we're having and he knows that there's
the potential growth there.
And so as a knowing father, I really do think when we pray for help and assistance, like
we've shown our agency that we want them, it involves the equation.
And then he gives us the tool that we need.
That might be a person that he inserts into our lives.
It might be a scripture passage.
It might be, you know, something that's been spoken through the words of his prophets.
I can't even list the number of ways that he can help us with those things that we pray
to him for.
All I can say is that I've tested that enough times in my life that he's given me just the
thing that I need in the measure that I need it.
Yes.
So I just kind of wanted to add a way instead of that.
I love the Abbey.
Okay.
Let's wrap this up with maybe some questions or action items that maybe we didn't cover
already.
Okay.
You know, really quick, so with the gift of discretion, because there are a million other
coupling gifts that Heavenly Father couples with it, but one of the big ones that he couples
with it is the gift of love.
I have never had Heavenly Father say, you know what, you're kind of stupid, Amy.
Like he's never said that to me.
He also hasn't said you should be ashamed of yourself.
He's never said that.
He's always said, you know what, you might be able to do a little bit better.
He always leaves me with wanting to move forward and actually having the confidence that I
might actually do this thing.
You know what I mean?
So I think that's another thing that when we're correcting or when we're having a conversation
or just to know God is that if it doesn't feel like that, that's not from God, right?
He always gives us hope.
He always helps us to know you can do this.
You can be better.
Okay.
So yes, with the questions, we're just going to leave you with a couple of questions and
I would love for you to, if we're taking this and putting it into practice in our lives,
what challenge are you currently facing that you'd rather not be dealing with right now
and that you could just wish it was done for forever?
Make a quick list of them.
What are some of your past trials?
Now some prayer questions, make a list now and then ask Heavenly Father to bring more
to your mind as you live your life this next week and then revisit your list as Heavenly
Father brings more things to your mind.
A couple of questions you could ask would be, please show me what tools or spiritual
gifts I've picked up along the way.
Please help me to trust you and recognize the growth I've made to this point.
And then this is the one that's really the springboard.
Please help me to bring these gifts that I've just written down into the next season of
my life as I leave behind this specific challenge.
So that challenge will be in your past, but the idea is to bring what you've learned with
you.
Kind of like the, don't ask why this is happening, but what can I learn in this?
So couldn't say it better.
Just as you were talking, I was thinking that's when you really know that you learned the
lesson you were supposed to is when you're able to share that lesson learned in the appropriate
way as the instructor with the next person that's on their journey.
And that next person might be you.
It totally might be.
It might be the springboard, like, you know, like Nephi's.
It's like that trial leads him to better preparation for the next one that he's on.
But certainly he passed those, that skill set down to his posterity that we're able
to carry on in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we see that in print.
Okay, I loved it.
Thank you so much for being here today.
We hope you have a great week and we will see you next time.
See you next time.
Catch you next time.
See you next time.