Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference, where two friends who love Jesus
Christ share our own approach to studying the most recent General Conference talks.
This is Abbie and Amy. Let's jump into it.
Today we're talking about Following Christ by President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor
of the First Presidency. Okay, so in an effort to follow him, Elder Oaks is going to highlight
a few key pieces of looking at the Savior's life and then drawing lessons from it, that
they are most pertinent to you and I as we navigate the specific challenges of our day.
So first he starts with, come follow me. Abbey, what does come follow me actually mean, like
the phrase?
To me, from the talk and some things I was pondering on this week were that it's an invitation.
Not everybody's going to accept it as an invitation, but it is one. It's an opportunity for us
to use our agency. So if it was a forced thing, it wouldn't really sound like an invitation,
it'd be a mandate, right? It's the Savior that's beckoning us to do this thing. It's
not a checklist. It's a gentle invitation. It's given to everybody who's ever walked
the face of the earth. It's personal on how we pick up that charge and do something with
it.
Oh yeah, for sure it is.
It's something that never ends. It's a lifetime pursuit. I will say that I loved the title
of this talk. I have a friend, she says she writes her own title for talks after they
come out. Like as she studies them, she gives them a title for herself. I'm like, that's
really clever and cute. They're going to stick in her mind if she does that. And I appreciate
that as one way to do things. I also like to just dissect why they come up with the
title that they come up with.
Totally. I love it. Because while you're listening, you don't know what it is yet.
Totally. Because we were going to maybe kind of jump the gun and get going on the talks
then I was like, we don't even know the title of the talk. How would we publish that?
So the genius behind the title of this talk is that following can function as a verb,
a noun, or an adjective, depending on how it's used in a sentence. In this situation,
a verb is the present, in present participle. So it's used in a continuous tense, makes
this a verb to me in this sentence. So in this talk, we're going to focus on actions
that we are doing or can continuously do, not just hear the invitation to come follow
me, but instead we're in the continuous action of following him. If we can apply the principles
that he lays out in this talk.
Abby, also, my husband and I were just talking about this week, we were talking about how
the tone of conference talks has changed over the decades. We were listening to some probably
from the 70s and the tone is a little bit different than it is now.
I want to hear how you think the tone has changed and to see if it validates how I felt
about it.
So my husband was kind of like, yeah, they're just a lot more lenient and lax now. And I
said, for me, I hear the same thing being spoken. I just hear it now with more of a,
this is your agency. So you can choose to do this or you can choose not to do it, but
it's not as strict or hard as it was. Yeah, maybe like, you know, that was just the way
that it was. So I appreciate how things are now and I don't feel a lax in any way. I feel
a gentle invitation to come follow me. That's how I feel with conference talks.
I love it. And I love that you're saying the words don't necessarily change, but like the
ears that we have to hear them and it's hitting a little bit differently. And I do hear a
gentle tone.
I do too.
But that doesn't make me any less more feeling the urgency to do the things that they're
doing. It's just that I'm, it's like a parenting style. Like you're like, are you going to
get up there and pretty forcefully tell me I have to do something or are you going to
lay out this case for me of like, why that's the best and only thing that I should choose.
That's funny laying out a case. I know I'm thinking of Oakes as I said that for sure.
Okay. So what continuous actions did you identify in this talk?
All right. I definitely, he laid it out nicely for us. He put it out in three steps. And
so the first one was keeping the commandments to love God and love our neighbors. And this
is the first time that this has come up in conference.
Right. Haven't heard it before.
No, I love it. He's obviously just echoing, you know, that sentiment that's definitely
being taught. They obviously, they're all bringing it up. It's all been on their hearts
and their minds. If we can focus on those two, everything else seems to fall into place.
So it makes perfect sense that it's coming up in pretty much in some way, shape or form.
It's coming up in pretty much every talk.
Yes. There's an echo all around.
So he, because it's the same topic and we don't want to, he doesn't want us to tune
him out. He uses a great analogy in his talk on, we'll call it the analogy of the kite.
So through that, he's going to demonstrate how commandments provide a guiding and steadying
force in our lives. It was used to illustrate how commandments and covenants lead us to
our greatest heights. And that's an easy visual to picture when you're thinking of this kite.
I took a little liberty of my own as I reflected on the story and I've been thinking about
a lot over the week. I hope you have your own experience as you study that you can tweak
it or make it applicable to you in your life and how you see these things. But I think
we would all agree in the story as we're studying it, that we're each individually the kite
and the father in this story is our father, our father in heaven. The string represents
commandments. The more commandments we know and we understand, the greater we can fly
while still maintaining a connection to father. The key to soaring requires wind and resistance.
He called these mortal winds. And I thought a lot about that. There's like breezy light
days and the kite just picked up and it's kind of buoyed up by that resistance. It's
lifted to higher heights. Sometimes it's pretty wild. Sometimes it comes crashing down, but
the connection to the father is still there and there's still hope that we can, you know,
fill that height again and rise again. So these mortal winds, they act in opposition to the
kite and without it, the kite's just a pretty creation, not really filling the measure of
its creation. The kite's grateful for a windy day so it can test itself and how high it
can climb. Like the kite, we have to understand that opposition is a direct result of the
fall and the exact thing that the father would use to help us soar to our greatest height.
So today's challenges and challenges faced throughout history haven't come as a shock
to our loving heavenly father.
Oh, how did that happen? I can't believe they had to go through that.
Right.
So that's your surprise.
He doesn't think that.
He thinks that.
This is where I took a little bit of liberty. He said that the essential string represents
the covenants that connect us to God, our heavenly father and his son, Jesus Christ.
And I wanted to tweak that a little bit and leave the commandments as the string and specifically
the handle on one end being firmly in the father's hand and then not at the other end
of the kite as the specific part of the string that represents covenants.
And if we erroneously think that once we are high enough that we can cut that string and
fly even higher, we're mistaken. Commandments stacked upon each other and lived simultaneously
allow us to soar amidst the mortal winds. And the second we think we can disconnect
from our covenants is the second we're tossed and turned in an inevitable fall. And I thought
on the string with my own personal life experiences, I think the best scenario with kite flying
is a straight clean line between father and us. And I thought maybe how simple and basic
the commandments are. Sometimes we complicate those things and we put knots in our lines
and we kind of twist ourselves around covenants or commandments.
We put knots in our lines.
And so like just trying to keep it as simple as what's the actual commandment I'm trying
to obey here and how does that help me keep this covenant between me and father?
Yeah, that's a really good point.
And then another thought that I had in my own study was as I've seen a kite come off
of string, like for a brief moment, yeah, it doesn't hold the mortal winds quite the
same. Now inevitably it comes crashing down. So I had mentioned that before, but it's not
the end of that kite story.
Right.
Doesn't mean that it can't
Tie another string.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay. Thank you for that, Abby. I really liked that. And I did love his analogy, like when
he was talking about it with the father and the little boy that was like, well, why don't
you just cut it?
Let's cut it.
Yeah.
Because this is going so great. They can just even go better. But I just love the wisdom
and I was like, yeah, I see where he's going with this. Like that is a really great analogy.
The Book of Mormon frequently declares that Christ is the light of the world. We have
an opportunity and an obligation to be learning about him. It is impossible for us to be saved
in ignorance. The more we know about the Savior's ministry and mission, the more we understand
his doctrine and what he did for us, the more we know that he can provide the power that
we need for our lives. So I love this, Abby. Again, I'm reminded of President Nelson when
he says learn about God and how he works. That would also mean you're learning about
Jesus Christ at the same time, right? Because he came down to do the will of him who sent
him, which is his father. So yes, the more we learn about him, just…
Learn to learning about father and mother.
Right.
It works.
And the richer our lives become.
It is true.
So each week as we partake of the sacrament and commit to always remember him, what things
are coming in mind?
I'll reemphasize what you were saying. President Oaks quotes the prophet in this talk and he
says earlier this year, I asked the young adults of the church to consecrate a portion
of their time each week to studying everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard
works. I invited them to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ and the topical
guy become their personal core curriculum. So I believe the way I did this was to download
an app and it took me through each scripture that mentioned Jesus Christ.
I remember that, yes.
It was not bad. It felt kind of check-listy though.
Because it led you through and you weren't doing anything.
It was like, yeah, I did that and I got that done. But I'm not feeling like when I hear
that, when I heard President Oaks bring it back up, I went to the footnote and I was
like, okay, this is the thing he was referencing. And I wasn't like, oh man, I took that challenge
and I feel so blessed. Look at all those things that I learned about my savior in that time.
Since I've been invited to do it.
So I used it as a gentle reminder that there's something there for me if I should choose
to take up that invitation. So I have been thinking on it and I thought of a simple way
to implement this. And so I played around with it and I went into the gospel library
and I set myself a new plan and asked it to remind me every Sunday. So there's about 58
sections in the topical guide that are titled Jesus Christ and then some sub point. And
there's a wealth of references and I know that many of them will overlap. The reference
will find itself in two different subjects. But I thought if I could be reminded in just
about a year time from now, I can say that it's a challenge that I've taken up. I can
think on Jesus Christ weekly. My guess is that I'll spend my sacrament time doing that
because like during the sacrament, as I'm trying to be reflective, like, you know, I
can read hymns or I can be looking at picture of the Savior, be thinking about him, but
I'm going to choose to go into the topical guide and kind of study one of those things.
And if it takes a little bit longer, then I can stretch that into the week. But I thought
I would ponder on the things that I learned from those scripture references under that
section and then I would leave my testimony in the topical guide as a note section so
that I know that I've covered it, not that I mark a box. There's no real good way to
make a plan because when I said I wanted to study the topical guide, it gave me like the
whole topical guide and it's like, whoo, that's going to be six chapters a day. I'm like,
or whatever, however they organize it. That's not what I'm going for. What I need is just
a reminder on my phone to say that that's something I want to get into and to not brush
it aside. So anyway, I'll leave my testimony on it in my recorded notes. And, you know,
at the end of a solid year, I'll have a pretty special to me recording of how I feel about
the Savior and how he entangles in everything that I'm doing.
Absolutely. I'm sure you'll see that every week.
So we'll move on. The second point that Elder Oaks made was to follow the doctrine of Christ.
Do you feel like you could take that one?
Yes. So in the Book of Mormon, the Lord gave us the fundamentals and what he called the
doctrine of Christ. We kind of talked about this in our last talk. Again, some overlapping.
These are faith in Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost,
enduring to the end and becoming as a little child, which means to trust the Lord and submit
to all he requires of us.
I love this part. Temporary commandments are those necessary for the needs of the Lord's
Church or the faithful in temporary circumstances, like the Lord's direction to the early leadership
of the church to move the saints from New York to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and then
the Intermountain West. I got to tell you, Abby, Garen and I have moved, we moved quite
a bit like over about a six year span. And it was so interesting because I didn't understand
the temporary commandment as in like for a family, right?
Yes, I see where you're going with this because I see this in your life.
I remember Garrett saying, Hey, we need to pray about whether we should still be here.
And I was like, wait, it almost sounded blasphemous to me, which is funny. I didn't understand
the temporary commandment. I was like, wait, no, we prayed, we're supposed to be here.
I didn't realize that there could be an expiration date to where you're supposed to be. I didn't
understand that. So as we prayed, I think it was a while later. I don't know that it
was that exact night, but whatever we ended up moving. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it
kind of opened up a part of my brain that I didn't know because it was kind of, it's
kind of nice to be like, the Lord said to do this. He stuck me on my track and I just
move forward. But then there was another part of me that was like, Oh, and continue to ask
if this is still right. Not that I do it all the time, but usually if an, if a thought
ever comes, maybe it's time to pray about this. Then I take the opportunity because
that usually means, guess what? The Lord might have something else for you. So let's pray
about it and then decide to opt in or not.
So absolutely love what you just said there because I feel like people think, um, if they
question the inspiration that they get in life that they've proceeded with and they've
done that they're like, they're going back on what the saviors encouraged them to do
what I thought and that they're going to some way lose the blessing, lose out on blessings
that they had, but it can definitely be a right decision to you. Maybe you prayed about
what course to take in, which direction your life should take in college or what's not
college. What's an option? Career. Yeah. And whatever career you're going to take and,
and it feels right. And it takes you during a down a path or to, you know, down a road
and it's, it's beautiful and you, you're blessed from it. There's no shame in asking again,
am I doing all that I can? Am I still in the right place? Yeah. And that's another way
of asking about filling the measure of your creation. He's like, I, I supported you and
buoyed you up in that direction because it gets you just that much closer to the next
thing. If I'd asked you to do, if he asks you to move from like Arizona to France, that
might be overwhelming, but maybe he gets you to New York and then he gets you to France.
So I love that. And I hope that maybe because of this talk and this conversation, we're
having everybody takes an opportunity to just say, you know, pick something where they're
very happy in their circumstance and can they, can they improve upon that? Or is there another
direction that they could be going? Yeah. I love that. Another step. So you mentioned
the word reemphasis from the talk. What are some recent examples of reemphasis that had
been needed because of the current situation that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints is facing right now? Okay. I love that. So reemphasis would be for some permanent
commandments. The permanent commandments are going to be different than the ones that are
temporary. So some of these include the proclamation on the family issued by President Gordon B.
Hinckley a generation ago. I was my first year of college and President Russell M. Nelson's
recent call for the church to be known by its revealed name, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. Another of our Savior's teachings seems to require emphasis on the,
in the circumstance of our day, which is President Oaks point three avoid contention. Yeah. Well,
did you look, did you, did you listen to this talk? Do you read or do you listen as you
go back to talks? It depends on what time I am, how much time I have this one I listened
to. He's very easy to listen to. He's got a great voice. He's like making a great case.
But I did both too. But when I looked at it, when I, when I put it on play and was watching
him, the halfway market, this talk starts here. Stop. So he was like, for me, it was like,
he's building a case. Yeah. Laying out this case. And it's like, yeah, I'm thinking all
these things, totally agreeing. And then he's going to be like, this is a commandment. It's
reemphasized and it didn't disappear just because the times have changed. It's become
even more important. So, um, I love that. Anyway, the rest of this, the rest of this
podcast is going to focus on point number three, like you said, which is avoiding contention.
All right. So what should followers to Christ teach and do in this time of toxic communications?
What were some of his examples and teachings? So as I combed through it, just to make it
simple, um, I made some bullet points. I wrote down that he said that the spirit of contention
is not of Jesus Christ. He said that it's Satan's tactic to anger one towards another.
And inversely, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Christ proclaims that this contentious behavior should be done away with. Summarizing the
sermon on the Mount and almost identical words when he came to the Americas, he says, to
love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for
those who despitefully use you and persecute you. These teachings made him a revolutionary.
Our savior really covered, um, every single one of the, but what ifs and got them down
in scripture. Do you know what I'm saying? When I say, but what ifs, but what, what if
they're mean to me? What if they're my enemy? What about if they did something bad to me
first? What about, you know, yeah, what about all those things? Yep. But what ifs followed
it or covered it? How do we know that Jesus Christ is serious about this charge? I was
asking myself that question and I said, because literally on the cross in agony and pain,
his inclination to still utter the words father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I don't think you muster up that kind of attitude in this moment. If you haven't been living
this every single moment of every day. And that is, he embodied the teaching. That is
why he is the perfect example of being a priest maker. That's so good, Abby. They quote, um,
Elder Oaks quotes president David O. McKay in his talk. He said, there's no better way
to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for one's fellow men and not if they're
just nice to you. Right. Doesn't say that anywhere. No reciprocation. Yeah. There's no
caveat. How it would change personal relationships if followers of Christ would forgo harsh and
hurtful words and all of their communication. So we get to an action item brought to us
by our very own prophet, president Nelson, who gave us the challenge. One of the easiest
ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is, is on how compassionately that
person treats others. True disciples of Christ are peacemakers. One of the best we can honor
this best ways we can honor the savior is to become a peacemaker. And he concluded his
teaching by saying contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency
to choose contention or reconciliation. I encourage you to choose to be a peacemaker
now and always great action item. Yeah. So good. I love it. So how do we interact with
potential adversaries? It's sad that it's like obvious we're gonna, they're potential
adversaries like everybody potentially could be our foe. Right. Or someone that just crosses
our path in some way. Right. Right. But it's a sad thing that in this world that it's like,
we're probably gonna not get along. We're probably gonna fight about this. Like why
I couldn't have said potential friend. I know that doesn't work for the talk, but, but the
point of what he's saying, I think, I think it makes it kind of funny to say that we're
looking at these being potential adversaries because if we approach this correctly and
like Jesus Christ would, everybody could potentially be a friend. True. Just ones we haven't met
before. So, Abby, that's so you. I love it. I don't want to not like somebody when I first
meet him. I want to give him every chance that we can be friends. So the suggestion
from the talk was to find common ground, follow the Savior's example, follow the example of
his prophets, Prophet Russell M. Nelson, and reminder that we do not have to compromise
on our principles to get along with somebody. Right. But we also don't need to belittle
theirs, their beliefs. We don't need to belittle other people for their beliefs. I love that
part because that's exactly what we want in return. Right. Could there be able to hold
our beliefs while not being belittled at the same time. So we extend the same grace. It's
good practice to have a conversation long enough with somebody that you can find that
there's something similar between you. It might take a while. Maybe it'll be fast. There was
another action item right after that. And it said, are you willing to let God prevail
in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life?
Will you allow his words, his commandments, and his covenants to influence what you do
each day? Will you allow his voice to take priority over any other?
That's so good. And again, that's a direct quote from our prophet.
And the way that they listed them, it just felt like the action items. Oh, yeah. And
there's a reemphasis on a command that was given a couple of conferences ago, a few now.
Neither of those were the last one. So it's been at least a year that we've had time to
work on this. Are we getting any better at it? It's time to reassess if we need to recommit
to this charge. And like I said, he's laying out a very strong case in court. It's like,
the commandment is to love God and love our neighbors and follow our example of our savior,
Jesus Christ. And I think he's really saying to us, as the world gets more contentious
and drawn apart, and it looks like we have less in common with people, and we're more
inclined to anchor and to contention, that's Satan's tactic. And if we want to show that
we're following Jesus Christ, despite those circumstances, we have to make that conscious
decision to think about our words, think about our actions, and think about how we're going
to treat other people. Absolutely. It's so cute. I had a, when I was in Young Women's,
I had a really cute girl who she was the youngest of nine children. And she's like, you know
what, my oldest sister has this saying, and it's when there's something that arises that
you feel heated about, or that you want to have a conversation about, or whatever it
is, but it gives you a rise. You ask yourself, will this matter in five minutes? Will this
matter in five years? Will this matter in, you know, five months, five years, was like
10 years. Anyways, it was essentially saying, is it really worth putting this anger or frustration
or whatever into it? You know, we would tag that, think celestial.
Right? That was before that ever happened. It would be as a reminder, the prophets charged
to be a peacemaker, the prophets charged to let God prevail, and the prophets charged
to think celestial. Yeah. You just really can't go wrong if you, like we had talked
about, we have Jesus Christ as our example, but the prophet is his mouthpiece. And clearly,
it's easy to say that the President Russell M. Nelson emulates him in his action too,
not just in his words. Absolutely. So what a blessing. I do want to, do you have any
more thoughts? I don't. I would love to hear what you have
in closing. I would love to close with Elder Oaks' own
words, but before I do that, because this finalizes the last talk of the Saturday morning
session, I just want to take a minute to express gratitude for those of you who have been with
us for all of these talks, or even new listeners, it's great to have you coming on board and
joining us. And we kind of take these last episodes of, you know, session ends to encourage
you to share the goodness that you find. If it's in this podcast, that's great. If there's
another one that's catching your ear and it's like sparking you to make actions that you
weren't before, or helping you look deeper into the scriptures, or focusing more on Come
Follow Me, whatever you're into right now that's bringing you closer to Jesus Christ,
if it's in a shareable form, like a podcast or a great meme, we just want to encourage
you to take time to like and comment and share those things. If it happens to be this podcast,
we would love for you to leave a review. It does help people find us, and we hope that
you're finding more connections to Jesus Christ through this podcast. And if that is the case,
we would love more people to be able to have access to it. And so your words help in a
lot of ways. So I will wrap it up. If you have any other thoughts? Nope. I'm going to
close with Elder Oaks' words. He said,
As followers of Christ, we teach and testify of Jesus Christ, our perfect role model. Let
us seek to be holy like our Savior, in whose name I testify, and invoke His blessing to
help us be saints. In His name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thanks so much. We'll catch you next time.