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Welcome to Closer To Christ

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through General Conference.

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We're two friends who love Jesus

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and share our own approach to studying

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the most recent general conference talks.

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This is Abbe and Amy.

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Let's jump into it.

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Today we're talking about aligning our will with His.

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This is by Elder Eulisiz S. Suarez

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the Quorum of the Twelve. Abby, this was a fantastic one. Welcome.

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Abby Goodman Thank you. Good to be here.

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Abby Goodman Happy to have you.

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Okay, so Elder Suarez highlights the parable of the pearl of great price as the foundation

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for the discussion. So, it's a short and sweet parable with a powerful lesson.

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A merchant was on a search for goodly pearls. He finds one of great price, but in order to acquire

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the magnificent pearl, he had to sell all of his possessions, which he promptly and joyfully did.

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The Savior's message likened the pearl to the kingdom of heaven because it, too, is a priceless

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pearl, truly the most precious treasure that should be desired above all else. We learn from

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the merchant that what it looks like, essentially, to immediately and without hesitation align our

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mind and desires with the will of the Lord and willingly do everything we can during our mortal

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journey to attain the eternal blessings of God's kingdom. And Abby, what first comes to my mind is

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how this is a stark contrast to the rich man who turned away and he was sad.

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He was given such a simple task to do, and that was too much for him.

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Abby Goodman And I think we've all been

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in this situation and the other and maybe everywhere in between. So, what do you have for us?

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Abby Goodman Well, the rest of the talk, he'll go on to center it around how we can align our

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will with God's and the transformative power that it will have in our life. There's just so much to

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that parable. I think it's worth stopping to talk about what it would mean to sell all to acquire

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this pearl and how it parallels aligning our will with God's.

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Abby Goodman So, he starts by talking about giving our

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best effort to set aside all self-centered pursuits and abandon any entanglement that

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holds us back from full commitment to the Lord and His higher and holier ways. You know,

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we've heard that again, the higher and holier ways so many times lately that it's starting to sink in.

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Nicole Well, how can we know that we are doing that? Or how can we self-assess that we are

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fully committed to the Lord? How can we take that and make it a question that we can self-reflect on?

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Abby Goodman So, the apostle Paul refers to these sanctifying pursuits as having the mind of Christ.

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We can see from the example of Jesus Christ that He was doing always those things that pleased the

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Lord. So, in our lives, there are some people who would say doing what works for the Lord,

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which Elder Suarez says is all about submitting our will to His. So, how did the Savior teach

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His disciples, and therefore us, by extension, as we read His Word in Scripture, Abby?

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Abby Goodman I like how he pointed out a few examples of that. He quoted Scripture. He said,

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"'For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this

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is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me. So I should lose nothing,

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but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that

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every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and will raise

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Him up at the last day." So, we can see that the Savior achieved perfect and divine level of

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submission to the Father by allowing His will to be swallowed up in the Father's will. What was His

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purpose? Whatever the Father's purpose was. He reflected that every moment, every action. And

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we know that as early as age 10 that He understood that. And probably sooner. That was just a great

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story to recall. Another time He said, "'And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me

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alone, for I do always those things that please Him.'" So, that's beautiful. He recognizes that

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the choices that He's making because they're aligned with the Father bring the Father joy.

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And then another example He shared was the Prophet Joseph Smith's about the anguish and

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agonies of the Atonement. The Savior said, "'For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for

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all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, which, suffering caused myself, even God,

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the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both

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body and spirit, and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink. Nevertheless, glory be

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to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.'"

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So, we know the complete submission to the will of God looks like,

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but in this earth experience, we experience barriers. I would just say from that one,

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it's like submitting your will to the Father doesn't always mean things are going to be

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cupcakes and rainbows. Yeah. It's painful. Sometimes the process is painful.

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It really is.

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But totally worth it in the end. But that's just another way to say it. He showed what complete

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submission to the will of God looks like.

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Yes. And you know what, Abby, I feel like, you said, even when we know we're submitting

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to the Lord's will and things still don't go wrong, I feel like it is a-

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Don't go wrong.

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Sorry, do go wrong. I feel like that feeling that is actually carrying us over is covenant confidence.

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Yeah.

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Right? Like we know-

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He's gonna nod to that.

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It's gonna work out.

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Because that's what he talked about before.

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We love it.

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Right. Sometimes it gives you like a stumbling block because you're like,

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well, things didn't go perfectly, so did I really listen? Am I really doing what the will of him is?

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Like, assuming that doing the right thing will make it life easy.

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Totally. And it may have been the pattern in your life before that time. I feel like we all

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get that to that speed bump where the Lord's like, no, it's not gonna always go well.

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At the beginning it did because I was helping you, you're on training wheels,

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but those training wheels are off now. At least that's how it's been in my life.

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I hit a point where I was like, oh.

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I'm right here by you, but how can I help you grow in faith if it's always perfect?

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Yeah.

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Right. So I would make that a question. I would say, there are barriers in life.

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What are some of the barriers that we face as we're trying to learn about aligning our will with

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his? We often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works

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for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best,

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and what absolutely works for the children for his plan, within his plan. I love that quote so

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much, Abby. We know from scripture that men shall be lovers of their own selves, lovers of pleasures

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more than lovers of God. And we see this prophecy fulfilled as we witness a growing trend in the

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world adopted by so many, of people being consumed with themselves and constantly proclaiming,

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no matter what, I live my own truth and I do what works for me. We can't seek our own pleasure and

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also buy in to the idea that we are just being our authentic self in the Kingdom of Heaven or

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in eternal life as our ultimate goal. Right.

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So what are some of the barriers that we face?

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Abby So one of the quotes I loved that he shared is he says, we often wrestle with what we think

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we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what

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Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best, and what absolutely works for his children

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within his plan. So we know from scripture that men, we've heard men shall be lovers of their own

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selves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. We see this prophecy fulfilled as we witness a

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growing trend in the world all around us. It's adopted by so many, of people becoming consumed

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with themselves and constantly proclaiming, no matter what, I live my own truth, I do what works

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for me. We can't seek our own pleasure and also buy in to the idea that we are just being our

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authentic self if the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal life is our ultimate goal.

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Nicole Yes, that was an awesome quote. It had my

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mind spinning. And then he went on to quote Elder Cook from there. He said, being sincerely

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Christ-like is an even more important goal than to be authentic.

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Bethany Yeah.

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Nicole Our journeys are each going to look different,

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but our effort to focus on Christ rather than our own pleasure is the recipe for success in this

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life. And I love how I felt the message here that's not like we're expected to get that perfect every

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time. We just have to demonstrate that we're trying. And we demonstrate through prayer and

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listening to the promptings of the Spirit that we want our will to align with his, and then we make

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progress in our discipleship. To still from Elder Renlund, how he talked about the goal of getting

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iteratively better as we do things. How long did it take us to align ourselves? How long did we

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suffer without his aid? How long did we try to do it our way instead of his? Once we turn to him,

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what was the result? So our capacity to align our heart with his will increase as we put into action

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that principle of trusting in him. But because that is true, so is the inverse.

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Meaning, as he taught, when we don't allow God's will to prevail in our life, then we're left to

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ourselves. And without the Lord's inspiring guidance, we can justify almost anything we do

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or don't do. We can also make excuses for ourselves by doing things on our own and saying,

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I'm just doing things my way. When we indicate through our actions that we don't desire to do

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things his way, we don't get it iteratively better at setting the things of God aside and becoming

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expert in justifying our way to be the right way.

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Love that. Those are great thoughts, Abby. I thought it was interesting also to see how the

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Pharisees reflected Christ's teaching and used the justification of being the children of Abraham,

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implying that their lineage would grant them special privilege in the sight of God. That's

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reminding me of one of our talks from last time, like, that your lineage is going to

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Be the thing that saves you.

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The whole thing, yeah. Not the case. We're all the same in the sight of God.

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We can be proud of the name of family that we come from, but it has to be our own characteristic

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shining through.

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Oh, absolutely. So, our pursuits don't have to be worldly in nature to take us away from Christ.

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We can take things of God to the extreme and lean onto our own understanding and disbelieve

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what the Savior teaches. Again, that would be like the, what is it, the talk of Elder

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Christofferson's, it's-

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I have it right here because I thought it totally tied with this talk.

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Bearing our weapons of rebellion.

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Yes, essentially, just like he said, he said, you know, it doesn't have to be worldly pursuits.

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It can be anything that takes us. To them, Jesus wisely and courageously declared that

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if they were true covenant children of Abraham, they would do the works of Abraham.

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Ouch!

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Especially, I know, right? Especially considering that the God of Abraham was standing before them

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and teaching them the truth at that very moment. Wow, that must have been very poignant.

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So, I think it's worth considering what doctrines might I be leaning on to justify my actions that

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aren't bringing me closer to Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that one more time.

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What doctrines might I be leaning on to justify my actions that aren't bringing me closer to Jesus

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Christ?

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What comes to mind? My Facebook or YouTube, when I'm looking on death scrolling, my reels come up.

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Sometimes I'll watch pastors engaged with protest crowds, and they'll shout and declare God's Word.

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And they'd be like trying to call people to repentance in a very loud, agitating voice.

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The biblical kind of way.

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And I'm like, I would bet good money that not a single person has ever been converted to Jesus

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Christ or wanted to look into more from being yelled at by like a street pastor in that way.

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Probably not, Gabi. It's certainly the challenge of our day to constantly be wrestling with the idea

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of whether we are on the right track in doing what He wants us to be doing. It's like the age-old

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question, right?

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It is the challenge of this whole Earth life.

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It is.

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Well, that's like a good way to present a question. It brought us to my very favorite thing that He

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said. He talked about mental gymnastics.

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Yes.

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I'm wrestling that question, trying to find this balance between what works for me versus doing

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what's always pleasing to the Lord. It's the challenge of our day, but it is not unique to

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our day. It's as old as time. And it's the trick of the adversary. It's a deceptive path that

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carefully leads God's children away from the true and faithful covenant path. While personal

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circumstances like genetics, geography, physical, mental challenges do influence our journey,

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in things that truly matter, there is an inner space where we are free to choose whether or not

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we will decide to follow the pattern the Lord has prepared for our life. Truly, He marked the path

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and led the way in every point defined." Cute little song quote, but you see the point of it,

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that it's like, it's always this struggle. If you want to do what the world's doing,

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but you know what God has encouraged us to do and set the path for us,

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and you can't get those things to align, then you're always justifying where God's

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wasn't quite right for you and your way is better. And it's nothing better,

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no better explanation of that than to call it mental gymnastics.

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Totally. So, I think a good litmus test or action item here is to ask ourselves,

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do I strive to be true to every covenant I've entered into and live by every word that proceedeth

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out of the mouth of God? We emulate the things our Savior did, and in that way, we will be protected

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against falling victim to the sins and errors of the world, which, man, there are so many right now,

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errors of philosophy and doctrine that would lead us away from those most precious pearls.

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Abby, I was just thinking of like, I do wonder though, if we do have a day and age right now

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where we have the most distractions that have ever been on the earth.

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Abby, yes, but to the point of my testimony today, because-

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Also the best good. Isn't it interesting?

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Yes, we can accelerate the word, we can share testimonies louder, quicker than ever before.

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We don't have to write snail mail to get the message out.

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That's a good point.

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But yes, am I a victim to death scrolling? Do I skip past the memes on the apostles or prophets

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and get to the kiddies and the military men coming home and stuff? Yes, yes, I do.

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Except you cry about.

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Yeah, like they know how to sucker me in, but I think that was like a big, for me today,

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Fast and Testimony meeting in our work, this will air obviously off of that, but

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that was a big thing. Yes, there are so many distractions. No, it's not unique to our time,

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but does it seem like they're coming at us faster and harder than ever before? Yes.

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That's what I was going to say.

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But is he making it possible for us to-

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It's balanced.

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Yeah.

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Like whatever we're doing, we can do it faster than ever before.

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Laundry.

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Whether it's good.

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I can be washing the, I can wash the clothes, but also be-

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Distracted faster than ever before.

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Yeah, both of them.

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Or listening to like scriptures while I'm doing those things.

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I can be multitasking. I mean, I'm not like hand scrubbing the laundry. It's literally

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in a machine. And some people may be still doing that, but maybe they figured out how

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to have the kid read to them while they're, you know, doing the laundry.

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Well, I'm sure.

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But that's still-

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That's awesome, Abby. Okay.

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So I could see this being like a great place for a class discussion

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to take off. You would maybe ask, can you recall a moment in your life when choosing

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God's will over your own unexpected blessings? And then I think we would hear lots of stories

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about, you know, picking a certain educational pursuit or making a move that you hadn't planned

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to. Maybe you're preparing to change jobs when there's really nothing wrong with the

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job that you currently have. Just kind of felt like the tides were changing.

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You're preparing for that. Kind of letting him know I'm willing and ready to make a change if

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you need me to. And then, you know, in that same discussion, I'd probably share something about

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my process of bringing children into the world and aligning his will with mine. We were done

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at one, then we were done at three, and then we were blessed with two more when

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those two things align. You know, our thoughts and impressions and God's will were aligned.

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And I don't know, we can't reach out and talk to you in the audience of exact examples of

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how you would answer that question, but I'm going to maybe pick on you, Amy, to be thinking

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of one yourself if you want to share it. If you do want to be involved in the conversation,

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the way to do that would be to find this episode on YouTube and make a comment there. Share with

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us how choosing God's will over your own brought unexpected blessings in your life.

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Love to have you.

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To fill the gap in time while I give you a second to think about it, I'm going to share

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from his talk two examples of spiritual submissiveness and faithfulness to God. The

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first was a young man who wasn't really sure about serving a mission, and then he felt inspired to go

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after he'd heard an apostle's testimony. And we learned that his decision brought him confidence

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in God's promises. It transformed his life and it strengthened his testimony through his

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restored gospel. And then another one was a young woman who chose to uphold her standards by refusing

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to dress immodestly at her fashion industry job. And her decision, rooted in understanding her

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body as a sacred gift, preserved her integrity, secured her job, and exemplified covenant

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confidence. So, huge blessings that come from something that they previously were worried

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about doing or not knowing exactly what decision to make. Then they made their decision and they

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got to reap the blessings that come from following what the Spirit impressed them to do.

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Love to have you. I would share, there are many examples in my life, because honestly,

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my mind doesn't usually think all the way that the Lord does. So, there are lots of different

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ideas or examples of this. However, the one that I would like to share is the one where

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I did choose to go on a mission. I was painfully shy, painfully shy.

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But you knew you had something great to share? Or your example of your siblings?

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You know, I just felt like an inner sort of pull to go on a mission, much the same we feel when

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we know that great experiences await. And when I say great experiences, I just mean hard things

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and good things that bring us closer to Christ. That sounds like a mission.

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Yeah. So, that's kind of like, but I was scared to death. I really was. It didn't sound fun to me

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to talk to people for 18 months. I would rather not do that. So, the fact that I did do that,

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put myself out there, I remember, you know, after I got home, just thinking, you know what,

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I can get through this because I went on a mission. Like, that was my bar for a while, you know?

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Was it nothing would be harder than the experience that you had serving a mission?

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Yeah. Fair. True?

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Yeah. I also had, in a foreign country, I had surgery there, like, you know, like my appendix

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out and things like that. So, it was just like lots of different things that, you know, the Lord

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just throws everything in there that will be something that will benefit the rest of your life.

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So, that is one of my things, Abby.

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Excellent example. We're constantly confronted by similar decisions in our daily journey.

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It takes courage and a willing heart to pause and pursue an honest and meek introspection to

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acknowledge the presence of weakness of the flesh in our life that may impede our ability

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to submit ourselves to God and ultimately decide to adopt His way rather than our own.

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The ultimate test of our discipleship is found in our willingness to give up and lose our old self

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and submit our heart and our whole soul to God so that His will becomes our will. Beautiful.

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No more mental gymnastics. We're on the same path together. What we want to do and what He would

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want us to do are the same thing. That's a beautiful goal that we all have.

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It really is.

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So, I would say what practical steps could we take to identify and overcome personal barriers

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to submitting our will to God?

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Okay, Abby. So, this is the height of the talk. As we put this idea to the test and get better

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at it every time, we eventually get to the glorious moment when we discover the joy

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that comes when doing these things. I love this.

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Work for and please the Lord and what works for us become one and the same. I think He said,

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what works for me works for thee, and I thought that was the cutest.

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That phrase screamed consecration to me.

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Totally.

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One of the covenants that we make in the temple is to live the law of consecration. We don't have

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to make covenants. We don't have to make temple covenants to enjoy the blood, to live a consecrated

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life and enjoy the blessings of consecration. What would you say it means to be consecrated to the

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Lord?

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I would say when we totally yield our wills to Him and our submission brings powerful

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transformational change. It also reminds me of the quote that we—

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We get something for everything we give.

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We really do.

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When we want to create a relationship.

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Oh, yeah. It also reminds me of the quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell that says that our will is

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really the only thing we have to give. And so, when we give that, we give everything.

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Daily, we can self-introspect and we can ask, am I aligning my will with God's?

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If it's in the beginning of the day as we set out to do the things that the day requires or

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process the events of the day after it's happened and say, did I align my will with God's?

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This is the transformative part. When we recognize that we didn't get it perfect,

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we have the chance to get it better tomorrow, right? That's the beauty of doing it over and

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over and over. When we look at our days and see that our time wasn't spent doing the best things,

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and that's something that each of us will individually decide for ourselves,

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you get the chance to make better choices of what you do with your hours the very next day.

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Cutting out fruitless pursuits like we were just talking about before we let them consume all our

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precious time is a true gift. I think that's a gift of the Spirit. The Lord lets us know what is,

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I think President Nelson has said this. Yeah, if we invite him into our day like we did,

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did I align my will with God's? He will send us the Spirit and absolutely let us know what is worth

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our time and what just we don't need to have. What should fizzle out, what we should let go.

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That is another way to consider the action item that we might identify one area in our life that

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we're struggling to align our will with God's. And then we would just say, what's one step that I

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could take to submit to his guidance this week? I like the Abby. Elders' worries would say it in

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this way, let's give our best effort to set aside all self-centered pursuits and abandon any

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entanglement that holds us back from full commitment to the Lord and His higher and

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holier ways. If you're not at a place in your life where you have an interest in giving anything up,

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then you certainly don't ask that question. If, however, you're there and you want to know if

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you can be more in line with the Lord or want to try to be more in line with Him, you ask that

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question. Something simple might come up. Put your phone down during such and such time.

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Right. Listen to the scriptures. Ask your kid this question.

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You know? Yes. It could be a million different

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little things, but they're probably small and simple.

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They, yes. That's how he works.

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Do you have any more thoughts? Do you want me to kind of close for it?

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Yeah, no. Go for it, Abby.

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So, his closing testimony, he said, I testify to you that following the Lord's will in our life

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will enable us to find the most precious pearl in the world, the kingdom of heaven.

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Then he drops this little Easter egg in there. He mentions the word covenant confidence,

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which took me back to just last April, general conference, when he spoke of covenant confidence.

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Do you remember that talk very well? I love that talk, Abby.

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Yes. In it, he emphasized how important it was to live covenants made with God.

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They provide spiritual strength, confidence, they provide guidance and advice challenges.

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And his message really focused on aligning one's will with the Lord and the blessings

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of discipleship and covenant faithfulness. So, really, he built this foundation six months ago.

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He did.

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And it impressed me to go back and take a listen to it. And I listened back to the podcast,

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which is episode five. And man, we've grown a little bit since that time.

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But it's still fine.

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I need to go back and listen to five, too. That's great.

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You might want to listen to it. So, I listened back to that, and I was reminded that this was

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the talk above all talks that was the answer to the prayer of my heart in that conference.

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I love that.

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And the line that came out of it was, home-centered, gospel-supported, temple-bound.

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And so, that stuck with me, and the impression that I got was to really make a focus on the temple.

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If I want the desires of my heart and for my children to have the best chance at carrying

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on the testimony or the faith that my husband and I have been giving them, that was the answer to it.

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And then, because I had that moment, then I was like, well, how many times has he helped me see

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the different pieces and parts of what it looks like to align our will with his?

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And I came up with a list of live up to your privileges by Sister Freeman, trusting in our

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Father, God loves all his children, following Christ, bearing our weapons of rebellion,

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the Lord Jesus Christ will come again, bonded to Jesus Christ.

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And I will say, I miss-said it, it's Tayshara.

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I think it's fair that you get another chance to say it, because Granny was listening,

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and she rebuked you for not saying it right.

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She did.

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Not saying it right. She's like, you know this man, you should have said that well.

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I highlighted bearing our weapons of rebellion, because that one, like,

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I was getting an answer in real time to something that was on my heart.

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So I've stumbled through that episode, but it was because I was trying to decide,

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how do I balance the things in my life? How do I say yes to the good things?

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How do I know when I have too many good things happening? Or how do I know if something is

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actually bad for me that I'm juggling with my time with? And just this answer, like as clear as day,

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which again, tied back to Elder Suarez's last conference talk, and that paired with this one,

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that it was just like, if you don't have time for the temple above all else, then something has to

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give. And so it's maybe not going to be specific that he's like, you've got to give this thing up,

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but I would just say, okay, if I'm working too many hours, then my kids, you know,

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how am I fulfilling their needs? And I can't fulfill their needs. If my needs aren't fulfilled,

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my needs can be fulfilled in temple attendance. That's for me. That could be for a lot of people,

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but I just love this talk because it gave me a chance to reflect on six months of learning and

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growth and what answers that I've received from it. So this was a big one.

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Abby, that's beautiful. You know what I also love? I love how, like you said, he started this,

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he started teaching this six months ago, right? So it's like, again, the line upon line and how

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the Lord just continues to deepen our conviction and deepen our experiences with Him as we study

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the words. Right. And I, for one, picked up on the importance of that talk. That resonated with me.

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It was what I needed an answer to. So I had the opportunity to buy in back then.

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For sure. And then I get to demonstrate through some small actions that I'm taking and some

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decisions that I'm making, like, am I doing well at this? And then, because that was still in my

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heart, I can look through easily and see in multiple talks thus far in these sessions.

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I think, doesn't this wrap up the Saturday evening session?

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Yes, I believe so. So we're coming to a wrap on a session,

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but just in, I'm being just like, just snippets of things that I got from those talks, but at

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least half of the talks answered more and more questions to the question that was on my heart.

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Love it. And so I'm just confident that

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whatever question that you're presenting, you might have found your answers in the same things. You

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might be like, that wasn't even what was on my mind. Right, I didn't even hear that. I got layers of answers.

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I don't see that connection. I don't see how those talks tie in with it.

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But that's the beautiful thing. They don't have to. So at the expense of spending too much time

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on this, what I'm saying is the answers are there in whatever form. And he's kind of laid out this

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thing to show me like, you bought in and you asked a question, the question's kind of still open,

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and I'm still offering answers to it. And you're hearing what I'm saying to you.

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And it's definitely, I'm not getting a pat on the back as I'm listening to these things like,

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oh man, I've been doing so great. It's more like, this is where you can

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improve. This is where you can improve. And maybe every once in a while it's like,

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oh yeah, you're doing that great. Keep doing that. But it is in a gentle way.

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And so it's not like hurting my heart that he's like, you can improve this.

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You can demonstrate. You can do more to align your will with mine.

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And sometimes I would say, maybe we achieve that in a given day, where like that day was for the

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Lord. Our purposes were the same. The next day might blow it, but it's okay. I still get the

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next day to give that another whirl. So the last line, he says, I pray that each of us in our own

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time and turn will be able to declare with covenant confidence to our heavenly father and

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savior Jesus Christ that what works for thee works for me. That's a wrap.