Welcome to Closer to Christ, the General Conference, where two friends who love Jesus share our
own approach to studying the most recent General Conference talks.
This is Abbey and Amy.
Let's jump into it.
Today, we're excited to talk with you about Youth of the Noble Birthright done by Bradley
R. Wilcox, first counselor at Young Men General Presidency.
I was telling my husband, he was definitely built for this job.
He resonates with the youth.
He resonates with me.
He's often done talks that I'm like, he's just explained it in a way that just really
resonates and it can really take it home.
Let's jump in now.
Dr. Wilcox starts this talk by speaking to the rising generation and I loved the title
of this talk, how it reflects that.
This talk also is for those of us who are helping train up the youth, working with youth
in any capacity or those who seek a covenant relationship with God.
Though it does seem youth-centric, pretty much he put us all in that umbrella.
He poses the question that he's heard time and time again, the question being, why must
Latter-day Saints live so differently from others?
I know it's hard to be different, especially when you're young and want so badly for people
to like you.
Everyone wants to fit in and that desire is magnified by unhealthy proportions in today's
digital world filled with social media and cyber bullying.
So Amy, let's start there.
Let's start with the question, why do Latter-day Saints have to live so differently from others
or why do we?
You know, I love his answer.
He said, there are many good answers because you're a child of God, because you've been
saved for the last days, because you're a disciple of Christ.
But then he says this, those answers don't always set you apart.
Everyone is a child of God.
Everyone on earth right now was sent here in these latter days.
And yet, not everyone lives the word of wisdom or law of chastity the way you strive to.
There are many valiant disciples of Christ who are not members of this church, but they
do not serve missions and perform ordinances in houses of the Lord on behalf of ancestors
like you do.
So it's all about covenants, making covenants with God.
Did you hear that so much today in sacrament?
We went to the temple on Thursday.
Our conversation was so centered around that.
It's just...
Paramount.
Yes, it is the thing to talk about.
It is where our minds and hearts need to be focused on.
It's true, Abby.
He says, when we use our moral agency to make and keep covenants with God, we become heirs
of the everlasting covenant God has made with our forebears in every dispensation.
Said another way, we become children of the covenant.
That sets us apart.
That is what gives us access to the same blessings our forefathers and foremothers received,
including a birthright.
Birthright.
That's a curious word.
You may have heard that word in a few places.
There's a piece of it in a hymn that we sing, Oh, youth of the noble birthright, carry on,
carry on, carry on.
It's a compelling word.
What does it mean, one might ask?
Well, in Old Testament times, if a father passed away, his birthright son was responsible
for the care of his mother and sisters, and then his brothers received their inheritance
and left to make their own way in the world.
But the birthright son did not go anywhere.
He would marry and have his own family, but he would stay until the end of his days to
govern the affairs of his father's state.
Because of this added responsibility, he was given an added measure of inheritance.
Makes sense.
That's fair.
Was leading and caring for others too much to ask of this oldest son?
Not when you consider the additional inheritance he was going to be given.
So we might ask the question, how was a birthright today different from Old Testament times?
That's so good, Abby.
So today, we're not talking about your birth order in earthly families or the Old Testament
gender roles like we just talked about.
We're talking about the inheritance we receive as a joint heir with Christ because of the
covenant relationship that we've chosen to enter with him in our Father in Heaven.
And then Brother Wilcox asked this, just like he did before, is it too much for God to expect
you to live differently than his other children so you can better lead and serve them, not
when you consider the blessings, both temporal and spiritual, that you've been given?
I do appreciate the way he breaks down our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, Abby.
He outlines well that this is a relationship different from all the world.
Brother Wilcox then goes on to explain birthright in terms of humility and service rather than
power and domination because sometimes when you hear that, you might think, oh, we're
better than or whatever.
That is not the case.
He says, does your birthright mean you are better than others?
No, but it does mean you are expected to help others be better.
Does your birthright mean you are chosen?
Yes, but not chosen to rule over others.
You are chosen to serve them.
Is your birthright evidence of God's love?
Yes, but more important, it is evidence of his trust.
Evidence of his trust and to go on with the way that he phrased it, it's evidence of the
love that he has and trust for his children that wouldn't just automatically be born into
the birthright.
We're given an extra measure and a portion so that we have more to share.
Love that.
A lot of us have patriarchal blessings and some of our lineages, like they're specific
to missionary work.
That is because we were born in a place where we were able to freely have the gospel, religious
freedoms.
You live in a place where you don't really get those choices or a time when you don't
get those choices, it would be really hard to fulfill the covenants that you made with
him to fulfill that.
Good point.
Yes, I love that he really articulated that.
Well, you're not better than or more special than what you are.
You're special as special as his other children and it is your opportunity to take this abundance
of blessings that you have and see who you can share it with.
I love that.
Let's dive a little deeper into the concept.
When we consider the strength of youth, what does it talk about as far as God's trust?
This is directly from the strength of youth.
Your Father in heaven trusts you.
He has given you great blessings, including the fullness of the gospel and sacred ordinances
and covenants that bind you to him and bring his power into your life.
With those blessings comes added responsibility.
He knows you can make a difference in the world and that requires in many cases being
different from the world.
Abby, right here, I would add that Heavenly Father trusts us because he has built a plan
around our agency.
He wants us to develop agency here.
He wants us to make a ton of choices and learn from our experiences of what it feels like
to choose his ways and then what it feels like to choose anything other than his ways.
So essentially, I'm thinking he trusts the plan and at the center of his plan is his
son Jesus Christ who performed his atonement for each of us in this world.
And those who have made and keep covenants have access to Heavenly Father and Jesus'
divine assistance and endowment of strength and enabling power.
So let's say we mess up.
Let's say we try to quote help others and in an effort to live up to our, you know,
in an effort to live up to our responsibilities and maybe we do it in a way that isn't exactly
actually helpful to the person.
In essence, we have, you know, maybe damaged a relationship not on purpose and there is
maybe room for repentance or repair.
We can turn to God through our covenants and ask that we learn and see where we can better
serve this particular person.
And then this came, we can ask for redemption through our deemer.
Just like Elder Hale's talk in this same conference, he says, God shall consecrate thine afflictions
for thy gain because of the righteousness of thy redeemer.
So we can ask that the person that we quote helped be redeemed from this situation and
then ask how best to move forward.
Abby, have you ever had a situation where maybe things didn't go as planned?
Always.
When you're helping or trying.
I'm living this life.
So it's easy to say, you know, and it's difficult when we try to put our best effort in and
it doesn't go quite as planned, especially when our effort is, you know, trying to help
somebody along the covenant path, not just helping them in like a worldly situation,
but we're trying to invite them, you know, to draw closer to Jesus Christ.
Live as heirs.
Yeah.
Join us on the covenant path.
And I think it's good to remember for youth, for adults, that we're going to have setback
and that doesn't surprise Heavenly Father.
That doesn't disrupt his plan.
He's counting on that.
He's created, you know, contingency in our Savior to make up for all of those, what we
perceive as setbacks.
If you're feeling frustrated that your efforts to reach out or help somebody didn't work,
because that I think is where Satan wants to play the biggest role, that something goes
wrong.
Heavenly Father was totally expecting that.
There's a contingency for all of those, but Satan wants to interject right into there
and make you feel frustrated, make you want to stop putting out the efforts because, you
know, our minds have a, I'm going to do A and the results going to be B. Like we're
very like, this is going to be the natural course of events, but it doesn't always go
that way.
For sure.
And you're right.
Satan would want us to stop.
Like, that's the end.
Tried that, been there.
It was horrible.
I think it's critical at this point to move forward in hope.
Like you said, Abbey, our Father in heaven isn't surprised or derailed when we make a
mistake or our efforts don't land perfectly.
Some great advice comes from the scriptures.
I love this scripture.
Wherefore, you must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of
hope and a love of God and of all men.
Like you said, we're doing these things because of our love of God and our love of
men.
Wherefore, if you shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the
end, behold, thus saith the Father, you shall have eternal life.
So as we keep our eyes on Jesus and ask for His help, in 2 Nephi 2.6, we read, wherefore,
redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah, so He can redeem anything of our
weaknesses, for He is full of grace and truth.
And then, I love this.
This is what Brother Wilcox said.
Because He is full of truth, He sees you as you really are, your flaws, your weaknesses,
your regrets and all.
And then because He is full of grace, He sees you as you really can be.
He meets you where you are and helps you repent and improve, overcome and become.
When we fulfill our end of this covenant, we are promised never to be left alone and
are given strength through the grace of Christ.
I feel like this is very similar to the talk we just talked about, as far as covenants
doing our best.
Definitely a common theme, definitely well-intentioned.
They were placed like right back there.
Yeah, just back to back.
I love it, because you're like, that was great, and then we're just going to just jump deeper
into that.
It never hurts to just really knock this message about covenants home, because there's so much
power that comes in with these covenants.
And I think that's where the beautiful thing is, as we covenant through baptism and then
further covenants that we make in the temple, as we link and bind ourselves more with Jesus
Christ, it softens the blows when things don't go like we imagine in our mind that they're
going to go.
He fills that portion, he makes up the difference for it.
I'm finding comfort and peace, and when things don't go the way that I expect them to go,
I'm trying to get better at just being like, but how do they go instead?
And how has that been made better?
How has that made me better?
How has that improved and grown me?
How has that stretched me?
How has that brought me to be more like him?
If things go right all the time, exactly like we imagined that they should go, how often
do I stop and think like, man, what did I learn from that?
Typically, there's not a lesson in there.
And it's just real life to not have things always go as planned.
I do love that, I think as going back to when I was a youth, if someone said, these are
the things that are kind of expected of you as you, let's say your birthright responsibilities,
and there will be some hiccups along the way, and that's great because you learn iteratively,
right?
You keep going, you keep going, and that's where the power is.
I think that would be something that I would have loved to have heard as a youth, and I
appreciate that it's talked about more now, that there will be mistakes.
And it's already been planned for.
I love it.
You know what, there was one other thing.
Did you recognize how he talked about being on a cruise ship?
I love that.
It's just a really, really great way to explain it, right?
Because he does that.
He does.
We were talking, Adam and I were talking about, when he was talking about grace and he was
talking about piano lessons, like the mom pays for the piano lesson, just because she
paid for the piano lesson, it doesn't mean that you have a natural piano player.
You still have to put the effort in practicing.
So I always think of that when I'm like, how do you explain to imbalance between, yes,
Jesus Christ did cover all of our sins, but there's an opt-in, we shall gratitude for
that gift by practicing it, putting it into action, whatever.
I love that.
So then of course, naturally, yes, he brings up the cruise ship idea.
Life is a smorgasbord of opportunities.
I love that too.
I think he's really, really good, Abby, like you just said, at creating a story around
the relationship, because it's like the relationship between you and Christ and covenants.
This one, I loved you talked about how, you know, those that are on a cruise ship, those
that are guests and that are on the ship there for, you know, adventure and fun, and there's
a different relationship from those that are there as the staff who are helping them, right?
So he sort of said, you know, youth, we're more like the staff.
We have added responsibilities.
We have pay where the other ones are paying to come.
And so it is a different relationship.
So I like that too, if you're looking for something that illustrates that point in a
great way for your youth, that's a really, really good one to go.
Another layer to that awesome story is cruising is super fun.
But the great thing about it is you're seeing new places and you're experiencing life like
you're traveling in a fun way.
But just doing that, like day after day, even a cruise could become a little bit boring.
But the thought of being in like the service of others and helping them have a more pleasurable
experience on their journey, there is an added layer of joy that comes with that.
And it's easy to see like that's what this life's about.
You can have a great experience for yourself.
You can be autonomous.
You can just live your life in this little bubble and start and finish life.
But really the impact that you can have on others in service and helping them enjoy their
path a little bit more, even if we don't do it perfectly, but we put our best effort in
to do it.
Yeah, that's a great point.
It is great.
And I was thinking about that cruise ship thing, I was also thinking, this wasn't Brad
Wilcox story, but there's this man and he goes on this cruise ship and he'd saved forever
for it.
And then he like packs a suitcase full of food.
And he had spent so much money to get there.
I might be messing it up.
But the gist of it is that he pretty much spent his entire time in the cabin and he
was like heating his own food or whatever, not realizing that he could have, he'd already
paid the events were already paid for on the cruise ship.
Once he'd made it onto the ship.
All inclusive.
But yeah, all of the fancy meals and all of the extra entertainment and stuff were his
to behold and to have.
And so, just on that same line with brother Wilcox, this life, there's no levels of superiority
on the cruise ship.
We're all going to the same destination and the things that we experience in this life
and the joy that we can experience, it's equal opportunity.
It's eventually just because that's part of the plan.
It's true.
I'm not saying it's easy for everybody to get there, but the added help can be there
whatever level or degree we need.
And eventually everyone will have the opportunity.
Right?
We have a thousand years, we have a really long time to be able to spread the gospel
and to do all of these birthright responsibilities.
This gives me the most hope.
Totally.
It's given us the time that we're going to get it right.
Any last thoughts?
In closing, I'm going to end with his words.
He says, as you fulfill your birthright responsibilities, you're never alone.
The Lord of the vineyard labors with you.
You are working hand in hand with Jesus Christ with each new covenant.
And as your relationship with him deepens, you hold each other tighter and tighter until
you are firmly clasped together.
All right, youth of noble birthright, carry on.
Carry on.
Thank you.