Welcome to Closer to Christ through 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 talking about the love
of God, and this is by Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai
of the Seventy. This is, we just finished our
hundredth episode, and we're so happy that you
have been with us for this ride. Abby, thanks
for being here. It's good to be here. Thanks
for having me. Elder Tai talked about an analogy.
He said that we all have the experience of looking
up in the night sky and seeing a myriad of stars.
So they're fixed. They're predictable. Those
same stars seen from a quiet camping spot in
the woods are far different from what you would
see if you were looking at that same sky in the
city or at night from a balcony on a high rise.
Did they disappear? Absolutely not. Are they
harder to see? Ty uses this analogy to draw on
the truth that God loves us always, despite the
terrestrial temptations that cloud our spiritual
vision. I love that he used a scripture so quick
into this introduction. He said, faith is a substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Isn't it amazing to think, you know, two
people looking at the same stars in those two
different locations at the same time would in
theory know that those stars are there just because
they can't see them? kind of led into knowing
exactly what Elder Tai was going to be talking
about. And he helps us with that star analogy
to draw a clear visual of the stars in the sky
and how they are. We have at times in our lives
when we fill that block and we don't see evidences
of God loves, but maybe in the past we have seen
it. And so we can recall, well, I know that they're
there just because I'm not seeing them right
in this moment. But he used that. phrasing terrestrial
clouds or, you know, some of us know light pollution,
get in the way of us filling God's love and light
in our own lives, despite the fact that it is
always there. Yes, I love that. Both of those.
Early in the Book of Mormon and the Tree of Life
vision, we learned that the tree represents the
love of God, and then that the fruit of that
tree provided all that was necessary to make
someone happy. When Lehi tasted the fruit of
that tree, he was filled with joy, and his greatest
desire at that point was that his family should
have this same fruit and the same joy. Because
Christ embodies the love of God, He is the fruit
that we should desire to bring into our lives
more fully. And then also, just like Lehi, invite
our family to come to Jesus Christ as well. Most
of us haven't had the experience where we see
the Father and Son with our physical eyes, but
we're asked to exercise faith in God and His
Son, Jesus Christ. Faith precedes miracles, and
it's in the action of acting on this faith that
we receive clear assurance of their reality and
their concern for us. Absolutely. Okay, Abby,
let's list some evidences of how Jesus Christ
embodies the love of God. His great atoning sacrifice,
taking upon Himself our sins and was bruised
for our iniquities. He has personally borne our
griefs, carried our sorrows, taken upon Himself
our pains and sicknesses. And then He sends the
Holy Ghost to comfort us. And the fruits of the
Spirit include joy, peace, and faith, which fill
us with hope and love. These gifts are designed
for every one of us, every child of God to have
access to. And, you know, there's some that search
for it. others that want it but turn away from
it because they have that idea that somehow they
aren't deserving of it, while others are desperately
trying their hardest to hang on to it. I mean,
and I think different phases of life we might
find ourselves in one of those multiple scenarios.
For sure. It's not enough to taste the fruit
and be satisfied with just one taste of it. The
scriptures and the Lord's prophet teach us that
we consistently can experience god's love and
the longer we go without feeling that love the
easier it is for the terrestrial clouds to block
our view from seeing and feeling that love The
key to feeling love daily is to turn daily to
the Savior. I think that's the part of the, you
know, the consistency is that we just need to
keep doing it. Daily repentance, daily prayer,
daily scripture study, forgiving others as we
have been forgiven, and to frankly forgive like
Joseph Smith did. I love it too. To strive to
keep the commandments and then also to selflessly
serve others are the keys. to daily feel of God's
love for ourselves. I like the emphasis on the
word strive because I think that's a problem
where people don't feel the worthiness to even
have God's love is because they have this erroneous
idea that you have to be perfect in order to
earn that. He just wants to see us striving.
to try to keep His commandments. And as we do
that, we strive. I think it does get a little
bit better each time. But I think part of that
is because we allow His love to cover the difference
that we can't make on our own. Yes, we ask for
the atonement in our lives, right? It makes a
lot of sense that there are things that we do
daily to help us feel God's love. And it's just
as easy to not do the little things daily. And
that causes a block. or blockage of feeling that
love. I would say it's not disappearing, but
it's just harder to see and harder to feel. So
things like being prideful, contentious, and
rebellion are three such attributes. For sure.
You know, what if those things are prevalent
in our lives? Could we possibly do as the prophet
has invited us and remove with the Savior's help
the old debris in our lives? As the talk says,
lay aside bitterness. He's encouraged us to bolster
our spiritual foundation through centering our
lives on the Savior and the ordinances and covenants
of His temple. The word centering stands out
to me here, meaning if he is our focal point,
he is our intended destination, it's harder to
let things in the periphery block our direct
communication with him, our direct line to him,
where we're trying to get to. I love it, too,
because it reminds us, you know, as far as he's
talking about the block, right, whether it's
the clouds or whether it's the light. I love
that he's reminding us that it's always there,
meaning God's love, Christ's atonement is always
there, regardless of whether we're feeling it.
You know what I mean? It's just a good reminder
that I really like the analogy that he used there.
Especially if you struggle with a mental illness
or whatever. Yes, or a season of it, right? That's
what I was going to say. It's a great thing to
get a testimony of when things happen to be going,
like the medications are working. well and life
experiences aren't making that a very difficult
thing to fill God's love. You cannot necessarily
bottle it up. You're going to need that continuous,
like we were saying, continuously partaking of
that fruit. But I do think it's a truth that
it once gained a testimony of when you hit a
period of sadness or darkness that you can tell
yourself. though I can't feel it now, it is on
the horizon because I know that it hasn't left
me. I'm just having a hard time feeling it. And
it will come back again. Like I will feel it
again because I felt it before and I know it's
always there. And what that is, is expanding
our hope because of the faith that we have, because
we have. felt it before. Yes, I love that, Abby.
Also, temple attendance. I feel like that maybe
could have made the list that we made above.
The prophet promised that as we keep our temple
covenants, we gain greater access to the Lord's
strengthening power. We experience the pure love
of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father in great
abundance. I'd love to encourage all of our listeners
to make your next date with the Lord in the temple,
and then use that time there to ask to feel God's
love for you. Whether in doubt or not, make it
to one of His temples, sit in the outside space
or in any room of the temple, and free yourself
of every other distraction and just open communication
with the Lord. And then let Him have the opportunity
to let you know just what He thinks of you. That
kind of goes back to that centering our lives
on the Savior. What a great way to do that. When
I was like, picturing out and about centering
myself and and focusing on him but your suggestion
of attending the temple clearing our mind space
and being in that zone in that moment what what
a neat opportunity yeah and also sister runia's
it's kind of like that was one of her invitations
to us and it's doing that in the temple so i
like combining both of those um does executing
this list of ideas remove burdens from our life
It hasn't happened for me. But as Elder Tice
suggested, when we experience the love of God,
we can bear up our burdens with ease and submit
patiently and cheerfully to His will. We have
confidence that God will remember His covenants
with us, visit us in our afflictions, and deliver
us from bondage. What a neat reminder when those
hard times come, which they undoubtedly will
for each of us, that we know. you know, that
season will pass and that we're not doing it
alone. When we experience trials and know that
a loving God is with us and looking out for us,
maybe sending angelic or earthly angels, our
trials just don't feel the same. And when we
erroneously assume our trials are a result of
God punishing us, we've missed the message. They
happen because that's what this earthly experience
is going to have. It's got to have its opposites.
And it is the opportunity to come to know the
Father and the Son better or not. But that's
the intended goal. Yeah. Not because He wants
to punish us. And that's the thing, too, is there
will always be affliction. There will always
be trials. And there will always be God's hand
and tender mercies intermixed and mingled. I've
heard people say before, man, I can't wait till
X and X is over. And I'm thinking, I'm not sure
if that's going to be over ever. I mean, when
this one's done, guess what? There's going to
be something else that's going to fill its space.
That's just... part of eternal progression. There's
always that, what is it, the effectual struggle
that we talk about, that that's just how we grow.
We don't grow in our comfort zone. Okay. So just
like the story of Lehi mentioned above, when
we've tasted of God's love, we have a great desire
for our family to also experience that. Our family
can use their agency to partake of the fruit
or not, but inviting in a loving way and caring
way is what is most acceptable when a loved one
rejects the message or inclination may turn to
force or anger but those send the fruits of the
spirit that they aren't the way that it's just
not the way that that god would would do this
pulling from a suggestion above our best option
in this situation is to find more ways to serve
the ones that we love it may or may not change
them but it will certainly change us And when
we're better at experiencing God's love, we have
a better chance of then duplicating that and
emanating that love. And it feels like a good
starting point for these loved ones, despite
not feeling worthy or maybe willing to work to
feel God's love. Maybe you, the person right
in front of you, over time will be the key to
helping this person remove some of those terrestrial
clouds and then feeling God's love for themselves.
We can't choose what they do with the things
that we say, but if they're done in love, we
definitely keep that communication open with
God and we can fill the love for them that they're
not able or willing to fill for themselves. And
in that way, we know that God loves us too. Yes.
And inviting and coming from a place of love
is number one. Right from the talk, it says,
to help others fill God's love, we need to cultivate
in ourselves Christlike attributes. These include
humility, charity, compassion, and patience.
and help turn others towards the Savior through
following the two great commandments of loving
God and loving our fellow men. Elder Tai used
a personal experience that highlighted this.
He was talking about his teenage son who was
struggling with self -esteem. And so the inspiration
came to have he and his son join together in
serving a woman who was experiencing some health
challenges in their work. I love this story.
At first, he was unsure that this would be that
helpful. And noticed in his son there, he soon
found a lot of joy bringing the sacrament and
helping with her needs, you know, week to week.
One week, Elder Tai was out of town. And so the
son was responsible for this on his own. And
he reported back to his dad that he kind of did
some internet search. He fixed that video player
and brightened his day, brightened her day. And
for a fact, this opportunity to serve helped
made him feel useful, trusted. It made him feel
loved by God when he was able to share the love
of God with, you know, another one of God's children.
And good for him, too, for going when his dad
wasn't there. You know what I mean? Maybe one
of the most impactful. For sure. Yeah, because
he got that inspiration on his own. And because
he'd been kind of tutored and brought up by having
experiences with his dad, then he was able to
continue and carry on in that service on his
own. Yes, I love that. If you would like to feel
the love of God more abundantly in your life,
may I invite you to consider the following. First.
Pause frequently to remember that you are a child
of God and think of the things that you're grateful
for. Gratitude always invites revelation. Second,
pray daily, asking Heavenly Father to help you
know who around you needs to feel His love. And
then third, ask sincerely what you can do to
help that individual to feel the love of God.
Fourth, act promptly on the inspiration that
you receive. I was working on... studying this
talk, preparing for it, and went to bed last
night, woke up in the early hours of the morning
thinking of this handout that Amy and I received
a couple weeks ago in a teacher training. We
met on the stage after sacrament meeting, and
we didn't have a lot of time with the other primary
teachers, but our Sunday school president introduced
us to this diorama, diagram, whatever, and it's
titled Principles of Christlike Teaching. Teaching
in the Savior's way. Yeah, in the manual teaching
in the Savior's way. So what it is, is like a
Venn diagram, and it's got the ideas. The three
things you need to have a successful lesson is
to focus on Jesus Christ, teach the doctrine,
and invite diligent learning. If any one of those
things doesn't exist, we don't reach that center.
That central point or the idea of when all three
of those things converge, that we help with conversion
to Jesus Christ, our end goal. But encompassing
those three things requires us to love those
we teach and to teach by the Spirit. So it just
came to mind for me, obviously in reference to
being a primary teacher, how my love for them
affects. The way I prepare, the way I think about
them, the way that I pray for them. And I was
thinking, you know, what do I remember from primary?
Maybe nothing specific, but I remember teachers
that loved me. For sure. Public school memories.
I don't necessarily remember any lessons that
were to be had there, but definitely remember
those teachers that kind of... exhibited love
in whatever way that was. They noticed you having
a bad day or play with you at recess or, you
know, like I can't pinpoint exact things that
they did, but I mean, there was a, there was
a year of my life that I confused my teacher's
name with my mom's and my mom's with my grandma's.
I mean, like more people to love you. And I think
that was a piece of it. I homeschool with my
sisters in multiple states and usually get to
do like the fifth grade English language arts.
And not a lesson ends without me saying how much
I love, you know, my kid and my nephews that
I'm teaching. And they tell me that they love
me back. And I just think like, yeah, we're learning
about prepositional phrases and conjugating verbs.
I don't know. And love is still important. These
things happen, but I'm like, they probably won't
remember that. And it probably won't be that
useful in their life. But if at the end of the
day that they know how much I love them. we've
definitely succeeded in what I'm hoping for,
further education. Any thoughts? You were in
that same training. Any thoughts come to your
mind from that and how it ties to, you know,
wanting others to feel that love of God? Just
such a good, number one, I love how simple that
diagram is. And it was easier this week when
I taught to just keep that in mind and to remember
to just include. each of the three of those,
you know? And if we're not inviting those that
we're teaching to act, then it doesn't, you know,
we need to act on what we know. And that's when
the Spirit works in us. That's when Heavenly
Father can reach us and we can put everything
that we've learned into practice. I feel like
before that, there's not really a place for it
to land. Right. And we're falling short of the...
expectations that our father has for us because
he's basically like, you know, you could live
without church, but since you're going anyway,
let's help him make the mark. Point people to
my son, help them to become more like me. And
when you're kind of thinking of all of those
things combined in church classes, that's great.
As you know, we're both raising children right
now. We may be reaching the years of, you know,
grandparents, like whatever phase you're on in
your life, maybe you're the auntie, whatever.
That as you're thinking, whatever you have to
say and teach, if it's done with love, that might
be the best start for these people around us
to want to partake of that tree and come to the
tree and partake of that fruit. For sure. We
listen to people we love, right? We trust, we
love, we do things for them. Any final thoughts
from you? Did you say what you wanted to say?
I think that was it. Okay. Let me close with
this testimony. It says, Dear friends, as one
who has experienced God's love, I joyfully witness
that the Savior Jesus Christ is the love of God.
His love for us is perfect, personal, and perpetual.
As we faithfully follow Him, may we be filled
with His love and may we be a lighthouse that
guides others to His love. And He says that in
the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. This will
be our last broadcast before conference. We thought
we would just wrap up with just a few pointers
for preparing for conference? Yeah, just some
ideas. So something I've loved is it's actually
my sister. She did a coloring book. It's called
Light. It's a coloring journal and it's an inspirational
coloring book to experience God's word. And definitely
my daughter and I have done this during conference
and there are places to like write inspirations
or what was something that was a key point or,
you know, what songs you love. They're just a
bunch of different things. And it's just, it's
a fun thing for teens and for adults. I'm going
to link that to the show notes. And then also
the markers, we're going to link those as well
because they're just. really great markers are
kind of like watercolor ones and they're pretty
inexpensive and you could definitely have them
here in time because it's an Amazon link. So
you'll have them for conference. I've doodled
in this coloring book. It's not like so specific
to just a particular conference. No, it's not.
Cause it can also be like, if you're going to
church, like if some, if another religion, we're
going to church or something like that, it's
just you writing down your thoughts during worship.
you know, of Jesus Christ. So that's what it
is. You never know when somebody's going to like
come upon this and be like, oh man, I'm too late
for that. But this is one, like I've come to
your house and you've had the coloring out and
I've sat down and colored for my friend, Amy.
And it's just, it's just fun because it's sort
of just a meditative way. And then I can just
see adding different inspiration and thoughts
into those side notes. Anything else you have?
That is all. I would say what I love is those
initial impressions that come as I'm like first
off listening to conference. They're the things
that I need in that moment. As I studied the
general conference over the next six months,
I'm like, where was I when that was said? It
definitely escaped my ears or seeing the connection,
seeing the pattern, seeing this last session.
It is so stacked with being children of God.
feeling that love of God, that being the most
important thing we do every day to circle back
to that, leading into the prophet's final message
at the conference session. So what I would say
is there's so much power, whatever you can grab
on this first conference weekend. So hold that
dear and special. Ask the question. Come to conference
with the question. Prepare for that question
to be answered. And then enjoy opportunities
on walks or in your Relief Society activities,
the Elder's Quorum, if you're able to go there.
Maybe sacrament talks are kind of centered around
the last chunk of conference. Pair what inspiration
they got with it with the things that you've
heard. Podcasts are always helpful. I laugh,
like sometimes I listen back to these podcasts
that we do and I'm like, I didn't even think
of that when we were preparing for it, when we
were recording, like the emotions of recording,
like worrying about messing up. You're kind of
like, meh, whatever. And then I listen back like
on a calm Sunday morning and I'm like, oh, and
it makes me think of something completely different.
That is power in. In the words themselves. I'm
always like, go back to the words. Like, podcasts
are great. It'll spark some thoughts. But at
different seasons of your life, these talks could
mean a lot more than they do right in this moment.
They're always there for us to enjoy and get
the revelation that we need for the question
that's pertinent to us in that moment. Absolutely.
All right. We will catch you on season four.
We'll see you next time.