Talk 7-25-04
Based on A Child and a Disciple, by Henry B. Eyring, May 2003
“The Lord trusts
his true disciples. He sends prepared people to his prepared
servants.
Referring to the
quotation that is printed on the program, Elder Henry B. Eyring said, “The Lord
trusts his true disciples. He sends prepared people to his prepared servants.”
Why does the Lord trust us with His work and His glory? What does
that tell us about his parenting? He loves us, and he desires that we will grow
to be like him, and one day do as he does. In a Heavenly “Take Your Kid to Work
Day,” our Heavenly Father is not only taking us, his kids, to his work, he is
actually letting us push some of the buttons or whatever else is really neat at
that work. Imagine that amount of trust of letting your child make some of the
computer programming decisions or make some of the presentations at your place
of work.
That is why it is
vitally important that we, his children, are his true disciples. He needs to be
able to trust us that we will only do his will and that we would only act as he
would act. Our desire is to serve him, our Master, and as his servants we need
to be prepared for his work. It is true that other people are prepared to draw
nearer to him by accepting his ordinances and principles. These people will
come into our path, and we have some responsibility to be there for them.
I think we all
know people who somehow seem to attract others to the gospel message. I know
there are people in this ward who are like this. Elder Eyring had this to say
about them:
There is no single pattern in what they
do. There is no common technique. Some always carry a Book of Mormon to give
away. Others set a date to find someone for the missionaries to teach. Another
has found questions that draw out feelings about what matters most in life to a
person. Each has prayed to know what to do. They each seem to get a different
answer, suited especially to them and to the people they meet.
But
in one way they are all alike. It is this: they have a common way of seeing who
they are. To do what we are to do, we will have to become like them in at least
two ways. First, they feel that they are the beloved children of a loving
Heavenly Father. Because of that they turn to Him easily and often in prayer.
They expect to receive His personal direction..
Second, they are the grateful disciples of
the resurrected Jesus Christ.
Those who speak easily and often of the
restored gospel prize what it has meant to them. They think of that great
blessing often. It is the memory of the gift they have received which makes
them eager for others to receive it. They have felt the love of the Savior
(close quote).
A grateful heart can give us
boldness when we don’t even realize we are being bold, strength when we don’t
even realize we are being strong, energy beyond our natural endurance, and
charity, the pure love of Christ, for all of our brothers and sisters.
I know for myself that that
grateful heart was the motivating factor in my personal decision, about a year
after I was baptized, to serve a mission. Despite the fact that I knew it might
estrange my parents, or that I knew it might clear out my much-loved bank
account, I simply had to serve and let people know of the gift that I had
recently received. As it turned out, I was blessed, and some of the
consequences that I had feared did not come to pass, and there were indeed
eternal blessings for my decision to serve. In addition to meeting and teaching
some wonderful people in a land I would have otherwise never have thought to
go, I also met, for the first time, the person who would become my wife.
As I look back upon that
decision to go and serve a mission, sometimes I think, “Wow! Was that me?” I
was someone who normally was too shy to say “Boo!” to a goose. Yet that gratitude
made something more out of me for a time.
Elder Eyring also spoke of
Saturday as being a market day all around the world. Having done some traveling
myself, I am well acquainted with this image. We even have a Saturday market
here in
One thing I feel is that I
find that many times my thoughts are influenced by what I’ve been reading lately.
I believe, in many ways, we are what we read; what we read becomes what we
think about; what we think about becomes the basis of our interactions with
other people. When we read the Book of Mormon every day, it becomes a part of
our thinking process. Additionally, we are blessed with the feelings of the
spirit as we read, inspiring and comforting us. President Benson once told us
that there is a power in that book that will bless our lives. I know this to be
true.
This process remains the same
for all of our Heavenly Father’s commandments. When we follow each of the
commandments, we are influenced in a positive way toward what Heavenly Father
would like for us to become. We can actually get rid of old sins and become
cleansed, because of the Savior’s atonement for us. As we repent, and thanks to
the miracle of forgiveness, our hearts can change, and we then have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. Our
lives are converted, forever changed, and we become new creatures in Christ. In
that process, fear dissipates, and charity fills our soul. When we’ve cleansed
the inner vessel, we quite naturally begin to look outward to see where we can
be of most help for others. As we do so, we become spiritually ready to be his
prepared servants. His prepared servants act as Jesus would act, and seem to do
it quite naturally, like it is part of their ingrained personality. Sometimes
they don’t even notice that they are being spiritual or religious or whatever.
They are just being who they are.
In fact, Elder Eyring said,
“That is the mark of every person who is bold and effective in sharing the
gospel. They see themselves as disciples of Jesus Christ. It takes no
discipline for them to pray. They do it naturally. It is no special effort to
remember the Savior. His love for them and theirs to Him is always with them.
That is who they are and how they see themselves and those around them.” (close quote).
Jesus commanded us to know
God. I believe (what has been said by others) that that means not just know
about him, but know him personally. We do that by doing what He would do and
acting as He would act. That is how we can know and understand how deeply he
loves us, because we will personally experience those same feelings of love for
others, particularly within the family unit, for our spouse and children.
But we will also feel that
love for people whom we do not know as well. These are the prepared people
referred to by Elder Eyring. There are and will be many who will be interested
in leaving the downward spiral of the world for the hope of an ever-brightening
gospel message. Already, an average of 800 people a day,
every day, are joining the church. That’s 800 miracles of testimonies
and personal spiritual confirmations and leaving old ways behind, each day of
the year. Heavenly Father deals with huge numbers of worlds and people, but
each of those prayers is answered and lives are changed in a very individual
way. It is a miracle.
Elder Eyring said about this,
“To be part of that miracle, you must not
wait until you feel closer to Heavenly
Father or until you are sure that you have been purified through the Atonement
of Jesus Christ. Pray for the chance to encounter people who sense there could
be something better in their lives. Pray to know what you should do to help
them. Your prayers will be answered. You
will meet people prepared by the Lord. You will find yourself feeling and
saying things beyond your past experience. And then in time you will feel
yourself drawing closer to your Heavenly Father, and you will feel the cleansing and the forgiveness the
Savior promises His faithful witnesses. And
you will feel His approval, knowing you have
done what He asked of you, because He loves you and trusts you.”
To this I humbly add my
witness of the truthfulness of this message, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.