The Paths Jesus Walked - Thomas S. Monson

The Paths Jesus Walked - Thomas S. Monson

In a very real sense, all can walk where Jesus walked when, with His words on our lips, His spirit in our hearts, and His teachings in our lives, we journey through mortality. I would hope that we would walk as He walked—with confidence in the future, with an abiding faith in His Father, and with a genuine love for others.

Jesus walked the path of temptation.

That evil one, amassing his greatest strength, his most inviting sophistry, tempted Him who had fasted for forty days and forty nights and was “an hungered.” Came the taunt: “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” The reply: “Man shall not live by bread alone.”

Again, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” The answer: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Still again: “The kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them … will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” The Master replied, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (Matt. 4:2–10.)

Jesus walked the path of pain.

Consider the agony of Gethsemane. “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. … And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:42, 44.)

And who among us can forget the cruelty of the cross. His words: “I thirst. … It is finished.” (John 19:28, 30.)

Yes, each of us will walk the path of disappointment, perhaps due to an opportunity lost, a power misused, or a loved one not taught. The path of temptation, too, will be the path of each. “And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves.” (D&C 29:39.)

While we walk these paths which bring forth bitter sorrow, we can also walk those paths which yield eternal joy.

We, with Jesus, can walk the path of obedience.

It will not be easy. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” (Heb. 5:8.) Let our watchword be the heritage bequeathed us by Samuel: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22.) Let us remember that the end result of disobedience is captivity and death, while the reward for obedience is liberty and eternal life.

We, like Jesus, can walk the path of service.

Like a glowing searchlight of goodness is the life of Jesus as He ministered among men. He brought strength to the limbs of the cripple, sight to the eyes of the blind, hearing to the ears of the deaf, and life to the body of the dead.

His parables preach power. With the good Samaritan He taught: “Love … thy neighbour.” (Luke 10:27.) Through His kindness to the woman taken in adultery, He taught compassionate understanding. In His parable of the talents, He taught each of us to improve himself and to strive for perfection. Well could He have been preparing us for our journey along His pathway.

Finally, He walked the path of prayer.

Three great lessons from three timeless prayers. First, from His ministry: “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Luke 11:2.)

Second, from Gethsemane: “Not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42.)

Third, from the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)

It is by walking the path of prayer that we commune with the Father and become partakers of His power.

Shall we have the faith, even the desire, to walk these pathways that Jesus walked? God’s prophets, seers, and revelators have invited us to do so. All we need do is follow them, for this is the pathway they walk.

Jesus changed men. He changed their habits, their opinions, their ambitions. He changed their tempers, their dispositions, their natures. He changed men’s hearts.

As we direct our footsteps along the paths that Jesus walked, let us remember the testimony Jesus gave: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. … I am the light and … life of the world.” (3 Ne. 11:10–11.) “I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father.” (D&C 110:4.)

The Shield of Faith Against the Fiery Darts of Doubt and Fear

Sunday, March 3, 2019

I love this article.    I have no idea where I got it and when I google it, I cannot find any reference to it.  

The Shield of Faith Against the Fiery Darts of Doubt and Fear 
Bianca Palmieri Lisonbee - 2006

A few years ago, not long after my sister was diagnosed with cancer, I became pretty much immobilized by my fears.  I could not seem to get rid of the pit of anxiety in my stomach that I would wake up with each morning and that would stay with me throughout the day and night.  I had the fear of losing her.  Fear of watching her suffer, fear of the lack of my own abilities to help her through this, dominated my mind. No matter what scenario presented itself, it was one that induced in me great fear. 

I prayed to have peace.  There were moments when I had glimpses of peace, but they were short-lived. I figured that one reason they were short-lived was because the Lord wanted me to recognize how precious they were and that they truly were a gift from Him, and that maybe if I felt that way all the time I would grow to take that peace for granted.  So I assumed that I just had to live with the fear. 

That was until I attended a fireside at BYU with Elder Roger Merrill.  I will never forget the effect his words had on me.  He said that Satan was getting to otherwise good and faithful members of the Church through doubt and fear.  He said, “We must have zero tolerance for doubt and fear in our lives!”  Zero tolerance?  I thought to myself,  “How do you have zero tolerance for something that is an involuntary reaction?”  I could see having zero tolerance for drug abuse, or pornography, or whatever else it seems like we have a CHOICE in avoiding, but how could I reject what for me seemed like an involuntary reaction and out of my power to control?

I thought about this for days and then I reflected on how Christ handled His temptations in the wilderness.  Each time Satan tempted Him, He used the power of the scriptures to dispel him. Sure, I knew that reading my scriptures was a good way to dispel fear and doubt, but I couldn’t really spend my entire waking moments reading them, could I?   But was I really using the power of the Word in the way Christ exemplified?

I took a very close look at the thoughts I was allowing myself to entertain.  Many of them were full of doubt and fear.  Although the initial appearance of those thoughts and feelings felt involuntary, was I really making any effort to cast them out?  I’ve heard it said that a bird may land on your head, but it doesn’t have to build a nest there.  I discovered that I had been harboring in my mind the tangled nests made by the preying effects of fear and doubt.  I realized that many of the thoughts I had been “innocently” entertaining were a direct affront to things I was supposed to believe. They were in essence an insult to the Lord.  No wonder I was not at peace. I was driving the spirit away.

I knew what I must do. By increasing my awareness of these thoughts I would identify each time one came into my mind and I would treat it like a fiery dart aimed at me and I would then have to hold up the shield of faith with the power of God’s word to combat each one.

For example: When I would leave my sister’s house, seeing that she was going downhill and thinking of all the things we were not going to get to do together that we had anticipated all our lives, the thought would come, “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”  I would immediately say, (sometimes even out loud)  “All things shall work together for the good of those who love the Lord,”  or “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding.” Or, when I would think about what she was going to miss out on in life and I would think to myself, “She’s being cheated; it’s not fair,” I would immediately say what Joseph Smith taught:  “All your losses will be made up to you in the Resurrection if you remain faithful. By the power of the Almighty I have seen it.” 

Another twig in my nest of fear and doubt had come from thoughts of self-pity.  “I will have no one left from my family. Why did this have to happen to me?”  I would then cast this away with, “All these things shall give thee experience and be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than He?” or “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”

One of the very hardest thoughts for me was “Why does she have to suffer so much?”  I then reminded myself of Peter’s words, that “Our trials will be more precious to us than gold.”  And I knew that even though I would try to do all in my power to relieve her suffering I must not charge God foolishly, for it was in her extremities that she was coming to know Him.

The marvelous thing I found was the immediate effect this exercise had on me.  It was as if the Holy Ghost was so attracted to these thoughts that doubt and fear could not persist.  I found the Lord honoring my effort with such an added measure of His spirit that my anxieties began to dissipate quite instantly.  And the peace that attended these words and thoughts was not short-lived.  It still persists today, even after all those terrible things I feared came to pass. This peace was there to sustain me through the last days and moments of her life and beyond.

And now I have found myself having to continue to do the same thing with other fears in my life—fears about my children, grandchildren, our business and the future. All the “What ifs?” in my life. And each time one of those thoughts comes, I hold up the shield of faith and it truly deflects the fiery darts of fear and doubt that can be so crippling to the abundant life and to my ability to serve.

In the past, I certainly could have come up with those scriptures if I had been preparing a talk or lesson on the subject, but I found I had not been using them as the Savior did to fight the crippling temptation of doubt and fear.

When I told my BYU Institute class about my experience, we decided to practice this exercise in class.  I would have them call out a negative thought or fiery dart.

They said things like,”I am such a loser.”  We would then come up with a scripture to quote to quench that dart, such as “The worth of MY soul is great in the sight of God.” Or, if our thought was, “HE is such a loser,” “The worth of HIS soul is great in the eyes of God.”

“I have too many weaknesses, I’ll never make it.” 

“I will come unto Christ and be perfected in Him.”

“This is just too hard for me.””With God nothing is impossible.”

“I’m too tired.” “I will give you rest.”

“I’m afraid.””I have not given you the spirit of fear.”

“I feel all alone.”“Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

Within minutes the spirit in that classroom was so strong, illustrating to all of us once again the power of the Word. 

I realized that this is because these are more than mere words. They are more than nice phrases in a Hallmark card.  They are more than positive affirmations.  These words, uttered in faith, unleash the power of the truths they represent. These words are the words of Christ, which allow us to speak with the tongue of angels and to be ministered to by them.

These are words that The Word made flesh uttered, words from Him by whom and through whom the power to create all things was manifest. These words, uttered in faith, give us access to a divine source of grace and truth that can be found in no other way.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have struggled with fear and anxiety.  I know that this is a truth that has had to be learned and re-learned in my life.  But I testify of the power of demonstrating faith in the word of God to quench the fiery darts of the adversary.  I testify that in my own life I have not had to assume that I just have to live with crippling anxiety, whether it be over having to fly on airplanes or about the welfare of my children and grandchildren.

In literature, there are legends that tell that if one were in possession of a certain word, one’s enemies could be vanquished by the utterance of that word. Power not before accessible could be obtained through that word.

Perhaps these ideas have been born out of the truth that it is in God’s Word, The Word made flesh in Christ, who gave us His words, that all things can be accomplished for those that love Him and seek to know and live by the power of His words.

Elder Holland has said,

The Savior said, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

I submit to you that may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-Day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet I wonder if our resistance to this invitation could be any more grievous to the Lord’s merciful heart.  I can tell you this, that as a parent, as concerned as I would be if somewhere in their lives one of my children were seriously troubled or unhappy or disobedient, nevertheless I would be infinitely more devastated if I felt that at such a time that child could not trust me to help or thought that his or her interest was unimportant to me or unsafe in my care. In that same spirit, I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.”   (Come Unto Me, Ensign, Apr. 1998, p. 19)

And I would add “who trust in His words.”

“Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not.”  Doctrine and Covenants Section 6:36

Bianca Palmieri Lisonbee

I am going to try an experiment here --

Dart:  "I don't know what to do."

Scriptural Response:  "...feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."  2 Nephi 32:3

Scriptural Response "...if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."   2 Nephi 32:5

Scriptural Response  "...ye must pray always and not faint;"  2 Nephi 32:9

Dart:  I  am wounded, or hurt"   

Scriptural Response "the word of God...healeth the wounded soul."  Jacob 2: 8

Those who have been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds.  Vs. 9

By Faith All Things are Fulfilled - Marcus B. Nash

Sunday, March 3, 2019

By Faith All Things are Fulfilled - Marcus B. Nash

The life of Ann Rowley, a pioneer woman in the early days of the Church, demonstrates how exercising faith impacts our lives for good. A widow from England, Sister Rowley exercised her faith to answer the prophet’s call to gather to Zion. She was a member of the Willie handcart company, which encountered deep snowdrifts along the trail in the fall of 1856. They had reached a point in the trek where her seven children were literally starving. She wrote: “It hurt me to see my children go hungry. … Night was coming and there was no food for the evening meal. I asked God’s help as I always did. I got on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuits that … had been left over from the sea voyage. They were not large, and were so hard they couldn’t be broken. Surely, that was not enough to feed 8 people, but 5 loaves and 2 fishes were not enough to feed 5,000 people either, but through a miracle, Jesus had done it. So, with God’s help, nothing is impossible. I found the biscuits and put them in a dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for God’s blessing. Then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals. When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan filled with food. I kneeled with my family and thanked God for his goodness. That night my family had sufficient food.”
Ann Rowley was living the gospel at great personal sacrifice. She needed help and asked for it in prayer. Because of her faith, she was filled with hope and miraculously provided with food for her
family. The Lord also blessed her with the eternally significant ability to “endure in faith to the end.”
Despite an uncertain future, she did not demand to know how she was going to feed her children the
next day; instead, she patiently “wait[ed] upon the Lord” and pressed forward with hope.

The Lord commands us to take “the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Satan will use such things as doubt, fear, or sin to tempt us to let go of faith and lose the protection it offers. Let us briefly examine each of these challenges to faith in turn so that we can recognize and heed not the adversary’s temptations.

First, unbelief in the Lord or His gospel will cause us to resist the Spirit of God. The Lord’s antidote for doubt is simple. As King Benjamin declared, “Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.”

Second, fear distracts from and undermines faith in the Savior. The Apostle Peter looked to the Lord one stormy night and walked on water--until he averted his gaze and “saw the wind boisterous [and] was afraid” and then sank into the stormy sea. He could have continued walking if he had not feared! Rather than our focusing upon and fearing the boisterous wind and waves in our lives, the Lord invites us to “look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”

Third, sin diminishes the presence of the Spirit in our lives, and without the Holy Ghost, we will lack the spiritual stamina to hold onto and exercise faith. It is best to exercise our faith to “touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing” and to “be diligent in keeping all [the] commandments, lest … your faith fail you, and your enemies triumph over you.” If sin has stained your life, I invite you to exercise “faith unto repentance,” and the Savior, through the Atonement, will purify and heal your life.

President Thomas S. Monson has stated, “The future is as bright as your faith.” I testify of that sublime, hopeful truth and invite each of us to steadfastly press forward with faith in the Lord, “nothing wavering.” I know that the Savior lives, is “the author and the finisher of [our] faith,” and the “rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

The Magnificence of Man - Russell M. Nelson

I love this talk.    It resonates with me.    I think it is especially fascinating knowing that President Nelson is a great surgeon with special knowledge of the body and its capabilities and the intricate nature of our bodies.   I am thankful for my body.    I am thankful for the health that I have enjoyed.   I am thankful for a Prophet of God who has prepared himself all of his life for this special calling in this time and place. 

The Magnificence of Man - Russell M. Nelson

The Magnificence of Man - Russell M. Nelson

Think of the most magnificent sight you have ever seen.

Now, ponder the magnificence of what you see when you look in the mirror.

Eyes are connected to the brain, ready to record sights seen.

Compacted into an area about the size of a marble is all the equipment needed to perceive sound. 

The amount of work the heart does is amazing. Each day it pumps enough fluid to fill a 2,000-gallon tank. The work it performs daily is equivalent to lifting a 150-pound man to the top of the Empire State Building, while consuming only about four watts of energy—less than that used by a small light bulb in your home.

One of the most wondrous of all jewels in this treasure chest is the human brain with its intricate combination of power cells and recording, memory, storage, and retrieval systems. 

Broken bones mend and become strong once again. If I were to break one of the legs of a chair, that leg would never heal itself. 

In spite of wide fluctuations in the temperature of man’s environment, the body’s temperature is carefully controlled within certain narrow bounds.

How were we made? By whom? And why?

There are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our divine creation.

“The Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness. …

“So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.” (Abr. 4:26, 27.)

The Lord said that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man.” (D&C 88:15.) Therefore, each one of us is a dual being—a biological (physical) entity, and an intellectual (spiritual) entity.

When we truly know our divine nature, we will want to control our appetites. We will focus our eyes on sights, our ears on sounds, and our minds on thoughts that are a credit to our physical creation as a temple of our Father in Heaven. In daily prayer, we will gratefully acknowledge him as our Creator and thank him for the magnificence of our physical temple. 

With the blessing of our bodies to assist us, we may develop spiritual qualities of honesty, integrity, compassion, and love. Only with the development of the spirit may we acquire “faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, [and] diligence.” (D&C 4:6.)

Joy and Spiritual Survival - Russell M. Nelson

Yesterday was Meg DeYoung Bostwicks funeral.   Today is her 28th Birthday.     She is my cousin Susan DeYoungs only daughter.     I went to the funeral in Ogden.   I'm so glad I did.   It was an amazing spiritual feast.    My Smith cousins are the best people on earth.     About 2 1/2 weeks ago, they discovered that Meg had brain cancer.   She was six months pregnant.   She went into a seizure and that's how they discovered it.     She was in the hospital for about 1 1/2 of the last two weeks of her life and she died of a brain hemorrhage.   They took her unborn baby and she weighs two and a half pounds.     She has a 20 month old sister.     Meg and her husband were in the process of building a home.  They bought the lot last September.   They had finally sold their home near Susan and had moved temporarily into an apartment in Preston, Idaho with Scotts parents until their new home was ready.  The builder was slow and wouldn't begin digging on the new home.   They were getting very frustrated with him.     Apparently, the contract they had with the builder stated that the contract would begin on the day that the builder began digging, since he never dug, they had no contract for the new home.   So Scott is now under no obligation to go forward with the home, which he had no desire to do.   Their other home was under contract, and empty for the new buyer, however, also, after Meg died, the financing failed, and Scott was able to move back into his home.   This allows him to be able to be near Susan, and she can help with the kids.    So...when Ann told be these miraculous things, I was so impressed.    It built my faith so much to know that our Heavenly Father was watching out for this little family, even in their greatest distress.  Scotts talk at the funeral was priceless.   He is truly awesome.      Susan's talk was also so inspiring.    I am thankful that I made the effort to go.   Their Bishops talk was also one of the most wonderful things I have ever heard.   It was mostly from this Ensign article.     On the night of the funeral, I had to get home to give a talk in evening Relief Society about trials and Joy.    I wish that I had known about this talk before my talk and I would have just given the points in this talk.   It is one of the best things I have ever read.  I love my cousins, they are simply the finest people that I know.   I am thankful for the knowledge that I have and that no one can take that from me.   The other day, Jenny said to me "If you knew what I knew, it would destroy you!"    She has been reading stuff about Joseph Smith and I'm not sure what all.   But I was able to look her it in the eyes and stay, "It would not destroy me!"   Nothing that she says could destroy me.    If my son taking his own life did not destroy me, then I feel like I am indestructible.    Its a great feeling!    I'm so grateful.      Ultimately, it comes down to one person and that is me.    I am in charge of my own feelings and making my own way.   Yes there are people to help, but they may falter, and if they do, it does not mean that I have to falter as well.   I can be strong, certain, happy and joyful.   I believe that I am all of those things.   I love my Heavenly Father for all that he has given to me.    He has given me everything that I need to be happy and for that I eternally thankful.  

Karol B. Stokes


Joy and Spiritual Survival - Russell M. Nelson

Life is filled with detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when distress, anguish, and despair almost consumed us. Yet we are here to have joy?

Yes! The answer is a resounding yes! But how is that possible? And what must we do to claim the joy that Heavenly Father has in store for us?

Eliza R. Snow, second General President of the Relief Society, offered a riveting answer. Because of Missouri’s infamous extermination order, issued at the onset of the grueling winter of 1838,⁷ she and other Saints were forced to flee the state that very winter. One evening, Eliza’s family spent the night in a small log cabin used by refugee Saints. Much of the chinking between the logs had been extracted and burned for firewood by those who preceded them, so there were holes between the logs large enough for a cat to crawl through. It was bitter cold, and their food was frozen solid.

That night some 80 people huddled inside that small cabin, only 20 feet square (6.1 meters square). Most sat or stood all night trying to keep warm. Outside, a group of men spent the night gathered around a roaring fire, with some singing hymns and others roasting frozen potatoes. Eliza recorded: “Not a complaint was heard—all were cheerful, and judging from appearances, strangers would have taken us to be pleasure excursionists rather than a band of gubernatorial exiles.”

Eliza’s report of that exhausting, bone-chilling evening was strikingly optimistic. She declared: “That was a very merry night. None but saints can be happy under every circumstance.”⁸

That’s it! Saints can be happy under every circumstance. We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year!

My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, which President Thomas S. Monson just taught us, and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. We feel it at Christmastime when we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”⁹ And we can feel it all year round. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!

Our Perfect Example - Henry B. Eyring

Our Perfect Example - Henry B. Eyring

Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others. There is no surprise in that, since the Lord proclaimed those as the first and great commandments. It is love of God that will lead us to keep His commandments. And love of others is at the heart of our capacity to obey Him.

First, I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.It 

Now I give counsel to the parents of a wandering child. The Savior is the perfect example of persisting in love. You remember His words of comfort to the people among the Nephites who had rejected His earlier invitation to come to Him. He spoke to the survivors of the destruction which came after His Crucifixion: “O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.”3

Now, here is my counsel to children. The Lord gave you a commandment with a promise: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”5 It is the only one of the Ten Commandments with a promise. You may not have parents that are living. In some cases, you may not feel that your parents are worthy of the honor and respect of their children. You may not even have ever known them. But you owe them life. And in every case, even if your life is not lengthened, its quality will be improved simply by remembering your parents with honor.