So as I was sitting here deleting all of the spam links, my wife said that I should stop writing in my blog. She said that it wasn’t for me, and that because I am not consistent in writing that I should give up entirely. Now as all wives do, she has a good point, however I do disagree with her.
Here is a good example of why she is wrong.
A few weeks ago I felt inspired to ask to speak in sacrament. I went to the missionaries and asked if they are OK with giving a talk one Sunday. Of course they said that they would gladly do it, and one of the future Missionaries that was accompanying them wanted in as well.
So. . . With volunteers in hand I went to the bishopric for a good date to talk. The Lord was guiding my path. Our First counselor said that he had a great Sunday in mind and that he had a problem with getting people to talk.
The Elders and the young man set up a musical relief of “How sweet the word,” and practice for weeks. We all divided the first chapter of “Preach My Gospel,” and prepared for the inevitable day.
Last night I was finishing my talk, I had all but one scripture set up and ready to go. I called my Brother in Utah for a little ecclesiastical help, he gave it and I was finished with a great talk.
This morning I woke up and went over the talk and put a few final touches into it. I went to Ward Counsel and added a few more things to my talk, all of which is normal when I prepare my talk to a subject. It is usually a fluid article in motion. As we opened sacrament the spirit whispered to me that I would not be giving the talk that I had prepared. Sometimes that happens, I am not an easy guy to scare, so I sat and pondered the talk. The first talk finished and I felt inspired to let one of the Elders know that he had diminished time and that he would have to cut it short. So I told him.
The second talk finished and the spirit whispered to me that I would stand up and tell the ward that I knew that I was going to speak in advance but to say that I had not prepared enough and that I am sorry and then to sit back down. At first I dismissed the revelation and tried to think about what I was going to talk about. The inspiration came again, and I decided that I should follow it. From the second talk to the third I received no revelation, during the relief hymn I leaned over and told the first counselor that I was going to confess that I was not prepared to talk and that he should do nothing about it. He said “OK,” but had a very worried look on his face. I felt the exact same way, I had not received any insperation on what to talk about, I felt as if the heavens where closed. We are new to the ward and I knew that when I did this and did not give a talk it would destroy our family’s reputation for years.
I got to the pulpit and began explaining that I had known that I needed to prepare a talk on missionary work, but I had chosen not to, and now I was sorry, but I did not have anything else to say. I went and sat down. As I sat down I started to receive what I was supposed to say in my talk. The spirit the told me to wait a few seconds and stand back up and give my talk.
I stood and immediately began to tell the ward that as uncomfortable as it was for me to do that and for them to wait to see what was next, it would be much worse at the judgment seat of The Lord. When we all stood face to face with our Savior and explained that we had received the calling but we had decided to not prepare and help those who are searching for the truth. We would have to explain to Jesus Christ why some of our neighbors and friends had to wait until someone else came along and told them about the purpose of life. That awkwardness that we felt in the chapel would be nothing compared to the despair of what we would feel at the feet of The Great and Eternal Advocate.
I went on to tell the ward that they were at a crossroad. On one side was greatness, on the other was destruction and weakness. I counseled that we needed to work with the missionaries, follow the promptings of the spirit and continue in the work as we know we should. The talk took the exact amount of time as needed, the blessing and warning were given, either to the damnation or salvation of my ward.
I am thankful for this learning opportunity. I learned that to trust in The Lord and all will be as it should. The only scripture I used in my entire talk was D&C 62:3. It was about how when we bare our testimony the angels in heaven make record of it and we are forgiven of our sins. It was the scripture my brother was able to produce. What great blessings we are given, if we just do as we are asked eventually it will work out.
SO. . . That is why this blog is going to stay up, this is a place that I can go with my feelings, my emotions, and my spiritual triumphs and share them with the ether of the internet. Even if no one reads this I will know that I have been uplifted and taught, and that is what really matters.