SELF-CONFIDENCE

 

“It is not just the mistake-free, no-fault life that pleases God. He has deliberately placed us in a sphere where the most sharply focused purpose is to learn from our experience and to grow in both our desires and our understanding to be like Him.

“Obviously that includes the greatest effort and integrity we can must as we seek to do His will. But the heart of it all is not SELF-confidence. It is confidence in HIM, and in His power to make us into creatures far beyond the reach of what our goal-setting and goal-achieving can ultimately accomplish in the process of becoming as He is.

“Through the power of the Atonement, the Saviour himself compensates ultimately for our inadequacies, even as He leads us along and strengthens our capacity for good. For that reason HE is the desired repository of our confidence.  To repose our confidence in ourselves rather than in Him is to trust in the arm of flesh…..”

-          Elder Bruce C. Hafen, “The Broken Heart”  p 120,121

 

When in heaven we meet,

Will you want my soul to keep?

 

Will I be worthy of forgiveness,

And a loving word from Thee?

I will kneel and I will weep when I witness

How graciously You accept

So little You find in me.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Within Our Grasp by Jay Bryant Ward)

NEPHI ON THE BANKS OF THE RED SEA

You will recall how Lehi had another one of his dreams, this time on the banks of the Red Sea, in which he was commanded to send his sons back to Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates from a man called Laban. After a failed attempt and losing all their precious things in the process thereof, Nephi's brothers were more than ready to abandon the mission. But not Nephi. In his final attempt to rustle up some enthusiasm, Nephi used a surprisingly high standard of achievement to motivate his brothers to press on. He reminded them of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, and asked them to 'be strong like unto Moses'. He then assured them that the Lord is able to deliver them as He did the Israelites of old and to destroy Laban like He destroyed the Egyptians (1 Nephi 4:1-3). But his brothers were not convinced, in fact, they were even more discouraged (1 Nephi 4:4). You can just hear them saying: "This is ridiculous! How can you compare Moses leading 2 million Israelites out of Egypt to this dinky, arduous task we have received from our father?" But it wasn't ridiculous to Nephi. For Nephi getting the plates from Laban was akin to Moses crossing the Red Sea with 2 million people. Why? Because it was beyond his capacity but not beyond God's. And he knew if he couldn't achieve it, that meant that God would. Unlike his brothers who believed that parting the Red Sea was possible for God to do but not possible to deliver into their hands Laban and his fifty (1 Nephi 3:31). Quite a paradox.  Nephi didn't know how he was going to get those plates but he went anyway. The rest of the story we know.

It is the start of a new year. Everyone is setting New Year Resolutions. The statistics to this end are bleak. One study revealed out of 159 people followed, 29% gave up just two weeks into the new year; at 1 month mark, 36%,  and six months into the year, 54% were no longer on course. Is there something dear to your heart that keeps popping up on your list, the achievement of which has eluded you thus far? Something that is crucial to your spiritual or temporal wellbeing? Something akin to some ancient brass plates?

When you are standing on some precipice of life facing something that is beyond your capacity to achieve, do not back down, only believe. Do not look to your left or to your right but forge straight ahead expecting the God of all might to intervene on your behalf. Nephi moved forward wading waist deep into his Red Sea until it parted. I am certain he never expected Laban to be dished up to him on a silver platter (1 Nephi 4:7,8). All he did was trust the spirit by which he was led (1 Nephi 4:6). The God of miracles did the rest. The God who cares, the God who wants to help us, at every turn, at every corner, on every bank of the Red Sea. To him no challenge is too big or too small. All that matters to you, matters to Him. He is at our front and at our back. When we call, shall He not answer and say, "Here I am" (Isaiah 58:9)? He is our forerunner who prepares the way and our rearward in case we should fall (D&C 49:27; Isaiah 52:12; 3 Nephi 21:29). Can you not rejoice and have hope when you hear:

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee....I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight...for I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.....Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no fathoming of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint."
(Isaiah 41:13; 45:2; 54:10; 40:28-31).

- Cathryne Allen

MUSIC IN THE SOUL

"Oliver Wendall Holmes said:

 'Many people die with  their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.'

Tagore expressed a similar thought in these words:

'I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung'.

My plea therefore is this: Let us get our instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung. Let us not die with our music still in us. Let us rather use this precious mortal probation to move confidently and gloriously upward toward the eternal life which God our Father gives to those who keep his commandments"

- President Spencer W. Kimball, 'The Miracle of Forgiveness'


I love opera. My favourite operatic piece is 'Casta Diva' from opera 'Norma' by Vincenzo Bellini. I have a recording of it sung by Renee Fleming which is just beautiful. I love listening to it. The high notes sung by this opera diva are exquisite and would truly exhilarate anyone who would listen to it. I also have the recording of this musical piece by Joshua Bell who is a violinist. When I listen to his rendition of Casta Diva I am convinced that this piece needs no lyrics because the violin has a voice of its own. It speaks to me the same as if it had vocal chords. I have often reflected on how such different renditions of the same piece of music can be equally thrilling. I have concluded it is because each of these artists has a different voice by which they can perform the same task in their own unique way. So it is with us. Each one of us has a unique instrument inside us ready to perform the song we came here to sing.

Often we think our contribution to the world does not matter so we do nothing and our song remains unsung. We tend to get lost in the multitude of people thinking we cannot possibly make a difference and we overlook the responsibility which is ours to discover our talents which can serve us and mankind. This is a gross mistake for we of the eleventh hour have been sent here with a specific song to sing in preparation of this earth for the millenial glory. Consider this quote from Elder Neal A Maxwell:

"When we say God has a plan, he truly has a plan - not simply a grand scale, but for each of us as individuals, allocating some special talent for this dispensation and some to another. I regard God as the perfect personnel manager, even though He must work with and through all of us who are so imperfect. I assume, gladly, that in the allocation to America of remarkable leaders like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, the Lord was just as careful. After all, if you've got only one Abraham Lincoln, you'd better put him in that part in history when he's most needed - much as some of us might like to have him now".

- Neal A. Naxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, p. 46

So all of us are needed but a lot of us stagger about from year to year allowing our weaknesses to be our stumbling blocks which prevent us from fulfilling our divine destiny. As the new year has rolled around once more we are again reflecting on new year's resolutions which we need to make. Most of those resolutions for a lot of us are of temporal nature, some weakness we want to give up, some physical improvement we want to make and a lot of the time we forget to look at our lives long term and what we need to improve on today that we will be grateful for 30 years from now. We were born to this earth to basically fulfill two purposes: 1. To achieve something unique to us and; 2. to qualify ourselves for eternal life. The Saviour Jesus Christ offers a pattern for achieving both of these. The Saviour was a God before he was born into this world yet his birth caused him to forget all that He was before he entered mortality, just the same as us. He had to start just as all other mortals do and gain his knowledge line upon line (Luke 2:52, D&C 93:13). In other words, the Saviour of the world himself had to discover who He was and what His mission was. This knowledge came to Him by revelation and visitation of angels but it had to come line upon line, precept upon precept, and He had to seek it to receive it. So it is with us. If you do not know what your purpose on this earth is, seek revelation to educate yourself on the matter and then do everything in your power to fulfill that purpose, just as He did. Jesus also had to qualify Himself for eternal life by fulfilling and living all the laws and commandments of the Father. In the words of Joseph Fielding Smith:

"The Saviour did not have a fulness at first, but after he received His body and the resurrection all power was given unto Him both in heaven and in earth. Although He was a God, even the Son of God, with power and authority to create this earth and other earths, yet there were some things lacking which He did not receive until after His resurrection. In other words, he had not received the fulness until He got a resurrected body."

- Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of  Presidents of the Church, p. 315

This year we are studying The New Testament and the life of Christ. This course of study is the most spiritually charged course of study we have in the Church. It educates us as to who Christ was, is and always will be. It offers us knowledge about the Atonement and how we can access its power to overcome this world even as He has overcome it. We cannot make it back to our heavenly home unless we become as He is. It makes sense then that we need to study His life in order to pattern our lives after His. The Saviour did not leave His song unsung. In His holy words: "....I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men" (D&C 19:19). The task was overwhelming, the pain unthinkable, the gift priceless. For a few excruciating moments He has felt your sorrows, endured the wrath of God for your sins and learnt what it is like to be you. Now that He knows you, He can succor you, in every weakness, in every way and He can make you powerful enough to release the music of your soul. He can make you what you came here to be. Trust Him, turn to Him, accept Him.

"You did not come into the world to fail. You came into the world to succeed. You have accomplished much so far. It is only the beginning. As you move forward on the trail of life, keep the banner of faith in self ever before you. You may not be a genius. You may not be exceptionally smart. But you can be good and you can try. And you will be amazed at what might happen when in faith you take a step forward."

-  Gordon B. Hinckley