Sacrament talk

today, Brandon and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting, here's mine:

Good morning,

We have been asked to speak on the Conference talk: To Acquire Spiritual Guidance, by Elder Richard G. Scott. When we first received the call to speak, I immediately felt overwhelmed. Public speaking is something that I generally don’t like to do. After a few days of hyperventilating at the thought of today, I started to try to think of ideas, but I was stumped. I had no clue what to speak about. Before going to bed one night, I prayed for guidance and for confidence. The next day, I happened to come across one of my old friend’s blogs online. Miraculously, she had just posted some of her feelings on personal revelation. After reading her simple but profound thoughts, I not only felt a little less frightened, but also had a few thoughts of my own. The Lord answered my plea for help in a most unconventional way.

Personal revelation can come in many different forms, and can come at any time. It is up to us to be continuously ready to receive that strength and guidance from the Lord. If we are not prepared, we will miss something.

Elder Scott said:

“I am convinced that there is no simple formula or technique that would immediately allow you to master the ability to be guided by the voice of the Spirit. Our Father expects you to learn how to obtain that divine help by exercising faith in Him and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ.”

He goes on to say that if receiving revelation were easy, we would become weak. We must work at it, having faith and patience, only then can we grow spiritually.

When we are spiritually strong, we can not only receive inspiration to know what to do, but also the power to do it. In high school, my English class read a play based on the story of Job. Beforehand, my teacher had all of us bring our Bibles to class, to go over the story together so that we could understand the play better. I felt prompted to bring my Book of Mormon as well, and being the only member of the church in the class, I was nervous that a lot of attention would be turned my way. But I brought it, and after a few minutes of quietly studying our bibles, some of my classmates began to ask me questions about the church. And after a while, the teacher and every student in the class were listening intently to me. I was petrified that I would say something wrong or that I would be confusing, but I was given the power and courage to answer the questions and bear my testimony to my class.

The Lord also comforts us in times of grief or fear. He has given us this gift out of pure love. When I was a little girl, I had quite the overactive imagination. It didn’t help that I had seen the move Hocus Pocus, which scared the living daylights out of me. I would lay in bed at night and imagine witches coming to steal me away to turn me into a cat, and I would never get to see my family, or play with my barbies ever again! I would terrify myself to the point of insomnia, at which point I would usually remember from Primary, that my Heavenly Father loves me. I would say a prayer to help me be less afraid and fall asleep. Every single time, my silly childhood fears were dispelled, and I did this quite often. Because of this, I learned at an early age of the infinite and abounding love of my Father in heaven.

We must all remember that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to help us. He rejoices when we are happily following the gospel of Christ. Moses 1:39 states that the Father’s work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. He will reveal to us the help and guidance we need, as well as His incredible love for us, as long as we remain worthy to receive such.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.