*Expanded on my life: Major, minor, graduation in a year etc.*
My topic at hand today is Honoring and Keeping Covenants. I kind of go back and forth on if I actually like introducing my topic first thing. On one hand, I don't want to have anything get in the way of having people hear what they need to hear -- I want you to be able to distill and learn what you need to learn, and I feel a given topic might make people feel like they can only learn about that one thing, which isn't true. On the other had, (which is why I chose it in this case), it can give a nice structure and context for various parts of the talk.
Anyway, I hope my seemingly random stories and such take more shape and provide more understanding because you understand the overall topic is Honoring and Keeping Covenants. I pray that the Spirit will aid me in this as well and that the Spirit may help you take away something that will help you look at life more brightly and become a better, more confident person.
As I’ve been contemplating and writing what I want to speak today, I’ve notice two general subsections that I want to focus on in regards to this topic. #1 How to best Honor and Keep our Covenants through Our Intent being in the right place, and #2 Joy in our Covenants.
Subsection 1: Intent
Intent is an incredibly important part in keeping our covenants. In following the commandments. In everything we do.
Moroni in Moroni chapter 7 quotes his father, Mormon, who spoke about the importance of having real intent. As a side note before I read those verses, the chapters in the Book of Moroni are so powerful to me. In Moroni 1 Moroni says, “I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed. I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished;” Moroni thought he was done, that he would have died by now. But since he hadn’t, he wrote some of the most precious chapters the Book of Mormon contains. Imagining the Book of Mormon without the Book of Moroni, without Moroni's promise, as Moroni thought it was going to be, is just a wild thought. The Book of Moroni is wonderful.
Anyway, that aside, back to Mormon talking about real intent. He says in verses 6-8 of chapter 7,
6 For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
8 For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
I feel like I learned that principle many many semester ago when a female friend of mine asked me to give her a priesthood blessing. At the time, I kind of liked her, so my inner desire was to give a great blessing and she would be impressed with my spirituality or something or the other and like me more, if that makes sense.
I think it was the first blessing of comfort I’ve given where I did not have the spirit strongly with me after the blessing. I’m sure the blessing was helpful nonetheless, God isn’t going to not bless his daughter because I had the wrong intent in my heart – she told me a few times after that various parts of the blessing helped her, but to me something was off. I thought and prayed a lot about it, and I realized that my intent was off. That I was focusing on the wrong things. That when I’m exercising the Priesthood, when I’m serving, it needs to be for them.
Likewise, we need to strive to keep our covenants not for the recognition from others or for any other selfish reason. We best honor our covenants when we keep our covenants because we love God.
I want to make sure to focus on the other side of this principle. Right now I feel like I’m focusing on the side that may give the impression that we’re all doing worse than we think we are with the idea that “if you think you’re doing good, you might not be if that good is not with the right intent”. I feel what I’ve talked about could be discouraging if we view it from that light.
Of course I want what I say to push us all to be better, and part of that is recognizing where we’re going wrong, but obviously discouragement is not going to help us do that. So now I want to focus more on the other side so I hopefully hit the proper balance between not too much on one side lest discouragement happens but not too much on the other side lest complacency happens.
We are all doing much better than I think we think. And I think this principle of making sure our intent is in the right place is actually a big reason why that is. I feel there are many times and situations throughout life where we feel we may come up short. We get busy and we drop the ball on a commitment. We have such a long day that we’re short-fused with a loved one. We fail on keeping our goals yet again. Over and over again we may feel like we’re falling short.
But if you are actively trying to become better, that is what matters most.
We see this in the newest version of the temple recommend questions, which frequently uses the word “strive”. “Do you strive for moral cleanliness in your thoughts and behavior?” “Do you strive to keep the Sabbath day holy?” “Do you strive to be honest in all that you do?”
Even if we feel we may come up short, if we truly strive to become like Christ, He will work in our lives and everything is going to be much better than you can imagine.
President Nelson said, “The Lord loves effort, and effort brings rewards. We keep practicing. We are always progressing as long as we are striving to follow the Lord. He doesn’t expect perfection today. As in times past, our journey does indeed take effort, hard work, and study, but our commitment to progress brings eternal rewards.”
Subsection 2: Joy
Thinking about joy, I wanted to share a story from school this past semester. I hope someone else can find this seemingly insignificant moment as insightful as I have. Even though it’s just a funny passing moment, I’ve reflected on it several times the past, so I wanted to share it.
A little bit of background first: My roommates got me into Trading Card Games this past semester. You might recognize Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering, which are more common place trading card games, but Lorcana, the Disney Trading Card Game, is the one I’ve played the most of.
I actually definitely don’t recommend getting into trading card games as they are definitely a money hole. I spent way more money on cardboard than I care to admit in the past few months. But a really neat thing about trading cards is they have inherent value – you can sell them online to people. When you open up a Legendary Ursula card, you can list it online and someone will actually buy it from you for $30.
After opening up 50+, 75+ packs (much more in my roommates's case), we have gotten extremely desensitized. We open a pack and if it doesn’t contain a 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 dollar card, then the pack is trash and we set it aside barely looking at its contents. Next pack: Trash again. Next pack: Trash again.
At one of these tournaments, I got to watch this lady, we’ll call her Selina because that’s her name, open up a pack, and it was just a heartwarming joyous sight. Every card in that pack is a treasure and an excitement. Every pack, no matter how good or bad money wise, she loved and had so much fun opening up.
One pack in particular I remember: My roommates and I saw her open up a (at the time) $45 Robin Hood card. We’re popping off for her. But to her, it’s just another card. “Ooo, I like Robin Hood, neat!”
The next card: a 75-cent foil Dalmatian Puppy. She gets so excited. Talking about how she’s been looking for more Dalmatian Puppy cards and how the foil looks so good.
And I just feel like there’s a really good lesson in there. It’s important we try to find joy in the little things. I think it’s important we try to find joy throughout our lives. Keeping covenants, keeping commandments may seem to get routine at times. But finding joy in the little things is important.
*Expanded more on that topic of finding joy. I also expanded a lot into how I know life is hard that life hasn't been easy for me recently. But how I know that we were sent to earth to experience things and how they'll be consecrated for our gain. How I know that everything is going to be great:)*
I want to end by sharing a quote from Elder Eyring back in October of 2019. It comes from his talk Holiness and the Plan of Happiness where he talks about how increased holiness and purity leads to increased happiness.
He said, “[Alma] taught his son that increasing in holiness was the only path to happiness. He made it plain that greater holiness is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ cleansing and perfecting us. Only by faith in Jesus Christ, continuing repentance, and keeping covenants are we able to claim the lasting happiness we all yearn to experience and retain.”
*Bore my testimony on various things including stuff revolved around the ideas I have below*
For me, at least, I know I feel more peace and joy when I know my will aligns with a being who truly knows what is best for me, who knows what will make me most happy now and in the eternities. I trust him to know what is best for me, so I can feel peace when I’m doing what he would have me do.