Latest / Words of the Living Prophets / Growing Closer to God in Times of Change By Sister Kristin M. Yee Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

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Growing Closer to God in Times of Change By Sister Kristin M. Yee Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency · Words of the Living Prophets

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  Growing closer to God in times of change as covenant keeping
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  women and men, you're likely experiencing challenges or will
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  experience challenges that you've never experienced before.
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  If you are, hang in there and hold on a little longer.
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  Don't run from the hard. Rather, lean into the Lord.
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  Hold on to Him and His love. Hold on to His covenant
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  promises. He loves you, and because He
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  loves you, you'll never miss an opportunity to love and bless
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  you, including the opportunity to help you to grow.
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  Gratefully, we have the blessing of partnering with the Lord
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  through our covenant, relationship with Him, and
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  counseling with Him in all our doings.
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  We can choose to trust Him with our life each day and to receive
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  His promised peace and His healing, strengthening power as
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  we live our covenants. God can do a lot with a willing
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  heart. There are many things that Nephi
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  was commanded to do they had never done before.
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  Among those things, Nephi was commanded to build a ship.
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  Nephi wrote. We did work Timbers of curious
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  workmanship, and the Lord just show me from time to time after
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  what manner I should work the Timbers of the ship.
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  Now I, Nephi, did not work the Timbers after the manner which
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  was learned of by men, neither did I build the ship after the
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  manner of men, but I did build after the manner which the Lord
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  had shown unto me. Your life, efforts and
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  priorities will look different from the world's as you keep
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  your covenants, seek revelation and work Timbers of curious
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  workmanship in your own lives. Man's ways are not God's ways.
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  The Lord is not looking at your resume as much as your heart.
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  You can do a lot with a willing heart, and out of seemingly
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  small things like a willing heart can precede that which is
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  great. Build your relationship with
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  Him. Though the children of Israel
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  wandered 40 years, God did not provide a 40 year supply of mana
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  upfront, nor did He provide a yearly or weekly supply, but He
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  gave them what they needed daily.
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  Their daily portion supplied them not only with essential
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  temporal nourishment, but also spiritual nourishment as it LED
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  them to trust in God for what they needed each day.
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  I think the Lord is more interested in building a
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  relationship with you and me than He is about our comfort in
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  knowing what lies ahead. He has promised His power,
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  perspective, and peace as we prioritize our covenants with
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  Him and personal prayer, studying His Word, repenting
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  often, ministering in His name, engaging in His healing work of
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  family history, and worshipping in His house, the House of the
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  Lord. I've learned that having faith,
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  even great faith, does not preclude us from seeing our
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  weaknesses and opportunities to change.
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  In fact, the closer we come to Christ and become more like Him,
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  the more we see by the Spirit those things that we need to
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  change. Turning to Him in our humility
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  and weakness builds trust and love.
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  Increasing our faith in Christ increases our peace in Christ.
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  The Lord our Redeemer said, Look unto me in every thought.
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  Doubt not, fear not. Look unto Him who sees you, Him
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  who knows your heart. You are not alone.
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  All of heaven is with you as you seek to do His will and do good.
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  Walk with your Lord and God, for He is with you and cleaves unto
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  you, and He desires you to cleave unto Him.
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  Choosing faith when we are transplanted.
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  Last summer I planted a garden of tomato plants. 14 In fact, I
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  planted them at a time when you usually don't plant a garden
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  mid-july in the heat of the summer.
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  I took those little plants in their small temporary containers
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  and place them into a wide and deep plot of earth.
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  And like most plants that get transplanted, for the first
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  little while they looked a little sad and leaned over to
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  one side. They probably said, why did you
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  pull me from my comfortable familiar container and put me in
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  this new and unfamiliar soil with plants I don't even know?
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  Well, I took special care of these little plants and guess
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  what happened? Over time these tender little
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  plants begin to get root, strengthen and grow and what was
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  a small group of fragile tomato plants grew into a Hardy tomato
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  jungle. When we get transplanted into
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  new places with new experiences, people, and relationships, it
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  takes us a bit of time to acclimate and in some cases, to
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  understand why we are there. But as we trust in the Lord,
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  listen for His direction, and watch for His manna day by day,
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  He will walk with us, teach us, and help carry our burdens.
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  He will nourish and strengthen our roots in the heat of the
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  day. Imagine if these plants never
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  were transplanted from their original containers.
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  Their development would have been stunted.
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  They would have been more vulnerable to stress and
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  disease. Old fast to eternal constants.
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  Although growth and change are essential parts of our
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  progression, what we've covenanted to do, there are
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  gratefully some familiar constants in our lives that
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  balance and anchor us in times of change.
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  Those eternal constants, our Heavenly Father and our Savior
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  Jesus Christ, their perfect love for you, their complete
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  awareness of you, their power and covenant promises.
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  These are what we hold to as the world changes and shifts when
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  heartache and uncertainty enter in.
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  God's power and love can prevail in our lives if we choose to
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  trust in Him and if we keep our covenants with all our hearts.
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  I can say with certainty that our true stability is found in
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  our Savior Jesus Christ. He is unchanging, all powerful,
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  and all loving. As we trust in God and put our
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  covenant relationship with Him first, all opportunities and
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  challenges that come our way, we'll work together for our
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  good. We'll look back at our lives and
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  praise Him for His goodness to us.
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  There is no Plan B for those who keep their covenants.
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  The promised blessings of the Lord are not a matter of if, but
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  when in the Lord's wisdom and timing as we strive to follow
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  Him. President D Todd Christofferson,
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  second counselor in the First Presidency, taught quote, no one
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  is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for
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  his children, UN quote. I know that our Father in heaven
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  loves you and desires to bless you with all that He has.
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  He sent His Son Jesus Christ to show us the way and to suffer
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  and die for our sins that we might be suckered in our needs
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  and partake of His greatest gift, eternal life with those we
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  love.