Pearl of Great Price

Somehow yesterday I got thinking about all of the things that I didn't have that I wanted. It is so easy to have the wrong focus. Sometimes those thoughts can become overwhelming. I turned to the scriptures and realized, I had the things that matter most. It seemed that the scriptures were telling me greatest thing I had going for me was my commitment to righteousness.

As I got to thinking about it I realized that this was the thing that I had that was of the greatest worth and it made all the other things seem rather unimportant. It also seemed to me that anyone who didn't have this was truly empty, miserable and desolate. In a time when the world seems to be morally bankrupt in many parts of the world today, I need to remember that I have made covenants with God. While imperfect, I have the things that matter the most in this life and the next.

Sister Elaine Dalton came to speak to my ward today and spoke of a visit to Africa. She asked the young women of Ghana what was going well for them in their lives and they shared a few things. Then she asked them what their struggles were. This to a group of girls who walked three hours in the mud to get to church. No one would look at her or answer her question, they bowed their heads and wouldn't make eye contact. She promised that she wouldn't tell President Hinckley what they said and then paused for some awkward silence. Finally someone spoke up in the back and said that they had the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they didn't need anything else. Elder Renlund shared a similar experience from Africa in his first press conference after being called as an apostle.

How would that even feel? To be completely fulfilled and satisfied wanting nothing else but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To want for nothing has to be the definition of true happiness.

Sister Dalton went on to talk to us about how honored she felt to be in our presence and that we were the chosen generation held in reserve for the last days. She shared a scripture from D&C 121:25-27, "For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be. God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now; Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory".

I was reading that chapter today and there are some amazing blessings promised to the faithful. Verse 29 reads, "All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ." If I can claim those blessings then nothing else really matters.

It also made me think of a statement President Hinckley gave after the twin towers came down. He said, "Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God."

This is similar again to D&C 121:45, "Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven."

How would that feel to stand before God with confidence? I am not sure I can imagine anything better. That confidence also has to be with us in this life as well. If we know we are living right we will be able to live with confidence.

My final quote for the night, "If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead." -William Law