WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.007 Paisley: Hello, my friends. Welcome back. Paisley. 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:07.407 Imperfect. Here again, and today we are going to talk about 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:12.028 mercy. I wanted to talk about mercy last time, but then I came 00:00:12.101 --> 00:00:16.501 across that talk from elder oaks, then elder oaks about love 00:00:16.575 --> 00:00:20.975 and laws, and felt that I needed to talk about that. So this 00:00:21.049 --> 00:00:25.522 time, I decided I wanted to go back and talk about mercy, and 00:00:25.596 --> 00:00:29.776 actually talk about mercy. And today, my thoughts are all 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:33.810 focused around a talk by President Uchtdorf called the 00:00:33.883 --> 00:00:38.137 merciful obtain mercy. And I'm probably in this episode at 00:00:38.211 --> 00:00:42.905 least. I'm probably not going to get into a lot of detail on why 00:00:42.978 --> 00:00:47.378 I personally needed this talk. Suffice it to say that it was 00:00:47.452 --> 00:00:51.926 humbling, and I certainly have some work to do. And you know, 00:00:51.999 --> 00:00:56.253 sometimes when I'm putting these episodes together, as I'm 00:00:56.326 --> 00:01:01.020 reading through these talks, and I'm kind of taking my notes and 00:01:01.093 --> 00:01:05.420 collecting my thoughts around these talks. Sometimes I just 00:01:05.494 --> 00:01:10.041 want to be like, I'm just going to read it to you, because you 00:01:10.114 --> 00:01:14.662 have to just hear this. Or I'm just going to go ahead and play 00:01:14.735 --> 00:01:19.062 it for you, and then I'm going to stop and be like, did you 00:01:19.135 --> 00:01:23.536 hear that? Did you catch that? It can be a little painful to 00:01:23.609 --> 00:01:27.863 watch General Conference with me. Not gonna lie, sometimes 00:01:27.936 --> 00:01:32.117 I'll just be like, to my husband, did you catch that? Did 00:01:32.190 --> 00:01:36.884 you hear what he just said right there? And he'll be like, wait, 00:01:36.957 --> 00:01:41.211 what? No, I'm trying to listen to the next thing that he's 00:01:41.285 --> 00:01:45.392 saying. Anyway, President Uchtdorf, he starts by talking 00:01:45.465 --> 00:01:49.572 about human relationships. And that makes sense, really, 00:01:49.646 --> 00:01:54.046 because there are two ultimate effects of mercy. There's the 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:58.667 effect that it has on those to whom we grant mercy, and it has 00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:03.361 an effect on us. He says, quote, I imagine that every person on 00:02:03.434 --> 00:02:08.128 earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of 00:02:08.201 --> 00:02:12.455 contention, resentment and revenge. Perhaps there are even 00:02:12.528 --> 00:02:16.709 times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves, when we 00:02:16.782 --> 00:02:21.183 feel hurt, angry or envious, it is quite easy to judge other 00:02:21.256 --> 00:02:25.583 people, often assigning dark motives to their action, their 00:02:25.657 --> 00:02:30.350 actions, in order to justify our own feelings of resentment. And 00:02:30.424 --> 00:02:34.824 if anything felt familiar to me, that was it. I do sometimes 00:02:34.898 --> 00:02:39.151 recognize that spirit in myself as I've gotten older, I've 00:02:39.225 --> 00:02:43.772 gotten better at letting things go, not worrying about them so 00:02:43.845 --> 00:02:48.319 much. And the older that I get, the harder I work on, letting 00:02:48.393 --> 00:02:52.793 them go faster, just letting things completely roll off, not 00:02:52.866 --> 00:02:57.634 overthinking it, just letting it go. But one of the thoughts that 00:02:57.707 --> 00:03:02.401 came that kept coming back to me when I was thinking about mercy 00:03:02.474 --> 00:03:07.021 and the some of the things that President Uchtdorf was saying, 00:03:07.095 --> 00:03:11.422 one of the things that kept coming back to my mind was, but 00:03:11.495 --> 00:03:15.969 what about when I meet someone new? Because I'll be honest, I 00:03:16.042 --> 00:03:20.516 in the last four or five years or so, I've been fairly deeply 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:25.210 hurt by people that I was very close to, and it's had an effect 00:03:25.283 --> 00:03:29.464 on my ability to trust people immediately, to immediately 00:03:29.537 --> 00:03:33.938 trust people I used to be. I used to be able to trust people 00:03:34.011 --> 00:03:38.338 until they gave me a reason not to, and now I have a harder 00:03:38.412 --> 00:03:42.959 time. It's, it's it's more like you have to earn my trust. And 00:03:43.032 --> 00:03:47.139 that's not, that's not how I want to be. I want to be. I 00:03:47.213 --> 00:03:51.907 can't say that. I want to be the way I was before, but I want to 00:03:51.980 --> 00:03:56.454 have that, that skill again, to be able to trust until, until 00:03:56.527 --> 00:04:01.074 I'm given a reason not to. I'm working on it. But I also think 00:04:01.148 --> 00:04:05.181 that that it's relevant. President Uchtdorf continues a 00:04:05.255 --> 00:04:09.875 little bit later in his talk. He says, when it comes to our own 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:14.349 prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as 00:04:14.423 --> 00:04:18.823 righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate. 00:04:18.896 --> 00:04:23.150 Though we cannot look into another's heart, we assume that 00:04:23.224 --> 00:04:27.697 we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We 00:04:27.771 --> 00:04:32.391 make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness, because we 00:04:32.465 --> 00:04:36.939 feel that in our case, we have all the information we need to 00:04:37.012 --> 00:04:41.559 hold someone else in contempt, guilty. I've done that. I think 00:04:41.632 --> 00:04:45.886 I'm currently doing that, and I am very glad that I am not 00:04:45.960 --> 00:04:50.507 expected to be perfect in this life. I'm only expected to try. 00:04:50.580 --> 00:04:54.907 I. I'm also grateful for the understanding and the patience 00:04:54.981 --> 00:04:58.721 that my savior has for me, because I have plenty of 00:04:58.794 --> 00:05:03.268 shortcomings that must be very frustrating. Makes me think of 00:05:03.342 --> 00:05:07.595 that talk from elder Holland, and it might be the one that 00:05:07.669 --> 00:05:12.216 we're listening to this week be therefore perfect. Eventually. 00:05:12.289 --> 00:05:16.617 It might be that when I'm I don't know. We'll find out, but 00:05:16.690 --> 00:05:21.017 that talk that elder Holland gave, where he talks about how 00:05:21.090 --> 00:05:25.564 frustrating it must be for God to work with imperfect people. 00:05:25.638 --> 00:05:29.818 Anyway, back to President Uchtdorf. He gives a little bit 00:05:29.891 --> 00:05:34.365 more that actually provides some real hope. He says, When the 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:38.986 Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving 00:05:39.059 --> 00:05:43.826 ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who 00:05:43.900 --> 00:05:48.300 is the hardest to forgive, as well as perhaps the one who is 00:05:48.374 --> 00:05:53.141 most in need of our forgiveness, is the person looking back at us 00:05:53.214 --> 00:05:57.248 in the mirror. So the Lord requires that we forgive all 00:05:57.321 --> 00:06:01.868 men, including ourselves. This is also the talk that President 00:06:01.942 --> 00:06:06.269 Uchtdorf gave, where he gave his two word sermon. I kind of 00:06:06.342 --> 00:06:10.156 vaguely remember him saying this, because I remember 00:06:10.229 --> 00:06:14.703 thinking just like, wait what? And kind of chuckling a little 00:06:14.777 --> 00:06:19.471 bit. He says quote when it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, 00:06:19.544 --> 00:06:23.944 ridiculing, holding grudges or wanting to cause harm. Please 00:06:24.018 --> 00:06:28.345 apply the following. Stop it. And I love this part where he 00:06:28.418 --> 00:06:32.965 says, I don't know exactly how to articulate this point of not 00:06:33.039 --> 00:06:36.926 judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion and 00:06:36.999 --> 00:06:41.473 persuasion to make it stick. I can quote Scripture. I can try 00:06:41.546 --> 00:06:46.020 to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I 00:06:46.094 --> 00:06:50.714 recently saw. It was attached to the back of a car whose driver 00:06:50.788 --> 00:06:55.261 appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words 00:06:55.335 --> 00:06:59.148 on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read, 00:06:59.222 --> 00:07:03.622 don't judge me because I sinned differently than you. What I 00:07:03.696 --> 00:07:08.243 love about this is how he says, I don't know how to articulate 00:07:08.316 --> 00:07:12.643 this point of not judging others with sufficient eloquence, 00:07:12.717 --> 00:07:17.264 passion and persuasion to make it stick. I don't know how else 00:07:17.337 --> 00:07:22.031 to tell it. I'm putting words in his mouth, and not that he will 00:07:22.105 --> 00:07:26.432 ever hear this, but if he ever did, I apologize. But I feel 00:07:26.505 --> 00:07:31.199 this way often. I don't know how to articulate this point of not 00:07:31.272 --> 00:07:35.159 judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion and 00:07:35.233 --> 00:07:39.780 persuasion to make it stick. I don't know how else to say this 00:07:39.853 --> 00:07:44.474 for you guys to get it. I feel that way with my kids sometimes, 00:07:44.547 --> 00:07:49.021 like, how many times do I have to say stop it, stop fighting. 00:07:49.094 --> 00:07:53.715 How many times do I have to say that before you're going to get 00:07:53.788 --> 00:07:57.969 it. That's kind of what I feel like President Uchtdorf is 00:07:58.042 --> 00:08:02.369 saying here anyway. So he's talking about he don't judge me 00:08:02.443 --> 00:08:06.770 because I sin differently than you, right? And as I've been 00:08:06.843 --> 00:08:11.244 thinking about this, and I've been thinking about mercy. And 00:08:11.317 --> 00:08:15.717 reading through this, I've put I've kind of put together the 00:08:15.791 --> 00:08:20.118 connection between judging others and loving mercy, judging 00:08:20.191 --> 00:08:24.518 and mercy, justice and mercy. The eternal peanut butter and 00:08:24.592 --> 00:08:29.139 jelly, right? One without the other is either too sweet or too 00:08:29.212 --> 00:08:33.319 sticky, but both of them together are the perfect amount 00:08:33.393 --> 00:08:37.500 of sweet, sticky mess, and that's justice and mercy, the 00:08:37.573 --> 00:08:42.194 eternal peanut butter and jelly. But I'm not here to talk about 00:08:42.267 --> 00:08:46.448 justice and mercy today, just mercy. Someday, maybe we'll 00:08:46.521 --> 00:08:50.775 tackle the justice and mercy thing. I think that President 00:08:50.848 --> 00:08:55.249 Packer did the most amazing job of that that I've ever seen. 00:08:55.322 --> 00:08:59.869 There's a video of it somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and 00:08:59.943 --> 00:09:04.123 link it in the show notes. But he he just uses one of the 00:09:04.196 --> 00:09:08.817 Savior's parable, the parable of the debtor talks about justice 00:09:08.890 --> 00:09:13.071 and mercy. I'm going off on a tangent. Anyway. We're just 00:09:13.144 --> 00:09:16.958 talking about mercy, not justice. We all need mercy, 00:09:17.031 --> 00:09:21.578 because none of us are perfect, and we as humans are incapable 00:09:21.652 --> 00:09:26.052 of making up for our mistakes. We are incapable of making up 00:09:26.126 --> 00:09:30.380 for the eternal impact of our mistakes. But there is hope, 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.620 there is hope and there are conditions. So we all need 00:09:41.620 --> 00:09:45.700 mercy, because none of us are perfect. We all need the Mercy 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:49.120 provided to us by both our Savior and our and our father. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:53.200 But again, there are conditions. I'm gonna get to the hope, but 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:57.280 the conditions I always feel like we need. We need the rules 00:09:57.280 --> 00:10:01.440 first, right? And then we get to the hope. Partly. Her the 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:04.200 doctrine so this is from President Uchtdorf, the rules, 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:08.460 if you will. The doctrine is clear. We all depend on the 00:10:08.460 --> 00:10:12.720 Savior. None of us can be saved without him. Christ's Atonement 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:17.340 is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:22.580 with conditions. Here they are. He says, we must repent and we 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:27.020 must be willing to forgive others. And then he gives us the 00:10:27.020 --> 00:10:30.500 secret to being able to forgive others and ourselves. So here's 00:10:30.500 --> 00:10:36.920 the hope. He says, How is it done through the love of God? 00:10:37.940 --> 00:10:41.800 When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good 00:10:41.800 --> 00:10:46.180 and pure happens to us. We keep His commandments, and His 00:10:46.180 --> 00:10:50.920 commandments are not grievous, For whatsoever is born of God 00:10:50.920 --> 00:10:55.720 overcometh the world. The more we allow the love of God to 00:10:55.720 --> 00:11:00.160 govern our minds and emotions, the more we allow our love for 00:11:00.160 --> 00:11:03.900 our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts, the easier it 00:11:03.900 --> 00:11:08.040 is to love others with the pure love of Christ. As we open our 00:11:08.040 --> 00:11:12.000 hearts to the glowing Dawn of the love of God, the darkness 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:18.120 and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade now, I did 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:21.860 not feel Christ like love for the young man in the Costco 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:26.720 parking lot yesterday who was losing his mind over the way I 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.640 was waiting for a parking spot. I just didn't my ill will 00:11:31.640 --> 00:11:38.660 towards him was very strong in that moment, but I also now have 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:41.980 a better understanding of how sometimes you can just get stuck 00:11:42.640 --> 00:11:45.640 in a Costco parking lot and not be able to move out of somebody 00:11:45.640 --> 00:11:50.260 else's way. I've been I've been the one in his shoes stuck 00:11:50.260 --> 00:11:54.040 behind somebody who wouldn't move. Perhaps they couldn't 00:11:54.040 --> 00:12:00.780 move. There wasn't anywhere for me to go. I hope in the future 00:12:00.780 --> 00:12:07.320 to be more merciful, graceful to the people who are stuck in 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:13.200 front of me. More from President Uchtdorf quote, the pure love of 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.920 Christ can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our 00:12:16.920 --> 00:12:20.360 eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:25.340 us as flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and 00:12:25.340 --> 00:12:30.140 worth far beyond our capacity to imagine. Did you notice the 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:35.120 slightly different way that that was phrased? It will allow us to 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:41.200 see others the way Heavenly Father sees us. It didn't say it 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:44.440 will allow us to see others the way Heavenly Father sees them. 00:12:45.280 --> 00:12:49.420 He said it will allow others to see it will allow us to see 00:12:49.420 --> 00:12:57.100 others the way Heavenly Father sees us, so we can see them as 00:12:57.160 --> 00:13:03.900 flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and worth far 00:13:03.900 --> 00:13:13.080 beyond our capacity to imagine. We can see others that way. The 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:18.360 part to focus on is the potential. Okay? So two last 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.340 things from President Uchtdorf. Number one, there is enough 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:25.940 heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it 00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:29.480 through our own stubbornness, bitterness and resentment. We 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:33.680 are not perfect. Here comes the hope part. Right? The people 00:13:33.680 --> 00:13:37.220 around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:40.900 disappoint and anger in this mortal life, it will always be 00:13:40.900 --> 00:13:46.480 that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:50.140 of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such 00:13:50.140 --> 00:13:53.980 things. This is Part of this is literally part of why we are 00:13:53.980 --> 00:13:59.980 here, to learn how to let go of these things that hold us back. 00:14:00.760 --> 00:14:01.620 Let it go. 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:11.640 And lastly, so here's the second thing, the last thing from 00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:17.400 President Uchtdorf. He said, Remember, heaven is filled with 00:14:17.400 --> 00:14:22.760 those who have this in common, and I imagine people in heaven, 00:14:23.660 --> 00:14:27.200 the spirit world, spirit paradise, however you imagine 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:31.580 the afterlife. I imagine people in heaven. And he says that they 00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:35.420 have the this thing in common. They are forgiven and they 00:14:35.420 --> 00:14:41.260 forgive. So Heaven is full of people who have been forgiven, 00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:48.700 and who are forgiving. We've talked about daily repentance 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:53.020 quite a bit in the last probably week and a half. Talked about 00:14:53.020 --> 00:14:57.340 daily repentance and making it a part of us, just becoming a 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:01.260 little bit better every day. It's. Sounds kind of like we 00:15:01.260 --> 00:15:06.240 also may need to work on daily forgiveness, daily mercy. It's 00:15:06.900 --> 00:15:12.720 it could very well just be me. I doubt it though we could work on 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.500 daily forgiveness, giving mercy to those that we can, and 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:23.120 allowing the Savior to heal our hearts. We will be forgiven as 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:27.500 we forgive and repent. Remember, those were the two conditions 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:32.240 that he gave us. We have to repent and we have to forgive in 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:36.140 order for us to be forgiven. It sounds like a lot, but remember, 00:15:36.140 --> 00:15:39.560 it's a process. It's not something that we have to be 00:15:39.560 --> 00:15:43.360 good at by tomorrow at five o'clock, this is something that 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.260 is a process that will take us our entire lives, and it's okay. 00:15:47.560 --> 00:15:53.140 We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. They 00:15:53.140 --> 00:15:56.320 are going to do things that annoy, disappoint and anger in 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:01.320 this mortal life. It will always be that way. We are okay. We 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:06.540 just have to keep trying. That's all okay, my friends, thank you 00:16:06.540 --> 00:16:09.900 so much for spending your time with me. I really do appreciate 00:16:09.900 --> 00:16:13.620 the time that you spend. Keep learning, keep growing, keep 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:17.280 repenting, keep forgiving, you know, keep on, keepin on and 00:16:18.420 --> 00:16:20.360 until next time, my friends, thank you.