Paisley: Hey everybody, welcome back Paisley imperfect here and
today, we are going to discuss a talk given by President Nelson
called embrace the future with faith. It was given while we
were all on lockdown a few years ago. And but I'm going to start
first with two truths about me. First, many of the foretold
events of the Second Coming or leading up to the second coming,
scare me. Unpredictable natural disasters freak me out just a
little bit. That's number one. And number two, I don't know
what all the signs and wonders are or are going to be leading
up to the Second Coming. Yep, I know how to find them, at least,
I think I know how to find them, or where to start. And yes, we
have been told to learn about them and watch for them. I think
I know what some of them are, but I don't. It's not like I
have a comprehensive list that I'm ready to share or anything
like that on honestly, I find it a bit overwhelming trying to
figure out what all those things are, it's a little overwhelming
and kind of difficult to wrap my head around. So I have taken up
to this point, this may change in the future, but up until now,
I have taken a little bit of a different approach when it comes
to the second coming and I will let me just share a quick story
that kind of provides a little bit of context on how I view the
upcoming second coming. So when I was 12 and I was getting ready
to give my first talk in sacrament meeting, it was that
Sunday morning, and I don't remember the exact conversation
leading up to this, but it likely went something like, can
I please stay home from church? Do I really have to go today? I
don't know that for sure, but somehow I found myself talking
to my dad. My dad and I were having this conversation, and I
had told him that I was scared and nervous about giving this
talk in sacrament meeting, and so he he thought about it for a
second, and then he said, let me ask you a question. Are you
prepared? And I, I told him I thought I was. I think I'm
prepared. I think I'm ready. Not ready, but I think I'm prepared.
Um, he asked if I written my talk down and I had I showed it
to him. He asked me if I knew what I was talking about. Told
him that I thought I did. And then he said, Then you have
nothing to be nervous or scared about. Here. I'll prove it to
you. And he pulled out his Scriptures, And He read. He read
parts of Doctrine and Covenants, Section 38 verse 30 to me, like
the very beginning and the very end. It went something like
this, I tell you these things because of your prayers, if you
are prepared, you shall not fear. And then he said something
like, See, I told you I didn't make it up. You're prepared,
there's nothing for you to be nervous or afraid of. Excuse me.
I don't remember what my talk was about that day, but I
remember that I was a lot less nervous after that conversation
with my dad, and that conversation has helped me, and
I can't even tell you how many different aspects of my life,
from giving professional presentations in front of the
entire company, to giving a talk in sacrament meeting, speaking
at my daughter's baptism last weekend, That conversation has
helped me so much, because when I am prepared, there's nothing
for me to be afraid of. So in this talk that we're talking
about today, from President Nelson, he uses that same verse
in relation to the Second Coming. He says, How are we to
deal with both the somber prophecies and the glorious
pronouncements about our day. The Lord told us how, with this
simple but stunning reassurance, if you are prepared, you shall
not fear. Okay, now that logical, pragmatic part of my
brain is kicking in again, and I go my next question, just
naturally out of my brain is, how do I prepare if I don't know
what I'm preparing for, what do I prepare for? Because all these
prophecies seem kind of overwhelming, where do I start?
How do I how do I. Prepare for all of these things. How do I
find all of these things? Does anybody have all every single
one of these things? I don't know. But in this talk,
President Nelson uses Captain moron eyes example, Captain
Moroni, not the Moroni that we're learning about right now.
And come follow me, not the end of the Book of Mormon. Moroni.
Captain Moroni more towards the middle. He uses Captain moron
eyes example and how he prepared his people to tell us how we can
prepare for the second coming. He breaks it down into three
bite sized chunks. Number one, create places of security.
Number two, prepare your mind to be faithful to God. And number
three, never stop preparing. So let's talk about the first one.
First, it's very good place to start, right. Start at the very
beginning. I think that's from the sound of music. Start at the
very beginning. It's a very good place to start. So let's start
with creating places of security. The first place that
he mentions is our home. He said, When your home becomes a
personal sanctuary of faith, personal sanctuary of faith,
where the Spirit resides, your home becomes the first line of
defense. First line of defense, it becomes your own personal
sanctuary where you can go to recharge, build yourself up, and
that becomes your first line of defense. So we've talked, and
we've talked a lot in other episodes about strengthening
home and family as we study our scriptures together, with or
without, come follow me resources, as we pray together,
as we spend good quality time together, and as we listen to
each other, we grow closer and stronger. If you live by
yourself, your home still becomes your first line of
defense. It doesn't matter how many people are in your home,
you can be the only one and still have it be a personal
sanctuary of faith. But these bonds that we build, not but and
these bonds that we build within our home, even if that bond is
with ourself or with our Heavenly Father, with our
Savior. These bonds that we build, they strengthen the
security of our homes and truly make them sanctuaries and places
of refuge for us, places we can escape to when the world becomes
just a little too much, which is happening more and more often.
The second place is our stake. He said, the stakes of Zion are
a refuge from the storm because they are led by those who hold
priesthood keys and exercise priesthood authority. As you
continue to follow the counsel of those whom the Lord has
authorized to guide you, you will feel greater safety. We can
take those things home and make our homes even stronger. And
some of you, some of us, some of you, may be some of those people
who have been chosen to guide others, those people who are
strengthening the stake. So I would only add, if I can do that
to President Nelson, that as you follow the promptings of the
Holy Ghost, you'll be directed and led to help the rest of us
strengthen our families and really be able to feel safety
and security within our stake. The third place. None of these
are a surprise, right? The third place is the temple. The temple
provides a place of security and serenity from the worldly issues
of our day. We can go there. We can to feel uplifted, refreshed,
safe, cared for. I don't know about you, but when I go to the
temple, I truly feel like I'm home, like I can I can relax my
mind. I can relax my body. I think that's why I have such a
hard time staying awake during a temple session. It's because I
finally feel like I am completely and totally safe and
I can let it go. I can let all of it go and just feel at home
in the temple. Also, our families are sealed there.
That's pretty safe. That doesn't mean that everybody's going to
make the right choices and that we're that we are guaranteed to
be together forever, but it gives us the opportunity it it
really strengthens that bond within our families.
Okay? Lastly, President Nelson makes this point, we're still in
in that first section, right, creating places of security.
Lastly, he makes this point. He's. Says, simply said, a place
of security is anywhere you can feel the presence of the Holy
Ghost and be guided by Him. When the Holy Ghost is with you, you
can teach truth even when it runs counter to prevailing
opinions, and you can ponder sincere questions about the
gospel in an environment of Revelation. So you you are a
place of security. If you can feel the Holy Ghost, wherever
you are, you become that place of security. All you have to do
is be worthy of and listening to and for the Holy Ghost. That's
it. Okay, the so the second thing that was the first thing,
right? Create places of security. The second thing is to
prepare our minds specifically to be faithful to God. What does
it mean to prepare our minds to be to be faithful to God?
Prepare your mind to be faithful. Oh my gosh. I keep
wanting to say, thank thankful. Prepare your mind to be faithful
to God. This is what he so. President Nelson simplified that
that as well, and he said, we strengthen our faith in Jesus
Christ as we strive to keep his commandments and always remember
him further our faith increases every time we exercise our faith
in Him. That is what learning by faith means. Then he says this,
exercising our faith increases our faith. So in order for us to
prepare our minds to be faithful to God, we need to exercise our
faith. Then he says this, few things build faith more than
does regular immersion in the Book of Mormon, reading our
scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon. Few things build
stronger faith than complete immersion into the Book of
Mormon. So boiled down, studying the Book of Mormon, keeping the
commandments and exercising our faith increases our faith. And
here's the promise that comes along with that part. He said, I
promise that as you increase your capacity to receive
revelation, the Lord will bless you with increased direction for
your life and with boundless, boundless gifts of the Spirit,
as you increase your capacity to receive revelation by reading
your scriptures, all the simple things, simple things, by
reading your scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon,
and exercising your faith, you then are become. You are
increasing your capacity to receive revelation. You are
consistently worthy of the gift of the Spirit, worthy of the
Holy Ghost, and therefore you become blessed with increased
direction for your life and with boundless, boundless gifts of
the Spirit. It seems like a little bit on our end, but a lot
from God. And then this last piece of preparation, so number
three, we did, creating places of security, preparing our mind
to be faithful to God. And now we're going to talk about, never
stop preparing. We've talked about this before. See if you
see the pattern, I'm going to oversimplify it. Never stop
preparing. Could also mean daily repentance, which we've already
attributed to becoming just a little bit better every day,
right? We never stop preparing. Here's what President Nelson
said, he said, and this was a talk given to the sisters in one
of the Relief Society sessions. He said, Dear sisters, you are
adept at creating places of security for yourselves and
those you love. You already are further you have a divine
endowment that enables you to build faith in others in
compelling ways, and you never stop. You have demonstrated
that, please keep going. Your vigilance in safeguarding your
homes and instilling faith in the hearts of your loved ones
will reap rewards for generations to come. I hope you
caught that you are already doing it, my friends, you're
already doing it. You just have to keep doing it. Never stop
preparing. So in my mind's eye, I see Captain Moroni picking the
first thing, looking at the cities, looking at his people
and thinking, what is the first thing that I can do, that we can
do together? What is the first thing that we can do to
strengthen our defense, our defenses? What's the first thing
that we can do? I know. Let's dig ditches. And with the dirt
that we take out of the ditches, let's build. These really tall
mounds, these really tall walls of dirt. And so that's what they
did. And then they got all done with that, and he's like, okay,
what can we do next? Let's put timbers on the top, pointed
timbers on the top of these walls. So that's what they did.
That's not that different from us. We pile our dirt and then we
pick the next thing. Maybe your pile of dirt is, I want to say
my prayers more consistently. Maybe your pile of dirt is I
want to read the Book of Mormon more. I want to read more of it
every day. I just I want to start reading it every day. Pick
your pile of dirt. It doesn't matter what it is, pick your
pile of dirt. Work on that, and then pick the next pile of dirt,
or the timbers, or whatever the thing is, I'm sure that there.
I'm sure there were holes that would eventually come into the
walls, and they would have to stop what they were doing
somewhere else and repair the walls. It's the same thing. It's
the same thing for us. We just never stop preparing. One.
Whatever the next thing is. That's the song from Frozen
right just do the next right thing, pick the next right
thing. But that also doesn't that also sound like daily
repentance, just being a little bit better every day. I think
sometimes we we think that the that everything is separate and
different. Okay, I have to find something to repent about, and
now I have to read my book of Mormon, and now I have to attend
this meeting, and now I have to do my tithing declaration, and
now I have to renew my temple recommend. And now, like all of
like all of these things are different and distinct, but
reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, studying our come
follow me. They're all part of that daily repentance, that
daily striving to become better, just a little bit better than we
were yesterday. There's a lady that comes to pick up her kids
from my kids school, and she has a t shirt that says, 1% better.
1% better become 1% better, just one just 1% and then, okay, so
check out. Oh, remember that a little bit better every day.
Doesn't mean that you're going to memorize the Book of Mormon
by tomorrow. I don't think anybody has the Book of Mormon
completely memorized. You're not going to be 100% tomorrow, but
you can be 2% if you're 1% better today than you were
yesterday, tomorrow, you could potentially be 2% you could be
1.1% it's okay. It's a little bit better, right? Excuse me,
our heavenly Father loves our effort. And someday I'm going to
find that quote. I always forget to go back and find that quote.
But our Heavenly Father loves effort, and he will magnify our
efforts. So if we try a little bit, he's going to make it look
like we tried a lot. So for example, check out this quote,
turbulent times. This is from the same talk. Turbulent times
are opportunities for us to thrive spiritually, turbulent
times are opportunities for us to thrive spiritually, they are
times when our influence can be much more penetrating than in
calmer times, we can be the voice of reason, the voice of
calm and peace. It's possible your efforts and your influence
can be more penetrating, but you have to try. Okay, one more
quote from this talk we're just about to wrap up here. I am not
so this is again, President Nelson. I'm not saying that the
days ahead will be easy, but I promise you that the future will
be glorious for those who are prepared and who continue to
prepare to be instruments in the Lord's hands. It will be
glorious for those who are prepared or who and who are
continually preparing just be a little bit more prepared every
day. And it's never too late to start. It doesn't matter how old
you are,
where you're at in your life. It is never too late to start. That
being said, though, and I don't say this very often, but in
fact, I don't think I've said this yet, there is a sense of
her, a sense of urgency. Um, and that sense of urgency is
becoming a little bit more apparent, as we every
conference, like in the last few conferences, that sense of
urgency seems to be getting a little bit stronger. Um, I mean,
excuse me, we are living in the last days. We've been told that
for decades, we are living in the last days. So there, if
these are the last days, then there is some sense of urgency.
But that doesn't mean that it's too late to start, because
again, our heavenly Father loves effort, and he will magnify your
efforts. And if you are genuinely and really trying, he
will magnify your efforts and help you get to a place where
you can be prepared, where you are prepared, just start trying
today. Tomorrow. You can wait till tomorrow. If you want to
start trying as soon as you can, and that's it. Thank you so
much, my friends, for being here. I really do appreciate
your time. I say that all the time. I mean it every single
time. I really appreciate you being here. Thank you for being
willing to start. Thank you for being willing to be part of my
journey, as I have gotten started. You are not alone. Just
get started today, tomorrow. If you want to wait till tomorrow,
fine. Wait till tomorrow. Just start trying. Thank you so much
again for being here. Keep learning, keep growing, keep
trying and be of good cheer. Thanks everybody till next time
bye.