Paisley: Hey everybody. Welcome back today, I'm going to be
getting into a talk from President oaks that I'm sure was
a very controversial talk for some of us. It's called two
great commandments, and it was given during the women's session
of the 2019 General Conference. Most of Christianity is familiar
with or knows the first two commandments that were shared
with Jesus in Matthew 22 but just in case, Matthew 22 verses
37 through 39 say, Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with
all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment, and the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. And what I love about this talk is that President Oaks
is continually reminding us, like all the way throughout
repeatedly, that we need to show love for each other. But he's
also very clear in pointing out that our love for each other
should not and cannot supersede the love that we have for our
Heavenly Father. Here's what he said, he said, but our zeal to
keep this second commandment must not cause us to forget the
first, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. We show
that love by keeping His commandments. He's referencing
there. John 1415, we show that love by keeping His
commandments. God requires us to obey his commandments, because
only through that obedience, including repentance. Can we
return to live in His presence and become perfect as he is? And
you know, the further along that we get in the way that the world
is headed, the harder it seems to at least for me, the harder
it seems to reconcile our love for each other, our love for
humanity, with our love for God and and in just my last episode,
or maybe the one before that, I was telling you how we talk
about King Benjamin in our house, and how King Benjamin
said, Be nice, and how he what he really taught was that the
way that we treat others is the way that we treat our Heavenly
Father, the way that we treat God, and so that, in my mind,
makes it even a little bit more confusing. But let me just take
a second and remind us all of this truth as well. We don't get
to make the rules. Humans don't make the rules. The rules were
made before we came here, and we don't get to change them midway
through, right? I talked about this a couple episodes ago, how
you're playing a game of, let's say, uno, and you've got house
rules, right? You can stack your draw twos, or you can stack your
draw fours. We can't change that rule halfway through. That's not
fair. That's not just the rules don't change midway through,
partway through, towards the end of the game, you can't change
the rules towards the end of the game. You set the rules at the
beginning and the consequences that go with them. President
oaks said this. He said, President Nelson reminded all of
us that our commission as apostles is to teach nothing but
truth. The Commission does not give apostles the authority to
modify Divine Law. Thus, my sisters, the leaders of the
church, must always teach the unique importance of marriage
between a man and a woman and the related law of chastity. So
not even the apostles get to modify divine law. If the
apostles don't get to modify Divine Law, the prophet doesn't
get to modify divine law. What makes us think that we get to in
this talk, President Oaks is specific. He is specifically
talking to the LGBT community. A lot more letters have been added
on since then, but he's specifically talking to them and
to those of us who know people who are part of that community
and love them. Basically he's talking to everybody, right? To
be clear, and I know I say this a lot, but to be clear, I am not
here to judge you and how you live your life. I'm not here to
tell you that your opinion is wrong, that your opinion doesn't
matter, that you're a sinner, or anything else in that realm.
That is not my job. How you live your life is between you and
your heavenly Father. That's between you and God, not between
you and me. I am here to talk about things that are important
to me and about the doctrine that has been given to us, and
that's all. I'm not here to judge you. You live your life
however. You need to back to what President back to President
oaks. He again. A little bit later, quotes President Nelson,
and he talks about how keeping God's laws will help us to
become more like God, and how it will keep us safe as we progress
throughout this life, and we get ready for eternity, for
exaltation. And we talk about that because, as President oaks
says that is the destiny that we desire for all that we love. We
want everyone to succeed and everyone to be able to we want
to be able to all live together as a great big, happy family
when this life is over. And that's why we talk about these
things, and that's why we try to push for eternal progression and
for exaltation. And he continues. He says, because of
that love, we cannot let our love supersede the commandments
and the plan and work of God, which we know will bring those
we love their greatest happiness. So we cannot let our
love of others supersede our love of God and His
commandments, because that the love that we feel now is
different than the love that we feel as an eternal being. We
will have a greater understanding then than we do
now, and so we need to trust in our Heavenly Father and put our
love in him first, our love and our trust, he says, but there
are many we love, including some who have the restored gospel,
who do not believe in or choose not to follow God's commandments
about marriage and the law of chastity. What about them? And
there's a part of me that wishes that we were all sitting
together and we were talking about this, so that I could put
that question out there. I could look at you and I could ask the
question and hear what you have to say. What about them? What
about them? What about the people who don't believe what we
believe, or who choose not to follow God's commandments? What
about them? There are lots of really good people who choose,
who make other choices. Don't believe in don't believe in the
plan of salvation. Don't believe in the same things that we do.
So what about them? The first thing that I want to remind us
all of is that God will never take away our agency, our
ability to choose. He will not take our ability to choose our
own path away from us. You can choose to do whatever you want.
You can not choose the consequences, because, as we
talked about just a minute ago, the rules were set. The rules
and the consequences were set before we came here, and we
don't get to change them towards the end of the game, what we can
choose is whether or not we're going to follow those rules, we
cannot choose the consequences. President oaks says this. He
says God's doctrine shows that all of us are His children, and
that He has created us to have joy. Modern revelation teaches
that God has provided a plan for a mortal experience in which all
can choose obedience to seek his highest blessings or make
choices that lead to one of the less glorious kingdoms. But get
this, because of God's great love for all of his children,
those lesser kingdoms are still more wonderful than mortals can
comprehend. The Atonement of Jesus, Christ makes all of this
possible as He glorifies the father and saves all the works,
all the works of his hands, so we can choose one of the lesser
glories, and it will still be better than this life. That's
how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Those are all the
reasons why we follow the commandments and why we choose
to love God. But how do we love our neighbor when their choices
or challenges stare right in the face of the commandments that we
are trying so hard to follow, how do we still show love for
them? President oak says this quote, we seek to persuade our
members that those who follow lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender teachings and actions. And just as a side
note, I would throw in all of our neighbors, maybe those who
think it's weird that we don't drink, or maybe those who want
to share some legal but still
Unknown: drugs with us.
Paisley: We PERS. We seek to persuade our members who follow
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender teachings and
actions should be treated with the love our Savior commands us
to show toward all our neighbors. Thus, when same sex
marriage was declared legal in the United States, the First
Presidency and Quorum of the 12 declared the gospel of Jesus.
Christ teaches us to love and treat all people with kindness
and civility, even when we disagree, we affirm that those
who avail themselves of laws or court rulings are. Authorizing
same sex marriage should not be treated disrespectfully. Treat
them with respect. We need to treat each other with respect
and still love each other. We don't have to agree on
everything in order to still love each other. We don't have
to agree on everything to be friends. He continues further.
We must never persecute, never persecute those who do not share
our beliefs and commitments. Regretfully, some persons facing
these issues continue to feel marginalized and rejected by
some members and leaders in our families, wards and stakes, we
must all strive to be kinder and more civil. There are some
people in our congregations or who wish to be part of our
Converse congregations, who don't feel welcome. We need to
do a better job. They should not feel marginalized and rejected
when they come to church. We love them no matter what how
they choose to live is between them and God, not between them
and us. What is between us and them and us and God is how we
treat them, and we will be held accountable for those actions.
The next quote was a long one, and I might break it up as I go.
I tend to add things in here and there, but it needs to be shared
anyway. So here we go. President oaks said, meanwhile, we must
try to keep both of the great commandments to do so we walk a
fine line between law and love, keeping the commandments and
walking the covenant path while loving our neighbors along the
way. This walk requires us to seek divine inspiration. Seek
divine inspiration on what to support and what to oppose and
how to love and listen respectfully and teach in the
process, that's a lot. This walk requires us to seek divine
inspiration, listen to the Holy Ghost on what to support and
what to oppose and how to love and listen respectfully and
teach in the process. Our walk demands that we not compromise
on commandments but show forth a full measure of understanding
and love our walk must be considerate of children who are
uncertain about their sexual orientation, but it discourages
premature labeling, because in most children, such uncertainty
decreases significantly over time, and if you go To the
article on the church's website. There's actually a there's a
reference for that, so you can go look at that research report
on your own if you'd like to. Okay, sorry, where was I? Our
walk. Must be considerate of children who are uncertain about
their sexual orientation, but it discourages premature labeling,
because in most children, such uncertainty decreases
significantly over time. Our walk opposes recruitment away
from the covenant path, and it denies support to any who lead
people away from the Lord. That's actually one of the
temple recommend questions in all of this, we remember that
God promises hope and ultimate joy and blessings for all who
keep His commandments. We can love and teach at the same time.
We can love and defend at the same time. We can protect our
children from being recruited away from the covenant path, and
we can deny our support to those who try to lead others away from
the Lord protecting and denying support. However, do not give us
permission and full rights to be jerks, to be haters. We don't
get a free pass to be haters just because somebody doesn't
agree with the way that we keep the commandments we are still
commanded to love. Remember, it's the second great
commandment to love our neighbors, President oaks, I
think I mentioned this at the beginning, but President oaks
gave this talk during the women's session. That was not an
accident. Was not a coincidence. It was definitely done on
purpose. And he closes by quoting President Kimball. And
if you've listened to very many of my episodes. I've quoted this
so many times I don't have it memorized yet, but it's not
going to be too much longer, I'm sure before it's memorized, he
says, mothers and fathers and all of us are responsible to
teach both of the two great commandments for the women of
the church. President Spencer W Kimball described that duty.
Described that duty in this great prophecy. Quote from
President Kimball, much of the major growth that is coming to
the church in the last days will come because many of the good
women of the world will be drawn to the church in large numbers.
This will happen to the degree that the women of the church
reflect righteousness. And articulateness in their lives,
and to the degree that the women of the church are seen as
distinct and different from the women of the world. Thus it will
be that female exemplars of the church will be a significant
force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the
church in the last days he stops quoting President Kimball there,
and then he says this and starts quoting President Nelson,
speaking of that prophecy, which you've heard this one before,
too. Speaking of that prophecy, President Russell M Nelson
declared that the day that President Kimball foresaw is
today. You are the women he foresaw. Little did. This is
just President oaks now, little did we who heard that prophecy
40 years ago realize that among those the women of this church
may save, that among those the women of this church may save
will be their own dear friends and family who are currently
influenced by worldly priorities and devilish distortions, my
prayer and blessing is that you will teach and act to fulfill
that prophecy. It is not easy to find the balance between love
and support and love without support.
Unknown: That is such a
Paisley: fine line that I venture to say that most people
in the world cannot see it. They do not understand the difference
between being able to love and support someone and being able
to love them without providing support. Honestly, I can't even
see it sometimes. That's a really hard and fine line to
find. I can say, however, that I have made some progress in the
last decade. I've made a lot of progress over the last decade. I
also think that I still have a really long way to go. I am
thankful for messages like this from President oaks.
Unknown: I He does such a good job of,
Paisley: it's probably the attorney in him, right? He does
such a good job of laying down the law and saying, This is the
law. It's not your job to enforce it. This is the law. God
will enforce it. This is the law. You love people, whether
they follow the law or not. And to me, these types of these
types of talks, these types of, what's the word I'm looking for?
We'll just go with talks. These types of talks really solidify
that our lives are between us and God. The choices that I make
are between me and him. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is not
just a one size fits all, generalized fixer upper. The
Atonement of Jesus Christ is very personal. It is
individualized, because Jesus knows our struggles. He
struggled them so that he could know them, and that qualifies
him to be our judge. Nobody else has struggled exactly the same
way that I have, because nobody else has was brought up exactly
the same way that I was with the exact same parents. My twins are
even different. I don't think that I bring them up
differently, but I do because they're they're different,
they're different kids, I'm different, you're different. The
Atonement of Jesus Christ is individualized and it is
personal, and he suffered your struggles so that he could
understand those struggles and truly be your advocate with the
Father. That's a lot. Please go finish reading that talk on your
own. Again, it's called two great commandments. I'll make
sure that it's linked in the description. Thank you so much
for choosing to spend your time with me today. I it's always,
always appreciated. Keep learning, keep growing, keep
trying be a little bit better every day and be of good cheer.
Thank you, everybody until next time you.