Paisley: Music. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for being
here today. We're going to take a look today at a talk, one of
the talks that's in the Come follow me for this week. It's
the one from then President Uchtdorf called the greatest
among you. It's in that section about leadership, and it's
really good. I always love listening to President Uchtdorf.
Elder. Uchtdorf, he does such a good job of using stories and
personal experiences to get his point across. And this talk is
no different. He actually starts this talk telling about an
experience he had that he had when he was called in the area
presidency for Europe. It was when the Madrid, Spain Temple
was being built, and he spent a lot of time on that temple. And
then as the dedication got closer, they lived in Germany,
but he spent a lot of time working on this temple. And when
the dedication got closer and closer, he realized that he
hadn't received an invitation to attend the dedication, and so he
asked his wife if she had seen the invitation, and she hadn't.
And then he explains the way that he felt and he had the same
thoughts that you and I, the same thoughts that I have. I
won't speak for you, but he had the same thoughts and feelings
that I have when I find out about something that I didn't
get invited to. It stings, right? We try to just be like,
Okay, well, whatever, but it stings a little bit, and
President Uchtdorf said, finally, I was forced to accept
the fact I had not been invited. But how was that possible? Had I
done something to offend? Did someone just assume it was too
far for us to travel? Had I been forgotten? So like I said, I
don't know about you guys, but that's how I feel when I find
out that my friends all went and did something and I wasn't
invited. It's never like it never actually means anything,
but that's how you feel, right when, when you when something
happens you didn't get invited to but then he said this. He
said, eventually I realized that this line of thinking led to a
place in which I did not wish to take up residence, Harriet, and
I reminded ourselves that the temple dedication was not about
us. It wasn't about who deserved to be invited or who did not,
and it wasn't about our feelings or our sense of entitlement. It
was about. And I'm actually not going to finish that sentence,
because I think we could all finish that sentence our own
way, with what it what that thing that we weren't invited to
was actually supposed to be about. It wasn't supposed to be
about us. It was supposed to be about about something else. And
sometimes that just means that somebody else needed their
friends, and maybe they didn't need my strong personality,
which is fine, but what does any of this have to do with
leadership? Well, I could tell you stories, but I'm going to
stick to President Uchtdorf talk, and he will get us there.
Don't worry. Next in his talk, he talks about James and John,
two of the original apostles. He called them the sons of thunder,
and I don't know how I missed that super fun little tidbit of
info, the Savior actually nicknamed James and John the
Sons of Thunder. There's a little bit about it in the talk,
but not much. He does put the Scripture reference in there, in
case you want to go look it up. What he does say is that they
were both men of action. If you think about it, Sons of Thunder,
men of action. They go together anyway. At one point, these two
get pretty bold, and they tell the Savior we want you to give
us whatever we want. And he's the savior is kind of like, and
I'm paraphrasing, so please go read President Uchtdorf talk,
and then you should probably go read the scriptures too. Jesus
responds with something like, Well, what is it that you want?
And James and John tell Jesus that they want to sit on his
right and left hand. After this life, they want to sit on his
right and left hand with Him in His glory. Jesus response to
them was quote, to sit on my right hand and on my left hand
is not wanting to give, but it shall be given to them for whom
it is prepared. In other words, President Uchtdorf says you
can't get honor. The Kingdom of Heaven by campaigning for it.
Nor can you get power lunch or, sorry, nor can you Power Lunch
your way to eternal glory. In essence, it's not earned, which
is really hard for a lot of people to swallow. Right you do
the right things, you earn blessings to get to the
celestial kingdom, is going to be a lot more than that. That's
going to have to it's going to deal with choices and anyway,
that's not about leadership. Let's come back to let's come
back to this. You cannot Power Lunch your way to eternal glory.
So now we're getting into leadership skills. Leadership,
at least, to me, is being humble enough that people want to
follow you, not arrogant enough to make them follow you. That's
my own personal opinion on leadership. I do. My LinkedIn
feed is full of leadership quotes and what like the
difference between a leader and a manager, and that's part of
why I love this talk so much, because in it, President
Uchtdorf is showing us how to be leaders so humble enough that
people want to follow You, not arrogant enough to make them
follow you. So back to the sons of thunder. When the rest of the
apostles heard about James and John's request, they weren't
super thrilled about it, I can imagine, like, Well, hey, what
about us? What makes you so special? And Jesus could not
have been super excited like his time was. His time was limited.
He didn't have a lot of time left, and now his apostles are
getting a little contentious, or there's contention among them
over something that is not I don't want to say that. It's not
that important, but they're getting contentious over
something they don't need to worry about, especially not at
that point in their lives. So President Uchtdorf says he
talked to the 12 about the nature of power and how it
affects those who seek and hold it, the people of influence in
this world. The Savior said, use their position of authority to
exercise power over others. This is not the way. It shall be
among you. Instead, whosoever will be great among you shall be
your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall
be servant of all, and right there, the Savior teaches us
what true leadership is. Leadership is service President
Uchtdorf continues in God's kingdom greatness and leadership
means seeing others as they truly are, as God sees them, and
then reaching out and ministering to them, it means
rejoicing with those who are happy, weeping with those who
grieve, lifting up those in distress, and loving our
neighbor as Christ loves us, so that, right there is how
leaders, real leaders, get people to follow them. They
strive, they really strive, honestly strive to see others as
God sees them. They provide construction, constructive and
actionable feedback, and then they help to lift support and
encourage as you try and act on the feedback. The actionable
feedback. President Uchtdorf also shares things for us to
watch out for as we serve others. He starts with another
story. He was a newly called General Authority, and he was
driving President Faust to Southern Utah for a stake
reorganization. I don't know about you, I would have loved to
have been in that car with President Uchtdorf from
President Faust. Oh, that the things that you could learn.
Anyway, President Uchtdorf, so he's driving President Faust, as
President Uchtdorf was driving, President Faust took the
opportunity to teach him some things, and President Faust
said, the members of the church are gracious to the General
Authorities. They will treat you kindly and say nice things about
you. Then he briefly paused and said, Dieter, always be thankful
for this, but don't you ever inhale it. Then President
Uchtdorf shares another story, and this one was about a man who
had been serving as a stake president in hennefer, Utah.
They were making preparations to celebrate the 100 and 50th
anniversary of the same. It's arriving in the Salt Lake
Valley, and it was a big deal. I didn't live in Utah then, but I
do remember it was a big deal. And this guy, his name was
President rich ins, and President rich ins was help. He
was working with community members. He was really working
hard to try and plan, to help plan this giant event. There was
going to be, like, this big parade, because the saints came
through this area, and so, like it was, it was going to be a big
deal. And so President Richards is trying to help plan this.
He's involved. He's very involved in the planning of all
of this. President Uchtdorf says. President Richards was
heavily involved with the plans for the sell of for the
celebration, and he attended many meetings with General
Authorities and others to discuss the discuss the events.
He was fully engaged just before the actual celebration happened,
though, that stake was reorganized and President rich
ins was released. The new stake president took on the
responsibilities the Stake President responsibilities for
this celebration and President rich ins was not part of that
anymore, which in and of itself, for me, would be difficult. I
love to be involved in things like that, and I like to help
plan things. But President rich ins was where he was supposed to
be. One Sunday, he was in his elders quorum meeting, just like
he's supposed to be, and they started asking for volunteers to
help with this event. And of course, he volunteered. Of
course he volunteered. So the day of the parade, President
Richards shows up for his volunteer assignment, and here's
what President Uchtdorf says only a few weeks before, he had
been an influential contributor to the planning and supervision
of this major event. On that day, however, his job was to
follow the horses in the parade and clean up after them.
President Richards did so gladfully, gladly, gladly,
gladly and joyfully. He understood that one kind of
service is not above another. So there's this man who was
involved in top level planning and when the event, when it came
to the actual event, he followed the horses and cleaned up after
the horses, and he did so gladly and joyfully, because he
understood that this kind of service is not better than this
kind of service. They're all equally needed. Then President
Uchtdorf really gets into the importance of our callings. He
says, What is the most important calling in the church? It is the
one you currently have, no matter how humble or prominent
it may seem to be. The calling you have right now is the one
that will allow you not only to lift others, but also to become
the man of God You were created to be. I think I forgot to
mention that this was given during the priesthood session of
this conference. I didn't even write down which conference it
was. It was given during the priesthood session. So that's
why he's talking about also become the man of God You were
created to be. But it doesn't really matter, because this is
still applicable to us and our own callings. President Uchtdorf
also says this, there is nothing wrong with wanting to serve the
Lord, but when we seek to gain influence in the church for our
own sake, in order to receive the praise and admiration of
men, we have our reward when we inhale the praise of others.
That praise will be our compensation. He also says, in
the eyes of God, there is no calling in the kingdom that is
more important than another our service, whether great or small,
refines our spirits, opens the windows of heaven and releases
God's blessings, not only upon those we serve, but upon us as
well. When we reach out to others, we can know with humble
confidence that God acknowledges our service with approval and
approbation. He smiles upon us as we offer these heartfelt acts
of compassion, especially acts that are unseen and unnoticed by
others, serving in the church, serving in our callings. Being a
real leader doesn't need the accolades of men. Shouldn't need
the accolades of men. True leaders gather people, gather
followers, because they help them, because they serve them,
because they make them feel good about themselves. The point of
all of this comes from Matthew 2311 Hold on. Let me back up for
just a second. There are some callings where it's harder to
serve in the shadows Bishop Relief Society or young women's.
It stake, President, it's harder to serve in the shadows when you
have a more high, visible, highly visible calling. But
that's okay. The Lord knows the intent of your heart, and
whether you're doing it because you want everybody to be like,
Oh, she was a great Relief Society president, or he's such
an awesome Bishop, heavenly Father knows if that's what
you're going for, and if it is and that's what you get, then
that will be your compensation, your reward. If that's not what
you're going for, if you're truly serving just to help
someone else, the blessings will be different. Okay, so back to
the point of all of this comes from Matthew 2311 he that is the
greatest among you shall be your servant. And this, this is quote
from President Uchtdorf. Even though our acts of service may
seem lowly, modest or of little value, those who reach out in
kindness and compassion to others will one day know the
value of their service by the eternal and blessed grace of
Almighty God. The point is to serve others, to learn to love
each other this kind of the whole point of this life is to
learn to love each other the way that our Heavenly Father loves
us. I hope that we are all finding ways to serve those
around us out loud or quietly, for now, quietly is something
that I need to work on a little bit more. Know that if you are
serving, it is noticed. It is noticed. It's noticed,
especially by the people that you're serving and that you are
already showing some real leadership. Thank you so much
for being here. You guys. Keep learning, keep growing, keep
trying, little bit more every day, right? And Be of good cheer
until next time you.