Obedience

Talks

Quotes

I didn’t always stay on the straight and narrow path all my life – but I tried to cross it as often as I could – J. Golden Kimball

Make your life colorful, but remember to stay in the lines.

Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.       Benjamin Franklin

Don’t ever compare yourself to what someone else is not doing.

God gave us free agency, and then gave us the commandments to keep us free.  Each time we misuse our free agency we lose a portion of it.  “If you misuse it – you lose it.” – Shannon Williams

Try to find a commandment that is honestly a burden and not a blessing.

You conscience may not keep you from doing wrong, but it will keep you from enjoying it.

Baseball players put pine tar on their hands to get a good grip on the bat.  Gymnasts put chalk on their hands to help them keep their grip on the unparallel bars.  What can you put on your hands to help you hold onto the iron rod?

What we do depends upon how we feel about what we know.  Lloyd Davis

If we almost obey a commandment, we almost receive a blessing. – Shannon Williams

Satan’s increasing influence in the world is allowed to provide an atmosphere in which to prove ourselves. While he causes havoc today, Satan’s final destiny was fixed by Jesus Christ through His Atonement and the Resurrection. The devil will not triumph. Even now he must operate within the bounds set by the Lord. He cannot take away any blessing that has been earned. He cannot alter character that has been woven from righteous decisions. He has no power to destroy the eternal bonds forged in a holy temple between a husband, wife, and children. He cannot quench true faith. He cannot take away your testimony. Yes, these things can be lost by succumbing to his temptations. But he has no power in and of himself to destroy them. (Richard G. Scott, “The Transforming Power of Faith and Character,” October 2010 Conference)

Nothing evil in this world comes from God.  Everything evil comes directly from Satan.  You can’t say, “If there is a God, why would this world be so wicked?”  For example, God made intimacy to bring spirits into this world and to strengthen bonds between married couples.  Satan, however, has introduced homosexuality, adultery, fornication, abortion, pornography, etc.  It’s true with every commandment.

Young people often view the commandments as burdensome and restrictive.  As adults, we teach them that that’s not true – that commandments actually help us and make life easier.  Likewise, as adults, we sometimes view the basics of the gospel as burdensome – FHE, prayers, family scripture study, etc.  That’s not true either.  Those activities actually help us and make life easier.

Think about the rainwater that falls on the continental divide. If it goes to the left, it ends up in the Pacific Ocean.  If it goes to the right, it ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.  Some crossroads, some decisions in life are exactly like that. – Shannon Williams

It is not a sacrifice to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is never a sacrifice when you get back more than you give. It is an investment. – Gordon B. Hinckley

Keep in mind – the commandments are just like a stop sign.  You don’t have to obey it.  It doesn’t take away your freedom.  It is simply there for protection. – Shannon Williams

Your chances of getting hit by a car are greater on the road than on the sidewalk.  Avoid the very appearance of evil.

Keeping the commandments is like shaving.  No matter how well we do today, we have to do it again tomorrow.

What is worse – doing the right thing for the wrong reason or the wrong thing for the right reason?

Selfishness is the root of all other sins.

As members of the church we sometimes believe that if we are obedient everything will work out perfectly.  But sometimes the Lord blesses us with adversity.

What does obedience guarantee?….That all things will work together for our good.

There are two kinds of men who never amount to much…….those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.  Cyrus, H.K. Curtis

You can’t be righteous and not get blessed.  You can’t be wicked and not get cursed – with divine delay.

Man’s autobiography

Chapter 1 – I walked down the street.  I didn’t know there was a big hole.  I fell in the hole.  It took me forever to climb out.

Chapter 2 – I walked down the street.  I knew a hole was there.  I fell in it anyway.

Chapter 3 – I walked down the street.  I knew a hole was there.  I fell into it again.  It has become a habit.

Chapter 4 – I walked down the street.  I saw the hole.  I walked around it.

Chapter 5 – I walked down a different street

Sin has a fast payoff and long regret.

We don’t have to be perfect to enter the Celestial Kingdom.  We have to be clean.

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” – Ezra Taft Benson

Compare what you know to what you do.  If there’s a gap, fix it.

“We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them. – Cecil B. Demille

We lose the peace of eternity when we seek the raptures of moments. – Cecil B. Demille

If you attend a meeting or fireside you will be richly blessed – even if the speakers are boring. You were in the right place at the right time and you will reap rewards of obedience.

Crowds cannot make right what God has declared to be wrong. Neal A. Maxwell

Story of a four-year-old girl.  Grandmother said, “Look both way before you cross the road or you’ll get hit by a car.”  The little girl came back and said, “I closed my eyes and ran across the street and I didn’t get hit.”  Living our lives in a similar way will eventually cause our downfall.

Friend of Pres. Harold B. Lee said to him “You can’t tell me that one cup of coffee will keep me out of God’s presence in the Celestial Kingdom” He replied after a while of thought “No, but disobedience will.”

Mary Ellen Edmunds Fractured commandments:

1. Let virtue garnish thy thoughts once in a while.

2. Draw near unto me…..and I will hide

3. Seek ye second the Kingdom of God.

4. If ye love me, keep most of my commandments.

5. Charity almost never faileth.

6. Love thy neighbor as thou art able.

7. Thou shalt not steal very much.

8. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and part of thy mind.

9. I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I’m afraid not to.

Are R-rated shows wicked?  Yes – regardless of their content.  The prophet said “No” and that is enough for me.  It’s not the show that’s wicked. It’s the fact that you disobeyed the prophet.

1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Our purpose here is to joyfully, voluntarily and quietly submit one’s whole life to the Lord’s will – Sister Clark. 

Story of Henry B. Eyring’s Dad.  Henry Eyring was an 80 years old with bone cancer.  The high counselor was in charge of pulling weeds in the onion patch.  He himself went.  He couldn’t kneel because of his hips.  Instead he scooted along on his belly pulling weeds.  He later found out that they had already sprayed those weeds.  They would have died anyway.  He laughed when he found out.  His son asked, “How could you laugh when you think of the pain it caused?”  He replied, “I didn’t go for the weeds, I went for the Savior.”

If you would like to live your life with ease,

Do what you ought, not what you please.

Benjamin Franklin

We cannot measure righteousness by the absence of wrong doing in our lives.  We must be engaged in doing good.

In the preexistence you accepted God’s plan.  Why are you rebelling against it now?

It is just as important to know that Satan is real as it is to know that God is real.

The reason wickedness never was happiness is because God has laws for happiness. 

If you don’t want temptation to follow you, don’t act as if you are interested.  Richard L. Evans

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one.  CS Lewis

All those with bodies have power over those who do not.

Sin never starts with an action.  It always starts with a thought.  You can therefore never change a habit by focusing on actions.(Paraphrased from Carleen Tanner Ricks Ed Week 1999)

My friend substituted a sunbeam class in primary and wanted to make a three-year old girl visitor feel welcome.  She asked, “Where do you live?”  The little girl replied “Close to Heavenly Father.”  Wouldn’t it be great if we could all say the same thing!

First Comes Love – Brinley/Ogletree pg 102

Too many couples have adopted the twin notions that “everyone else is doing it” before marriage and “you can repent later.”  Both of these ideas are satanic in origin, and the father of all lies would have you believe them.  The truth is that there are no successful sinners. Transgressions do not make you a well-rounded person; you do not need to experience the bad and the wicked to appreciate the good and the righteous. President Kimball explained, “That man who resists temptation and lives without sin is far better off than the man who has fallen, no matter how repentant the latter may be. …How much better it is never to have committed sin!” (The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969], 357; emphasis added). He added, “Your focus should be on preventing sin rather than being faced with the much more difficult task of curing

it” (The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969] 216-217).

Jennie Curlee speaking in Sacrament Meeting January 1, 2012.   “I’m not going to set any new goals or New Years Resolutions.  I’m already on the right path, pointed in the direction I need to go.  I’ve already charted my course.  I just pray for the strength to keep going in the right direction.”  That is true for so many of us.  She also said something that struck me.  “Stay the course, move forward if you can.” 

Write down three people you know who are obedient.  Write down three people you know who are not obedient.  Think of the scripture “Consider the happy state of those who keep the commandments…..”  Contemplate the level of happiness for each of the two groups.  Which do you want to join? – Shannon Williams

Jesus’ call “Come, follow me” is not only for those prepared to compete in a spiritual Olympics. In fact, discipleship is not a competition at all but an invitation to all. Our journey of discipleship is not a dash around the track, nor is it fully comparable to a lengthy marathon. In truth, it is a lifelong migration toward a more celestial world. (Neil Andersen “What thinks Christ of Me?” May 2012)

1 Nephi 2:10 “O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!”

Declaring our testimony of the gospel is good, but being a living example of the restored gospel is better. Wishing to be more faithful to our covenants is good; actually being faithful to sacred covenants—including living a virtuous life, paying our tithes and offerings, keeping the Word of Wisdom, and serving those in need—is much better. Announcing that we will dedicate more time for family prayer, scripture study, and wholesome family activities is good; but actually doing all these things steadily will bring heavenly blessings to our lives. (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Of Regrets and Resolutions,” October 2012)

God’s plan does not contemplate rewards or punishments, as much as it contemplates consequences.  Truly a man will reap as he has sown.  The law of consequences suggests that often when we make a correct decision, we pay our price first and reap the reward later.  When we make an incorrect decision, we often reap our reward first, but pay our price later.”  (Church News week ending September 29, 2007 by John L. Hart)

Elder Callister said, “In general, the sinner is not the man who sets out in life to be wicked…the sinner is the man who cannot say no.”

The gospel is not weight, it is wings – Jean Stevens.

Olympians work years and years for a four-minute performance.  Then they have the rest of their lives to think about it.  It is the same proportion of eternal life to earth life.  We will have an eternity to think about what we did during this brief period of time.  This is your moment, this is your four minutes.

Press forward Saints.  Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.  Let us all press on.  The reason we have to press forward and not just walk forward is that there will be constant opposition and resistance.  If you don’t press forward, you will automatically get pushed back by the resistance. You can’t stand still.  Neil A. Andersen’s talk, April 2015)

In the war in heaven, some chose to follow God.  Others chose to follow Satan.  Those who followed God are significantly happier now than those who didn’t.  It is the same here on earth today. 

We are not punished for our sins.  We are punished by our sins.

Yesterday at the Labor Day Fair parade there was a little red-headed 2 year-old boy standing next to us on the curb.  When the people on the first float of the parade threw candy, he picked up a piece in each hand and absolutely refused to let go.  He was so amazed that someone had given him candy that he didn’t want to let it out of his grasp.  Even as the other children raced around him collecting armfuls of candy, he just stood there gripping the candy tightly, despite his mother’s suggestion that he give it to her to hold.  Finally he realized that if he let go of the candy he could get more candy, so he did. Then he really got into it – running around collecting candy, jumping up and down with joy each time he did. By the end of the parade, he had a huge backpack full of treats.  Watching him made me realize that many of us go through life holding on to things that seem so precious to us – watching football on Sundays, weaknesses or addictions that we just don’t want to give up.  And yet if we’ll let go of them, we will receive the plethora of blessings the Lord has waiting for us. – Shannon Williams

Spoiler alert: God Wins!

I make a special appeal to the youth.  You will remain much safer and infinitely happier if you will place your energy into current obedience rather than saving it for future repentance.  Glen L. Pace

“Some people pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments. It takes faith to obey them, and keeping His commandments will strengthen that faith.” (Russel M. Nelson, “Face the Future with Faith.” April 2011)

Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness.  It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God’s laws the greater will be the endowment of faith. – Elder Bruce R. McConkie. 

D&C 82:10 “I the Lord am Bound when ye do what I say.”

“The commandments we observe have not been given by a dispassionate God to prevent us from having fun, but by a loving Father in Heaven who wants us to be happy.” – Glen L. Pace

Glen L. Pace said, “Even though a person may have a testimony and want to do what is right, it is difficult not to be drawn to that great and spacious building.  From all appearances, the people in the building look happy and free and seem to be having a great time.  But don’t mistake Telestial pleasure for Celestial happiness and joy.  Don’t mistake a lack of self-control for freedom.  Complete freedom without appropriate restraint makes people slaves to their appetites.  Don’t envy a less and lower life.”

“To those who are inching their way closer and closer to that great and spacious building let me make it completely clear that the people in that building have absolutely nothing to offer except instant, short-term gratification that is inescapably connected to long-term sorrow and suffering. Satan has only one thing to sell you – Misery.  It’s the only product he sells.”

God’s plan does not contemplate rewards or punishments, as much as it contemplates consequences.  Truly a man will reap as he has sown.  The law of consequences suggests that often when we make a correct decision, we pay our price first and reap the reward later.  When we make an incorrect decision, we often reap our reward first, but pay our price later.”

 Elder Callister said, “In general, the sinner is not the man who sets out in life to be wicked…the sinner is the man who cannot say no.” (Church News September 29, 2007 by John L. Hart)

The reason wickedness never was happiness is because God has laws for happiness.  “The law of justice is an eternal law requiring that whenever a divine commandment is broken, there must be a punishment imposed and a compensation made to restore the balance in natural law that was upset by the violation. On the other hand, the positive side of the law of justice assures us that God grants blessings to those who obey the commandments.”  “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated – and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (D&C 130:20-21) – Bruce C. Hafen.  We can’t be righteous and not get blessed.  We can’t be wicked and not get cursed.

 “Some Latter-Day Saints practice selective obedience.  A prophet is not one who displays a smorgasbord of truth from which we are free to pick and choose.  However, some persons become critical and suggest that the prophet should change the menu.  A prophet doesn’t take a poll to see which way the wind of public opinion is blowing.  He reveals the will of the Lord to us.” – Glenn L. Pace

Gordon B. Hinckley shared the following story. “Many years ago I worked in the head office of one of our railroads. One day I received a telephone call from my counterpart in Newark, New Jersey, who said that a passenger train had arrived without its baggage car. The patrons were angry.

We discovered that the train had been properly made up in Oakland, California, and properly delivered to St. Louis, from which station it was to be carried to its destination on the east coast. But in the St. Louis yards, a thoughtless switchman had moved a piece of steel just three inches.

That piece of steel was a switch point, and the car that should have been in Newark, New Jersey, was in New Orleans, Louisiana, thirteen hundred miles away.

So it is with our lives—a cigarette smoked, a can of beer drunk at a party, a shot of Speed taken on a dare, a careless giving in to an impulse on a date. Each has thrown a switch in the life of a boy that put him on a track that carried him far away from what might have been a great and foreordained calling.” (October 1972 General Conference)

A few years ago I heard a talk by a bishopric member of the West Yellowstone Ward. One day he was walking down a well-established trail.  It was a former forest service road with hardly any obstacles. On both sides of the trail were dense pine trees with underbrush, sticks, stones, uneven walking surfaces, etc.  He explained that if you walk down the road, it’s easy – there are no obstacles and you can make good time.  But if you step off the path, even 10 yards, and try to walk forward in the same direction, it takes a great deal of time and has many more obstacles than the trail.  It is so much easier to get lost.  He went on to explain that the trail represents the strait and narrow path.  Christ blazed the trail for us.  He didn’t do it to make us feel restricted.  Quite the opposite.  He wanted our path to be as easy as possible. I used to think that when people sin, they take a 90-degree detour in the wrong direction.  Not true.  They simply choose to walk in the trees instead of on the path.  – Shannon Williams

Glen L. Pace said, “If necessary, keep the commandments by faith alone at first.  Keep them out of discipline.  When Adam was asked why he offered up sacrifices, he said, “I know not, save the Lord commanded me.”(Moses 5:6.) Great blessings come from obedience, even when we don’t intellectually understand why.  It is far better to keep the commandments out of discipline alone than not to keep them at all.”

Many of us continue to have a “Ten Commandments” mentality about living the gospel.  Most of us have heard those discussions about what one of our children once called “breaking the Sabbath day holy.”  After hearing a heated exchange about what kind of picnic would be in keeping with the commandment to honor the Sabbath day, I thought to myself that the only safe rule of Sabbath day observance seems to be: You can do anything you want as long as you don’t have a good time.  Instead of focusing so much on what we don’t do on Sunday, we need to look at what we get to do on this special day.  It is a day of doing, serving, and living joyously – not just a day of naps and don’ts.  “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) – Bruce C. Hafen

Keeping the commandments, desirable as that is, is not an end in itself.  This is because the Lord’s commandments are designed to develop the individual toward the capacity and spiritual state of mind needed to receive a perfected nature.  Thus it may be relatively unimportant just how many white marks may be chalked up against some number of black marks over the course of one’s life.  Righteous acts in the past of an essentially evil person will not change what he or she has become.  In the same way, disobedient acts in the past of an essentially righteous person will not change what he or she has become.  What we are is more important that what we know or what we do.  The Savior did not say, “Know ye therefore perfect, or “Do ye therefore perfect.”  He said, “Be ye therefore perfect.” – Bruce C. Hafen