Well, this week was actually really normal and, for now, I can´t think of any really awesome stories. A real bummer, I know. But this week we were supposed to give our talks in Sacrament meeting about missionary work but turns out they cancelled us and talked about seminary and institute instead. Next week we´re going to give our talks but I really want to talk about the topic because it´s gonna be the best talk in the whole world. Haha I started off by searching in some of the General Conference talks that we have and I found one by Dallin H. Oaks from April 2011. In the talk he explained,¨ Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.¨ I don´t know why but the quote really hit me. As I thought more about how to shape my talk to help the members understand the importance of our desires, I thought of multiple examples. We can look at some poor examples from the Bible: Cain, King David, Judas Iscariot, and a few from the Book of Mormon, Laman and Lemuel. Their desires consist of: Sin, Women (in David´d case), Money, Praise of men, Luxury, easy living, lack of rules, satisfy Satan even. As a result their first priority was to satisfy the natural man, and their second priority was to satisfy God. Later, we can see that temptation had an easy influence in their decisions: Cain chose to hate Abel and even God, David chose to lust after a woman unrighteously, Judas Iscatiot chose to deny the Christ, and Laman and Lemuel chose to rebel against righteousness. Later, Cain killed Abel, David sinned against God and lost his glory, Judas turned in Jesus to his death, and Laman and Lemuel became a sinful nation that killed God´s servants. Now, there are quite a few good examples but for sake of time, I am only going to include one.
The sole desire of Jesus Christ was fulfill the will of the Father. In fact, to know the Son was to know the Father, for they are one in purpose. The first and utmost priority of Jesus was His family: His Father, His brothers, and His sisters.... Us. By choice, He served everyone that came across His path during His life. By choice, He loved everyone that ever lived, everyone that was alive, and everyone that would eventually live. By choice, He lived a perfect life and set the perfect example. By choice, He set the means of salvation for every child of God. And By choice he gave up His life to take it up again (by choice). These choices lead Him to bring to pass the greatest act of all time. The Atonement, the Infinite Sacrifice, our Means of Salvation.
I hope that we can all learn from the desires, priorities, and decisions of our Savior Jesus Christ so that our actions become pleasing in the eyes of our Father. Don´t follow the example of Laman and Lemuel. Be grateful for all that the Lord has given you. Take the initiative by desiring to be a better person. Take the initiative by loving everyone and inviting them to learn about the restored Gospel. Jesus Christ is our perfect example. He is the staff in the desert. It´s easy enough just looking at Him with well shaped desires. I know it, I live it, I love it!
Elder Philpot
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