I can't remember where I first saw this, but I came across this really great talk given by Elder David A. Bednar. I really liked the talk, though I admit I started it about four times before actually sitting down and deciding to finish it. I wanted to share my thoughts, and I'd love to hear yours too:
(Read the Blue and Yellow if you want the cliff-notes version of this post, ha)
Click HERE to read the talk (took me about 15 minutes).
My Thoughts/Observations:
Character: the sum of the moral and mental qualities which distinguish an individual
REACHING BEYOND OUR INSTINCTS TO BE SELF ABSORBED
"Perhaps the greatest indicator of character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us... Thus, character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward."
There are many times I've thought to myself, "Jee I wish someone would help me with X" or "Why do I never get Y", or "If only I didn't have to deal with Z then things would be so much better".
From wishing I didn't sit alone in church, or wanting someone to ask me how I'm doing but be sincerly interested in listening, or even wishing for trials to be "anything but this", I find that the more I turn inward the more absorbed in my own problems I become. The times I've taken to listen to others and let them open up, I learn SO much about not only their lives but about how things in my life don't seem THAT bad.
RESISTING TEMPTATION
Elder Bednar speaks about Christ and how he perfectly resisted all temptations that were thrown his way. By doing so Jesus Christ has a perfect understand of the power of temptation and He can help us through our own temptations.
REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE
The talk mentions three instances where Jesus Christ is temped by Satan, including:
- tempting Jesus Christ to satisfy his physical hunger by changing stones to bread during a 40 day fast
- tempting Jesus Christ to gain recognition by casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple
- tempting Jesus Christ with wealth and riches if he would worship Satan
"It is interesting to note that the overarching and fundamental challenge to the Savior in each of these three temptations is contained in the taunting statement, "If thou be the Son of God." Satan's strategy, in essence, was to dare the Son of God to improperly demonstrate His God-given powers, to sacrifice meekness and modesty, and, thereby, betray who He was. Thus, Satan attempted repeatedly to attack Jesus' understanding of who He was and of His relationship with His Father."
My stake president back home in Utah would always say that we need to stop putting labels on ourselves. The phrases of "I'm gay", "I'm a successful X", "I'm an addict", "I'm a sinner", "I have this/that calling in the church",... these need to stop. We need to identify ourselves as children of God. I also think we need to identify everyone around us a children of God. When we stop thinking so much about ourselves and the bubble we all live in, we can really open up our minds to the FACT that other people are different from us, they have different thoughts, feelings, convictions, temptations, strengths, abilities and each one of them is loved by our Heavenly Father just as much as he loves you and I.
ONE LAST NUGGET THAT MAY BE HARD TO SWALLOW
There are so many great talking points and takeaways from this talk, but I wanted to touch on one last thought to try and keep this post brief.
In the talk, Elder Bednar tells about an experience he had where three young women in his ward were killed in a car accident. To keep things really brief, one of the girls who was killed was also the only daughter of the Relief Society president. He describes an incident as followed:
"On the day of her daughter's funeral, this Relief Society president from my home ward received a phone call from an irritated sister in our ward. The complaining sister had a cold and did not feel well, and she basically chewed out the Relief Society president for not being thoughtful or compassionate enough to arrange for meals to be delivered to her home. Just hours before the funeral of her only child, this remarkable Relief Society president prepared and delivered a meal to the murmuring sister."
[Warning: slight non-cook talking about cooking rant]
Um. OK. First off, does anyone reading this know how much effort goes into making someone a meal?!? (You can read that sentence in my outside-not-quite-yelling-but-getting-close voice). I personally do not cook, I have never really liked to cook - I just like to eat and do the dishes. So for someone like me preparing a meal for someone else is like... stress city... and I've only done it twice. The first time I crawled Pinterest for something that would work and ended up nearly in tears with my husband, "Babe I just can't find anything to make!" and went to the store and purchased an easy freezer meal for this individual (yes, I apologized for my feeble attempt at bringing over dinner - ha). The second time I spend half the day in the kitchen, got behind, had some fun, was proud of my efforts, but was stressing and obsessing whether I had thought of everything, how was I going to keep things how, do I purchase those tin container things or just use tupperware, should I make a dessert, what if they don't like it... though I'd have to say I think it might have turned out ok.
[End of my cooking rant.]
SO. Back to the story.
For this Relief Society president to simply choose to not react to this complaining sister, and show her some compassion on the day she probably needed compassion more than any other person is a true show of her character. Acting the way she did is how Christ would have. Our natural tendency to lash back at people and say, "You're kidding me right? Do you know what I'm going through!?" or to think about how much WE need is exactly that - a natural tendency. All of us react like this sometimes and that's OK. What is important is realizing that as we commit to become more like Christ we need to act like He would, which sometimes means acting against our natural instincts.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
This article sparked some good conversation with my husband, and is definitely something that I needed a reminder of (funny how that happens every time)... It was a great insight into how we could better study the life of the Savior and notice patterns that teach us about his character.
I hope something here helped you, sparked an action you could take to improve your own life, or to improve you outlook on life positively. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this :) whether you've read the article mentioned or not.
Happy Thursday.
