Talk given at Frisco 5th Sept. 30, 2018
I grew up in a
small town in Southern Utah. As a boy, I
rode horses, hunted, and drove a tractor when I was still too small to reach
the pedals - I had to get off the seat to press the clutch and brake.
I
milked the cow and we made our own butter, ice cream, whipped cream, and lye
soap. We had a quarter acre of garden,
and a couple dozen fruit and nut trees. We butchered our own meat, and bottled
hundreds of quart jars of fruit and vegetables each fall.
Mom came from
Mormon Pioneer stock, but Dad was not affiliated with any church. He encouraged us to go to church and
supported the idea of my siblings and I getting baptized when we were 8 years
old. However, on Sundays he often wanted
to go up to the mountains or out to the desert and he wanted us to go with him,
which we usually did. So there was
always a hint of conflict about the church.
My best friend,
Rex, was in the exact same situation.
His father was not a member of the church either, and his mother
was. His, and my, siblings had to choose
individually whether to become active.
When we were
16, Rex and I returned from an afternoon washing his big Pontiac. When we got to my house, we talked for a
couple of hours about what we were going to do about the church. Many of our peers didn’t give a hoot about the church, even though they were
members. Rex said he didn’t want to be wishy-washy. He wanted to be all in, or else he wanted to
be all out. I agreed. We
talked about both sides, but by the end of the evening we had decided we wanted
to be all in. It was Saturday night, so
we decided to meet in the morning and go to church together.
This
illustrates how important it is to pick the best of your peers to be your
friends. Rex was a tremendous positive influence
in my life, and I think I was the same in his.
After that, the two of us remained active in the church. We even shared a dorm room at BYU until he
left on his mission.
Early in my 3rd
year at BYU I met Liz, a lovely girl that I
adored. I still do. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago, and her
entire family had joined the church when she was 12. To her dismay, when we met I had already
enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was just waiting to report to boot
camp. The Viet Nam War was at its peak
at that time and that loomed over us. But
we had a couple of lovely months together before I left, and then we had a
courtship by mail and phone. After a
year of that, with the knowledge that I was NOT going to be sent to Viet Nam,
we were married in the Manti Temple. We
have been active in the church continuously.
This illustrates how important it is to pick the best of your love
interests to be your spouse. Your best
friend and your spouse have tremendous influence in how you will live your
life, including your relationship with God.
Liz has been an unshakable support to me in my spiritual life.
We have 6
children, 3 boys and 3 girls. Four of
them served missions. And we have 20 grandchildren – the joy of our
lives. We love them all, and wish more of them were
near by.
We moved to
Plano about 27 or 28 years ago, and recently bought our townhouse in the
Hemingway development.
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So that’s the
short version of our background. Now I’d
like to tell you about my journey to become a Man of God.
Several years ago, I drove up to Utah. I was going alone on that trip, so I had 4
conferences on CD to listen to as I drove.
In one of the talks the speaker was talking about The Savior’s encounter
with the rich young man. His meeting is described in the books of Mark
and Luke. Mark didn’t give him any kind of title, but
Luke called him a “ruler”. Both
described him running after Jesus and asking, “Good Master, what shall I do
that I may inherit eternal life?”
Jesus first objected to being called “Good”, and then he gave
the 25 cent answer to the man’s 25 cent question: “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not
commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud
not, Honour thy father and mother.”
At this point, it seems like Jesus considered it to be just a
casual conversation, a no brainer - but the rich young man took it to another
level: “And he answered and said unto
him, Master, all these have I observed
from my youth.” This phrase really
struck me – all these have I observed from my youth. I too have observed the commandments from my youth.
Mark then describes something curious: “Then Jesus beholding him, loved him”. It’s like Jesus hadn’t even noticed him -
until he asked the follow-up question.
And taking a second look, he liked what he saw in this young man’s soul.
So Jesus said, “One
thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and
follow me.”
Jesus used similar words when he called his apostles –
“Come! Follow me.” I think that is significant. The man had potential.
But this young man came up short. Mark continues, “And he was sad at that
saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” Well. So
much for the rich young man. He walked
away into obscurity. We do not hear of him again.
Back to my trip to Utah.
As I listened to the account in the conference talk, it struck me very
forcefully that “Yet
lackest thou one thing” could apply to me, personally. I’d heard, and read, that story many, many
times, but this time I heard it as if it was me in the story. I turned off the recording and thought about
it as I drove. I too had observed the
commandments from my youth, and I too lacked things. As I was thinking this the sprit said, “Yet lackest thou one thing”
and as I heard him, I knew the one thing I was lacking most. I didn’t hear a physical voice, but it was
very clear in my mind and couldn’t be ignored.
The one thing I lacked: My personal prayers had gotten lax – too casual,
and of little consequence. They were 25
cent prayers. I needed to up
my game and have constant prayer, - and
bless every meal, - and have more
consistent prayers with my wife. If I
wanted million dollar blessings, I couldn’t say 25 cent prayers. I needed to do just that one thing: Significant Prayer.
As I drove along, I made a commitment to do my one thing and make
it a permanent change. I kept it in mind
for the duration of my trip and when I got back home I kept at it. I was amazed at the difference it made. My prayers became something much more than
they’d been. And as I said more
significant prayers, I learned how to make them even better.
After a week or two with prayer in my life more fully than it
had been, it occurred to me that I was on the right path with prayer. As I had that thought the spirit said, “Yet lackest thou one thing.” Again, I knew exactly what my next one thing
was. I needed to spend more time reading
and studying the scriptures. I’d been
putting in a 25 cent effort to read the scriptures. So I went to work on that.
When I was settled in to reading the scriptures every day I
heard it again: “Yet
lackest thou one thing.” This
time I needed to see everybody else the way Jesus saw people, and love them. This one thing was harder. I started going out of my way to give a smile
and a friendly, “Hello,” to people who seemed down. I started seeing them as my own, personal
brothers and sisters.
There was one woman I specifically remember from the office. She walked along the halls with her head
down, never making eye contact with white people. So I deliberately walked into her path and
just before we bumped into each other she looked up. I gave her my biggest, friendliest smile, and
said, “Hello.” She was startled, but she
said Hello back. I went on my way. But when I looked back she was holding her
head up as she continued on her way. For a guy who
used to be too shy to ask for second helpings at dinner, that was pretty bold
of me.
It occurred to me that Jesus wouldn’t let little things like
terrorists affect how he treated people from the Arab World. So I made that transition. In fact, He wouldn’t see any races. He would treat all people the same.
I worked on changing my attitude about other commuters,
especially the ones who did really stupid things on highway 75. That part of my one thing was especially difficult for me. It still is.
I have to continually watch that carefully and I still slip up and think
negative thoughts about other drivers some times. And then I have to repent and re-commit to
seeing them like Jesus would.
This process has been repeated many times. I work on being a better person and when I
think I’m doing good, the spirit whispers, “Yet lackest thou one thing.” And I get another
thing to work on. How humbling that is.
You might think that would get to be tiresome. But it’s not!
It is glorious! The feeling it
gave me to be on the path to being a Man of God is hard to describe. Happy, warm, excited are all part of it. But
mostly happy.
Right from the beginning of my journey I thought of it as
learning to become a Man of God. I WANT
to be worthy of that title. I have a long way to go, but I can see now,
how to get there.
As this was going on, many blessings began to come our way. Not too long after I started on my journey,
Liz and I got a call from the temple to come down and visit with the
president. He called us to become temple ordinance
workers. What an enormous blessing it
has been to be able to serve there. I
began to feel even closer to the spirit during our service at the temple and it
lasts from week to week. There is no way
the temple president knew of my personal journey, but I know that calling came
about because I was on the right path, and it blessed both of us.
My other callings took on a more serious note, with increasing responsibility. I count it a blessing that I was able to
serve with some of the most inspiring men in the Plano Stake. We developed strong bonds of
brotherhood. Much of my work was behind
the scenes, doing things most people never hear about. I am a strong introvert, so that was fine by
me. At the same time, some things were
stretches: issuing callings, doing sustainings and giving talks from the
pulpit, etc. Just the things a man
trying to become a Man of God would benefit from.
During all this time, I didn’t say anything to anybody about
what I was trying to do, except for my wife, and I didn’t even share all of it
with her. She knows my faults very well,
so I think she was sometimes puzzled about it when I told her certain things
about my journey. OTOH, she definitely
noticed the change in me. Our marriage
is better, we are both happier, and we love serving others together.
Then I had a firm affirmation of the concept of becoming a Man
or Woman of God during the October 2015
Conference. President Nelson gave a
very interesting talk entitled “A Plea
to My Sisters” during the Sunday morning session. He told some very touching stories about the
strength of certain women leaders in the church. He said, “We
know that the culminating act of all creation was the creation of woman! We need your strength!” And then he went on to list the kind of spirit-building
things the strong women in the church can, and should, do.
He ended by saying, “So today
I plead with my sisters of The Church . . . to step forward! Take
your rightful and needful place in your home, in your community, and in the
kingdom of God—more than you ever have before . . . . And I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ
that as you do so, the Holy Ghost will magnify your influence in an
unprecedented way!”
As I listened to that talk, it suddenly occurred to me that he
was describing exactly what I was doing.
He was asking the women of the church to become Women of God in the same
way I was trying to become a Man of God.
He never explicitly said so at that time, though, so I kept that
thought to myself.
Then in the April Conference in 2016, (the very next conference)
he gave a talk during the Priesthood Session, entitled “The Price of
Priesthood Power”.
He started his talk by saying, “Six
months ago in the October … general conference, I spoke to the sisters of the
Church about their divine role as women
of God. Now I wish to speak to you
brethren about your divine role as men
of God.”
I was so excited to hear this!
He continued, “I urgently plead
with each one of us to live up to our privileges as bearers of the
priesthood. In a coming day, only those men
who have taken their priesthood seriously,
by diligently seeking to be taught by the Lord Himself, will be
able to bless, guide, protect, strengthen, and heal others. Only a man who has paid the price for
priesthood power will be able to bring miracles to those he loves and keep his
marriage and family safe, now and throughout eternity.”
President Nelson loves to
give lists he has developed through his own personal study. He shared a list of questions for those men
who want to become Men of God, and
since he’s linked his two talks together, I think this applies to Women of God,
too.
1.
Are you willing to pray to know how to pray
for more power? The Lord will teach you.
√
2.
Are you willing to search the scriptures and feast on
the words of Christ—to study earnestly in order to have more power? √
3.
Are you willing to worship in the temple regularly? The
Lord loves to do His own teaching in His holy house. √
4.
Are you willing to follow President Thomas S.
Monson’s example of serving others? √
5.
And if you truly want more priesthood power, you will
cherish and care for your spouse,
embracing both her and her counsel.
And then he summarized by asking: “Are we willing to pray, fast, study, seek,
worship, and serve as men (and women) of God…?” Today,
I am telling you about my journey
because I have a testimony that anybody who wants to feel the power and
authority of God, live a more Christ-like life, and become a Man or Woman of
God, can
do so. It is not hard, although it takes a strong commitment to
continually ask the questions that lead to the spirit telling you, “Yet lackest
thou one thing.”
And I want to tell you that taking that journey is very, very
worth it! It is a wonderful thing to
experience.
I pray that we can all overcome and do that one thing that will lead us forward - towards becoming a man or woman of God.
And that we will have the courage to ask, again. And again. And again.
And I say this . . . .
