I Dare You To Eat It

I begged her, and she finally gave in. This is Hailey’s missionary message from last Sunday’s sacrament meeting. It was Hailey that I was referring to when I said, “from the mouths of babes.” (I wish I knew how to stop all this stupid underlining but I don’t.) Have a good day!

 

COVENANTS

As some of you may know, I graduated from BYU just over a month ago and essentially wrapped-up my adventures as an undergraduate college student. Since my move from Provo, I’ve had a lot of time to think about the last four years of my life and ponder lessons learned….things like, don’t procrastinate, don’t EVER combine white and dark loads of laundry, don’t be late to class and don’t trust the barbecue chicken sandwiches they sell on campus (and I guess I learned a few things about psychology along the way too). BUT, the most important lessons I learned in college definitely did not come from textbooks or teachers. Instead they came from the Spirit—usually during times of trial.

While young adulthood has been great and fun in so many ways, I’ve also found that it can be a time of confusion, and loneliness, and fear…and from what I hear, many of these feelings continue on into adulthood.

As I reflected this past week on some of the more challenging lessons I’ve learned and tools I might use in the future to cope with these feelings, my thoughts seem to center on one particularly hard night—my first night as a freshman. At this time, I was going to school back east to study painting, and I had just barely arrived in my dorm room. My roommate wasn’t there yet, so I chose a bed, and started to unpack my things. As I started pulling pictures and clothes out of boxes, I could feel bits of fear and nervousness trying to creep into my little 18-year-old heart, but I kept telling myself, “It’s okay, this isn’t scary it’s fun.” Just as I had finished setting up my room, one of my best friends from home, who was also moving in that day for school, knocked on my door. I was so relieved to see her, and judging by the somewhat tense smile on her face, I think she felt the same way about seeing me.

We sort of chatted in my room for a minute, and then in an attempt to smother our fears and stay up-beat and positive about the situation, we decided that it would be so charming if we went to the cafeteria (which was on the fifth floor of our building) and shared a piece of Boston cream pie while overlooking the city of Boston. So that’s what we did. And it’s funny looking back on it now because it really wasn’t that charming nor was it fun—-we could hardly eat the pie because we were so paralyzed with anxiety. Instead, we just sat there (with tears in our eyes) in almost complete silence and looked out over the city—which seemed overwhelmingly large. Suddenly, at that moment, for the first time in my life, I felt like my faith in the Lord’s ability to take care of me had been slightly shaken. I remember wondering if I would always feel that sense of loneliness, or if Heavenly Father would remember my needs, and calm my heart. And I remember pleading with Him to take care of us.

Since that day, I’ve felt those same feelings and said similar prayers on many, many occasions. Sometimes I’ve done so after a series of bad dates or just on a less than great day, and at other times, I’ve turned to Heavenly Father with much larger concerns. Something that’s brought me a lot of peace and comfort though—no matter how small the trial—is a poem by E.E. Cummings that I discovered during that same year of school, and have kept with me ever since. The first time I heard it, I thought “You know, this is probably about a romance between a man and woman, but I bet it’s exactly what the Savior would say to me,” or to you, or anyone. So I’d like to share it with you. It’s titled, “I Carry Your Heart With Me” and it says,

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)

I am never without (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

And it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

And whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

And this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

This is what I want to talk about today—how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ carry our hearts in theirs through the covenants we make with them.

If you look-up the word “covenant” in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism it says, “…the English term ‘covenant,’ meaning ‘coming together,’ stresses the relationalaspect [between God and man]. In other languages the terms used may have more legal connotations.” Elder Eyring also stressed this point stating, “Our covenants with God are not a business deal like ‘you do this for God, and God will do this for you’”—rather, “it’s an opportunity to draw closer to Him.” I love that statement—that our covenants are not a cold business deal but rather a coming together of our hearts and an opportunity to bring the Lord into our lives as a friend and partner.

 When we make covenants—whether that be through baptism, partaking of the sacrament or participating in temple ordinances—we take upon us the name of the Lord, and essentially “become His.”

There are a variety of scriptures that talk about this idea of coming together with the Lord, but right now I just want to point out two.

The first is in Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 33-34…and here the Lord says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah, chapter 5, King Benjamin says, “…because of the covenant which ye have made, ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold this day he hath spiritually begotten you.” Moreover, he goes on to note that if we will be “steadfast and immovable” in keeping our covenants, “Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his.”

I’ve thought a lot about this idea of “becoming His” or the Lord’s people, and what that really means, and while we’re told that with this role we have a responsibility to embrace the restored gospel and live as righteous representatives of Christ, I also believe that it literally means we are His. His children, His friends, His joy, and His concern. For when we make covenants our will and the Lord’s will—or our hearts and the Lord’s heart align (like the poem says), and He becomes a part of our life and plans in a very real way.

So from here, I want to talk a little bit about what happens after we “become His.”

Elder Christoffersonof the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that because we are His, “we enjoy a continual flow of blessings promised by God that provide the resources we need to act, rather than simply be acted upon as we go through life…as well as a steady supply of gifts and help.” Thus, once a covenant is made, and we willingly come together with the Lord, we qualify for various gifts and blessings, one of which is His constant companionship and guidance—or the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 If you think about that first and last line of Cumming’s poem, “I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart”—I think what he’s really trying to say is, that because those two people’s hearts and minds are so close—they’re practically one-in-the-same, meaning, they could never truly be separated, even with a physical distance between them. In the same sense, when we keep our covenants and our hearts become one with the Lord’s, we too will never be separated, for he’ll bless us with His partnership in the form of the Spirit.

I have definitely found this to be true in my own life. Before I turned in my papers at the beginning of this school year, I really, really struggled to get an answer about whether or not a mission was the right thing for me. I remember that I prayed about it for two years, I took a mission prep class, I talked to my parents, my bishop, my friends, and even some professors, but I still didn’t know what to do. And for a time, I wondered if maybe Heavenly just forgot about me…but what I love about this experience is that gradually, while waiting for my answer, I learned to see the Lord’s companionship and influence in my life in small ways.

Just for example, I remember that one day I was feeling pretty stressed about the situation, but I tried my best to suck it up and put a smile on my face before I went to work. When I got there, my professor and I started talking about the projects we were working on like usual, and then all of a sudden—out of nowhere—he stopped what he was doing and looked up at me and said, “You know Hailey, I pray for you all the time…and I just wanted you to know that.”

I am positive that this professor didn’t know how much I needed to hear that in that moment, but its come to mean so much to me, because it helped me see that although Heavenly Father may have been waiting to answer my prayers about a mission, He was still aware of my needs—especially the need to be comforted that day. And I really believe that in order to show his love for me, He touched my professor’s heart with the Spirit, so my professor could then touch my heart.

Well, I obviously got my answer eventually and right after I received my call to Missouri, I read a talk titled “Lessons From Liberty Jail” by Elder Holland about Joseph Smith’s experiences here. And while I don’t really want to get into the details of the cruelty the Prophet faced while imprisoned, I do want to share some of Elder Holland’s thoughts on how to react to these types of trials that test our faith in the Lord’s companionship. So, here Elder Holland says:

 Everyone, including (and perhaps especially) the righteous, will be called upon to face trying times. When that happens we can sometimes fear God has abandoned us, and we might be left, at least for a time, to wonder when our troubles will ever end. As individuals, as families, as communities, and as nations, probably everyone has had or will have an occasion to feel as Joseph Smith felt when he asked why such sorrow had to come and how long its darkness and damage would remain. We identify with him when he cries from the depth and discouragement of his confinement: ‘O God, where art thou?…How long shall thy hand be stayed…?’…that is a painful, personal cry—a cry from the heart, a spiritual loneliness we may all have occasion to feel at some time in our lives…But, whenever these moments of extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry ‘Where art Thou?’ it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where he has always been! …When lonely, cold, hard times come, we have to endure, we have to continue, we have to persist…Keep knocking [on the Savior’s] door. Keep pleading. In the meantime, know that God hears your cries and knows your distress. He is your Father, and you are His child.

 I know that Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to have to make this journey through life alone so he’s given us covenants, and by extension, the Holy Ghost, as an ever-present reminder that the Lord is with us, and aware of our needs. I love verses 14-15 in 1 Nephi chapter 21 when the Savior says, “But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not. For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

Not only did the Savior take on our sins, but He also took on our hearts, and I’m positive that he knows what we, as individuals, are going through. You know there are a lot of things we do as groups in the Church…but…the most important things are done individually—as one person developing a relationship with our Father in Heaven. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have a unique partnership with each of us, and the covenants we make with them are performed one on one for a reason—and that is to cater to our different personalities, our strengths, our weaknesses, and our hearts with exactness.

In fact, if there’s one message I’m most excited to share with others as a missionary, it would be this. I think everyone deserves to know that they don’t have to go through this life alone, and that these covenants and blessings are available to them if they’ll only commit to “becoming His.” I am learning that although Heavenly Father may carry our hearts in His, sometimes he allows them to break a little because He knows what a blessing it will be to have the Savior mend them. And I’m thankful that He loves us enough to do that.

Tags: covenants, missionary message, we don't have to do this by ourselves

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 am and is filed under Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.