I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to writing this email/blog each week. I promise that I will stop letting life interfere and I will write regularly each Sunday. When I don't write, I miss the feeling that we are in touch with each one of you at least once a week.
Today I taught a lesson taken from Elder Robert D. Hales conference talk, "Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually". A link is Here.
This is a GREAT talk. It is one of those talks that can speak to all of us where ever we happen to be in our progress toward becoming a Provident Provider for our family.
Elder Hales began by speaking of President Monson and reminding us that he grew up during the depression and because of that, he learned how to serve others. He stated that President Monson's "service to members and neighbors throughout the world has become the hallmark of his ministry."
Then Elder Hales said, "....our children are growing up in times of economic uncertainty. Just as our grandparents and great-grandparents learned vital lessons through economic adversity, what we learn now, in our present circumstances, can bless us and our posterity for generations to come." (emphasis added.)
Elder Hales goes on to speak of excessive debt and the desire to live beyond our means as an addiction. He compared it to addictions to food, drugs, or pornography. He explained that "additional debt is incurred when we cannot control our wants and addictive impulses." He then explains, "...the hopeful solution is...we must turn to the Lord and follow His commandments. We must want more than anything else to change our lives so that we can break the cycle of debt and our uncontrolled wants."
In class, we then talked about how we can begin to break habits that lead us to spend more than we make. We discussed how the Lord can take our struggles during this difficult economic time and make them for our good.
In his talk, Elder Hales told two stories from his life that taught two great principles he lived by financially. If you have not read the talk, you need to read it just to read the stories. They are great.
Elder Hales finished with this quote:
We must want, more than anything else, to do our Heavenly Father’s will and providently provide for ourselves and others. We must say, as did King Lamoni’s father, “I will give away all my sins to know thee” (Alma 22:18). Then we can go to Him with steadfast determination and promise Him, “I will do whatever it takes.” Through prayer, fasting, obedience to the commandments, priesthood blessings, and His atoning sacrifice, we will feel His love and power in our lives. We will receive His spiritual guidance and strength through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Only through our Lord’s Atonement can we obtain a mighty change of heart (see Mosiah 5:2; Alma 5:14) and experience a mighty change in our addictive behavior.
With all the love I have in me and with the Savior’s love through me, I invite you to come unto Him and hear His words: “Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted” (2 Nephi 9:51).
I testify that the appetite to possess worldly things can only be overcome by turning to the Lord. The hunger of addiction can only be replaced by our love for Him. He stands ready to help each one of us. “Fear not,” He said, “for you are mine, and I have overcome the world” (D&C 50:41).
18 Wherefore, with the help of these, king aBenjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the bfaculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land.
Sisters, we must labor with all the might of our bodies and faculty of our souls to establish peace in our families and homes by teaching our families to live within our means and pay off our debt. When we are not in the servitude created by our debt and financial obligations, we will have much more time to serve others and serve the Lord.
Love,
Your RS Presidency
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