Well, what do you know? Two days of posts in a row! Hooray! I hope my newfound resolve can last.
I had a great weekend full of spiritual moments that led to promptings and experiences that have proven to be good for my life. It has made me want to talk a bit about what it means to have a prophet to lead and guide me in my life. So here goes ...
When I was younger (middle school age) I went to a tiny little RLDS church down the street from my house. Becoming a member of the LDS church would have never crossed my mind at the time. I would have never seen myself where I am today. You can check out the story of how I got here in my post HERE. The RLDS church believes in latter-day prophets just like the LDS church does, but at the time they believed that the prophets had to be descended through the line of the prophet Joseph Smith, so all of their prophets were Smiths. I remember sitting in church one day and seeing a newsletter or magazine that had a picture of their prophet. I remember looking at the picture (I think it was a picture of Wallace B. Smith) and thinking it was way weird to look at an older guy in a modern day suit and believe that he could possibly be a prophet in the same way that Moses or Elijah or Isaiah was a prophet. It didn't compute for me. They didn't talk much about prophets in the little church I attended (or at least I was never paying attention when they did), so I never really dedicated a lot of thought to whether or not there could be latter-day prophets. I only remember my thought about how strange it was for a prophet to look like any other ordinary guy.
Fast forward to my new life as a Mormon. I had learned more in depth about latter-day prophets and why it made sense that there could still be prophets on the earth today. It just made sense to me. Of course Jesus would still use prophets in our day. Why would He go to all the trouble of using them in ancient days, only to let us flail around like crazy people without any guidance today? Especially when you consider how much chaos and confusion exists in our modern world, how could we be expected to know exactly how to navigate through the world without some modern clarifications? I mean, really, how could ancient prophets have had any use for pronouncing guidance regarding social media or cell phones or computers or world travel? Or any of our modern life conveniences and struggles? We need someone who can respond to our modern trials. We need a modern day prophet. I received confirmation as a young 19 year old girl that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet, restoring the Gospel to the world in its fullness. I felt confident that the line of authority continued after his death from Brigham Young all the way to Ezra Taft Benson, who was the prophet at the time. It made sense to me. It felt right. That's one of the reasons I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It made sense.
But as for having a testimony of prophets ... well, I never gave it too much thought after that. I never actually got to hear or see Ezra Taft Benson speak as a prophet. Soon after I joined the Church he became super ill and did not attend General Conference. It was that way for several years. When Howard W. Hunter became the prophet I barely had time to wrap my head around the fact that he was a prophet before he died. But then Gordon B. Hinckley became the prophet. Oh how I loved/love Gordon B. Hinckley. He and President Monson had been the voice of the Church for so long while Ezra Taft Benson and Howard W. Hunter were sick. They were in the 1st Presidency, so they could administer in that role, even though they were not the prophets. But I remember when President Hinckley was sustained. I expected it to be just the same as it always had been. Since he was always the guy who was speaking and running the meetings, I just thought that it would sound exactly the same. But it didn't sound the same. I remember when President Hinckley first got to the pulpit as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He spoke with authority, and I FELT that authority. I KNEW that he was a prophet. It was the first time that I think I really felt the truthfulness of our doctrine that there is a prophet on earth today who directs the Church as led by Jesus Christ. I knew that this was true doctrine. I knew that President Hinckley was a prophet. And that matters.
When President Monson died this winter it was a new era for me as a member of the Church. I have been a member of the Church now for 27 years, and during that entire time President Hinckley or President Monson had been there in the 1st Presidency. The sound of their voices are things that I will probably never forger. Now we had a new prophet, a man who I had never really pictured in that role. Russell M. Nelson has never been in the 1st Presidency, and he barely spent time as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, so I had hardly gotten used to calling him President Nelson. This was a testing period for me, a time to see if I really believed in the office of a prophet or if I was just beholden to particular men.
Herman wanted for us to be together as a family during the Solemn Assembly which was held in April to sustain the new prophet. Luckily, we were able to get tickets to that session of conference, so we were able to sit together as a family during this awesome event. I loved watching President Nelson walk into the Conference Center. You would never guess that he was 93 years old. He had so much spring in his step. He seemed so healthy! It was a powerful moment to see each of my family stand as their priesthood quorum or group was called. I felt a strong confirmation that President Nelson truly was a prophet.
And then he started talking.
Oh man! What an amazing conference! President Nelson led the leaders of the Church in making all sorts of changes that would make the Church more efficient and more responsive to the needs of a growing and more global church. It was amazing to see his leadership and how he was shaping the direction of the Church. Such a fun conference to be at! I knew he truly was a prophet.
So, with that REALLY long introduction .... I want to talk about what I learned from President Nelson on Sunday. On Sunday President Nelson called for a meeting of all the youth of the Church. He and his amazing wife, Wendy, spoke to the youth. They spoke of the gathering of Israel, and President Nelson said that it was the most important work of these latter days, and he called on the youth to be active participants in this gathering. He gave them five specific things to do, beginning immediately. They are:
- Hold a 7 day fast from social media.
- For 3 weeks in a row, make a weekly sacrifice of time to the Lord.
- Keep on the covenant path. (Or get back on if you have left it).
- Pray daily that all of God's children might receive the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. and ...
- Stand out and be different from the world.
After this small little step I took to follow our prophet I felt a renewed energy to be more productive. I have had more time to get things done, and I have tried to use it to do some cleaning that I have put off and start projects that I have meant to do. I have blogged! I have done some good scripture study this week, and I feel like my mind is clearer, better able to receive the spiritual guidance I need in my own life. I have been richly blessed.
I know that there are a lot of people in the world who think that it is wacky that we believe that we have an actual prophet of God. We always picture our prophets in desert robes with staffs, à la Moses. But I am grateful to know that we really do have a modern day prophet who looks like us and dresses like us, but has been called to speak for the Lord as His special witness in these days. I am grateful for the opportunities I have to follow his guidance and counsel. I feel like I have never been led astray whenever I do this. I am grateful for President Nelson, and I am excited to join my children as we work to gather Israel.
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