In this past edition, I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk Continue in Patience. (You can watch it at the end of the post if you like.) I chose it for the visiting teaching message last month even though it was directed to the priesthood since it obviously applies to us all.
President Uchtdorf talked about how difficult it was for him to learn English after he and his family moved to West Germany when he was 10. He didn't learn it immediately, but with work and practice, he was able to learn. He learned the following from this:"From that experience, I learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort.
There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"
I love that truth. "Patience is not passive resignation." We have to trust in the Lord's time and will, but work and continue in faith. Like the saying says, "Pray as though everything depended on God and act as if everything depended on you.” Well, I don't think we should act like everything depends on us, but we should act and press forward.
Later in the talk, President Uchtdorf says "Patience is a process of perfection." Some people have patience as one of their wonderful gifts from God. Patience does not always come easy to me, but I know that Heavenly Father can help me develop it with prayer and practice. It is one of the characteristics that we need to develop to be more like our Savior.
Wasn't that a beautiful gift of a talk?
Beautiful thoughts. I love Conference. You're right, it s truly a gift.
ReplyDeleteYou are such an inspiration! Thanks for this post... it was wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYes, I love that talk! Great reminder and food for thought. And Heather and Tom are right -- you are such an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great talk! I hadn't heard/read it before.
ReplyDeleteWow. I JUST read this talk tonight and then here's your post. Truly profound.
ReplyDeleteI loved that talk. How fast I forgot about it though. Thanks for reminding me.
ReplyDeleteI listened to this talk last Sunday and loved it. It is a wonderful talk and was really timely for me. Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteYes.. I say AMEN to what you say about conference. I feel like every talk is given just for me.. and then I find out that most people feel the same way I do. We truly are lucky to have latter-day Prophets that speak directly to us. -- And this patience talk.. was just for me.
ReplyDeleteI loved this talk also and we used it as both the Home teaching and visiting teaching lessons for our families! I love general conference. I love to get all the CD's and than listen over and over again. I get so much more out of them since I started doing that. You are amazing!!
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