Alright friends, step away from the pie. Time to feast on the word of God. (I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I did.)
Let’s study President Eyring’s fantastic talk this week, shall we? President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency spoke during the Sunday morning session of General Conference and his talk was called “Our Perfect Example.” I was immediately drawn into his talk in the introduction: “Different as we are in circumstances and experiences, we share a desire to become better than we are.”
“The message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is that we can and must expect to become better as long as we live.”
“Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example.”
“I hope you will go out today looking for opportunities to do as He did and to love as He loves.”
You can read the talk here, watch it here, or listen to it here. It’s also on page 70 of the November Ensign. (Go here for GCBC information.)
I know you’ll really like this talk. Please share some of the things that you learn or think or notice as you study it. I love reading all your great insights.
Diapers and Divinity 
I like how Pres. Eyering says that we should expect to become like the Savior, and it is a commandment. We should excpect to be fillied with his love.
I think sometimes I lower the standards I have for myself, out of fear. Fear that I am not worthy, or fear of the responibility. I need to step it up!!! Focus my self-image in him, and stop letting those negative voices tell me that I can’t do it.
“Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example.”
It’s true–the Lord asks us to strive for perfection not because he wants us to feel inadequate but because he LOVES us and knows what our capabilities and potential are.
I loved his counsel to each member of the family, especially his counsel about wayward children. I have an inactive sister and it is a good reminder of how I should approach my relationship with her.
Hey Stephanie-
My comment has nothing to do with this post. A little while back you wrote a post referring your readers to some blogs you felt worthy of your attention. For some reason I keep feeling like I should refer you (or maybe one of your readers?), to a post my sister-in-law wrote about adoption. (November is National Adoption Month). I think adoption touches a whole other side of motherhood that most of us never experience, but it is real and divine, just as birth-mothering. Anyway, here’s the link: http://lunasbaublebilities.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-is-national-adoption-month.html
Obviously, you’ll need to cut and paste that. I don’t know how to insert a link in a comment. Computer illiterate, sorry. She wrote a later post (today , I think) as a follow-up if anyone is interested.
Hey! It IS a link! Yay me!
I LOVED this talk, but more importantly I needed to this talk. The last few week I have been feeling like nothing that I do is good enough for the kids, or for my husband, and trying to do more left me exhausted and ornery. As I have been struggling with this, last night was a huge breakthrough filled with a discussions with my husband, lots of tears and a priesthood blessing and then this morning I got up and read this wonderful talk. I now at least feel like I have a path laid out for me to follow and an example to show me the way. I especially love the counsel that he gave to husbands and wives “Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.”
I’ve wondered why it is so hard to have the gift of charity – the pure love of Christ. Why is the first and second commandment connected to love? Is it any wonder that we are told we must pray with all the energy of our heart to be filled with this great love? This whole talk is telling us how we must live and love, and follow Jesus Christ, our perfect example.
Pres. Eyring challenges us to look “for opportunities to do as He did and to love as He loves. I can promise you the peace that you felt as a child will come to you often and it will linger with you. The promise is true that He made to His disciples: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’”
“None of us is perfect yet. But we can have frequent assurance that we are following along the way. He leads us, and He beckons for us to follow Him.”
We must become as a little child and try to be like Jesus and we will be blessed with peace. We will be able to love as a child loves, forgive as as child forgives, believe as a child believes. What a goal! What a promised blessing! It will take more than a lifetime for me to perfect this attribute, but I will keep trying to be like Jesus. This is a landmark address. Thank you for choosing this talk to study this week.
This is a great talk! I especially liked the part about praying for our spouses–or really praying for ourselves to be more tolerant of our spouses.
“Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.”
I felt that I could use this for my children also. Sometimes I get so caught up in all that they should be doing to improve, that I forget to see all the good they do–despite the dirty clothes on the floor and the undone homework. And, if everyone in our family were praying for this love for each member, I imagine there would be less bickering and more serving one another.
Elder Eyring’s word gave me a pattern of child-like faith. He said of the children singing:
1. declaring their determination.
2. Jesus Christ was their example.
3. To be like Him was their fixed goal.
4. And their eager looks and their shining eyes convinced me that they had no doubts.
5. They expected to succeed.
6. They believed that the instruction of the Savior to be perfect was not a hope but a command.
7. And they were sure He had prepared the way.
Little children have a hope of who they are. I know that it is hard for me to have this hope of forgivness of my weaknesses and love of me while I am weak. I have put this barrier up myself. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do not. I read a comment by a ball player (girl in college) and she said that a “perfect game” is not really without errors. I had never thought about that before even though I knew it. I can see how this “perfect hope in Christ” when we are doing all we can do AND repenting and asking for forgiveness; ALWAYS; can free up us being so down on ourselves. Elder Eyring is the one who encouraged us to keep track of the little miracles in our lives so that we can see God’s love for us each day. They are “Little reminders” for us each day of His pure love of us. Thanks for all the comments. They really help me see.
I’m more than a little late on this one, but it was a good one. I listened/read it this morning. I loved the part about husbands and wives – what good council for us. I don’t pray for those things very often, but what a good thing to think of and remember.
Thanks!
Boy, I’m really playing catch-up tonight. Can you tell? This is my third comment in ten minutes. Just wanted to let you know I read this one. It has become one of my favorites. I loved Elder Eyring’s promise that as we try to do what Jesus would do, the peace we felt as children “will come to [us] often and it will linger with [us].”
What struck me most about this talk, was that the only way to get peace and feel charity was to learn to love as the Savior does for each one us. I loved the comment about about how those moments will come more often as I try to do the things that Jesus would do. I allow myself to become callous in my feelings towards others and that I should just lay lay low and stay under the radar for service opportunities. I’ve never really thought about that being one of Satan’s tools in that way. I loved the talk and had read it before, but I found myself underlining different thoughts- we all share a desire to become better, to be like Him was their fixed goal, sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love, parents hold the needs of children equal to their own, etc.
Great talk! I filled my sticky note up with thoughts.