In our Old Testament Sunday School lesson on Sunday I read a message from the manual that all things in the scriptures are Christ-centered. My reminder that our homes, lives, and families should also be was a prompting from the Spirit for me to share. As we go about our daily lives and tasks are we living that way? Perhaps it's 'easy' to forget but it's vital to our salvation as well as peace and happiness in this life. There is no other way.
In my studies I came across this beautiful message of Gratitude; Appreciation and Testimony, from
on April 6, 1974. I found it to be a powerful personal reminder to me and for us all.
May we reflect, during this special Easter season, on all the things we have to be grateful for. Most are not 'things' but rather gifts of the Spirit and the blessings of membership in His church. May we be witnesses of Him is my prayer.
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Brothers and sisters, my verbal moment is not for sermons but for appreciation, not for doctrine but for testimony.
Appreciation for the Lord’s call through President Kimball.
Appreciation for your sustaining vote which was not vindication but an invitation—an invitation for me to be and to do better.
Appreciation for humble parents who both told and showed me that the gospel and Church are true.
Appreciation for a splendid woman, Colleen, a wife for all seasons, who has made our home a haven.
Appreciation
for a missionary son in Germany and three daughters and a son-in-law in
whose behalf, as a father, I deeply wish to succeed and whose vote to
sustain me must count double in the days that lie ahead.
Appreciation
to President Kimball for his example not only as a bold prophet but for
his and Sister
Kimball’s tireless practicing of “pure religion,
undefiled.” (
James 1:27.)
The President’s greatness is the kind which is not conscious of itself.
He truly desires not our adulation but our affirmation by how we live.
Appreciation for the tender tutoring of President Harold B. Lee.
Appreciation
for Presidents Tanner and Romney and Benson and the Twelve, whom I hope
to assist, and each of whose lives reflects divine design that prepared
them for their appointed place, for God is never surprised.
Appreciation
to all the General Authorities who travel so tirelessly to teach us
all, leaving their families without complaint. This reality was
summarized well by the wit that was also wisdom of Richard L. Evans;
who, one day on the way to another plane and another weekend of
conferences, said gently, “Have you ever gotten homesick on the way to
the airport?”
Appreciation
to the members of the Church who have helped me in the Tremonton,
Ogden, and Reno regions, and to my sweet colleagues, the Regional
Representatives of the Twelve, especially those whom the Lord has raised
up in other nations of the world.
Appreciation
to the devoted colleagues and students in the Church Educational System
in 50 countries who number one-third million.
Endless appreciation to
Jesus Christ
for his atonement, realizing that included in the awful arithmetic of
that atonement are my sins, and for the eloquence of his example, and
for the witness he has given me which I have happily borne in about 35
countries, for when one sees life and people through the lens of His
gospel, then one can see forever.
Endless
appreciation to my Father in heaven whose blessings depend upon our
obedience, but whose ratio of blessings to obedience makes him a
generous God!
I
know the celestial criteria measure service, not status; the use of our
talents, not the relative size of our talent inventories. I know that
Church membership is not passive security but continuing opportunity.
Finally
I testify that what a wise man wrote is true: “If you have not chosen
the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you
have chosen instead.” Having so chosen, may God bless us all to move
the kingdom along, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
