EFY 2011 Believe. Hope. Endure
This week has been the best week of my entire life. Especially for Youth 2011 has been incredible. I feel like I can take on anything the world throws at me. The immense power of Heavenly Father has been gratified in my mind and I feel as if with Him, I can do anything. And it's true, with Him I can do anything. The slogan of EFY this year was "Believe. Hope. Endure." Notice how these three words are verbs. Going to EFY wasn't only for learning about the Gospel for a week, it was for learning how to take action and live the Gospel every single day of your life. Not just on Sundays, not just while you're with your friends from Church, but every single day. So I'm going to break down this simple phrase and talk about each one of these words.
Believe
If you don't believe, there's no point in living the Lord's way. Belief is key to righteousness. Without it, you wouldn't even care about the Gospel. So believe. It's as simple as that. It's explained better in the Book of Mormon on how you should accomplish the task of believing in the Gospel. Alma 32:27 states "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." So really it's not that difficult, simply have the desire to live the Gospel and believe that it is true. I promise you that your belief will grow into something much more if you simply desire to believe. I know the Gospel is true, but I haven't always been able to say that. The confirmation of my beliefs wasn't a huge event or a miraculous appearance. It was the fact of how the Gospel brings so much joy and gladness into my life. So to put your foot onto the strait and narrow path, gain a desire to believe. As you continue in faithfulness and read and study the Gospel, you will come to know the truth.
Hope
Hope is found inside every human soul, whether they are hoping to finish high school, or hoping that the Bills win the Super Bowl. Whatever the reason, everyone wants something. When the Lord instructs us to have hope, He has grander things in mind than the Super Bowl. His commandment to hope is concerned with the hope for a better world and better life. Hope is "manifest in confidence, optimism, entusiasm, and patient perseverance." (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Infinite Power of Hope") So when life gets you down, the righteous have divine hope in a better world and that things will get better in the future. But it is not enough to hope for something, such as the reality of Christ or the His coming. You need to have hope in those things. This may sound confusing, but you must have hope in Christ that He will comfort you and heal your sorrows. Knowledge of Him will come eventually, as stated about so a hope for Him is not enough. But anyway, having hope alone isn't enough, you must act on it. Our session director at EFY taught us three things to do concerning your hope:
1. You have to learn of Him
To have hope in Christ, you need to learn of His teachings and know what He did. 1 Nephi 19:24 instructs one to "liken [the Scriptures] unto yourselves, that ye may have hope..." So to gain hope and act on it, learn of Christ in the Scriptures. All of the Standard works testify of Christ in so many ways.
2. You have to do what Christ tells you to do.
So you can't have hope in Christ when you don't even do what he commands. As you learn of Him, you will learn what He commands. Then you must make it your ultimate goal to follow those commands as you journey through this life.
3. Don't let doubt or anything else stop you.
Your hope in Christ and His teachings must be constant and unwavering. Tough situations or the ridicules of the world can't bring you down. Your hope must shine brightly in your countenance always as you choose the right daily.
Endure
This is probably my favorite part of the three word slogan. EFY filled me with such belief and hope that I can endure to the end and that I can take on any challenge that comes my way. So endure to the end and go through all your trials with a smile. As Latter-Day Saints we endure all things. Anything that comes our way can be overcome with the Lord's help. The Gospel and teachings of the Church can pull you through anything. God created all things, so with His help why would you not be able to endure all things? And endurance has a purpose. President Henry B. Eyring stated that "God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life." (Henry B. Eyring, "Adversity") I want you to always remember that. Next time you are faced with a difficulty, remember that it is to help you achieve eternal life. That is why God permits bad things to happen, and that is why you must always endure.
So these three verbs all connect to the 13th Article of Faith. This is the longest of the Articles of Faith, and I think for that reason it is oft ignored. You know that while you were in Primary, you stayed away from the big 13 and tried to memorize some of the easier ones. And if you didn't then good for you, you are awesome! But anyway, this week the 13th Article of Faith has become one of my favorite Scriptures. It goes as follows:
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
I could go on and on about this particular Scripture, but I challenge you to study this out. Look at each part of the Scripture and study it well. I know you will find out how to Belive, Hope, and Endure if you do this.
Believe
If you don't believe, there's no point in living the Lord's way. Belief is key to righteousness. Without it, you wouldn't even care about the Gospel. So believe. It's as simple as that. It's explained better in the Book of Mormon on how you should accomplish the task of believing in the Gospel. Alma 32:27 states "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." So really it's not that difficult, simply have the desire to live the Gospel and believe that it is true. I promise you that your belief will grow into something much more if you simply desire to believe. I know the Gospel is true, but I haven't always been able to say that. The confirmation of my beliefs wasn't a huge event or a miraculous appearance. It was the fact of how the Gospel brings so much joy and gladness into my life. So to put your foot onto the strait and narrow path, gain a desire to believe. As you continue in faithfulness and read and study the Gospel, you will come to know the truth.
Hope
Hope is found inside every human soul, whether they are hoping to finish high school, or hoping that the Bills win the Super Bowl. Whatever the reason, everyone wants something. When the Lord instructs us to have hope, He has grander things in mind than the Super Bowl. His commandment to hope is concerned with the hope for a better world and better life. Hope is "manifest in confidence, optimism, entusiasm, and patient perseverance." (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Infinite Power of Hope") So when life gets you down, the righteous have divine hope in a better world and that things will get better in the future. But it is not enough to hope for something, such as the reality of Christ or the His coming. You need to have hope in those things. This may sound confusing, but you must have hope in Christ that He will comfort you and heal your sorrows. Knowledge of Him will come eventually, as stated about so a hope for Him is not enough. But anyway, having hope alone isn't enough, you must act on it. Our session director at EFY taught us three things to do concerning your hope:
1. You have to learn of Him
To have hope in Christ, you need to learn of His teachings and know what He did. 1 Nephi 19:24 instructs one to "liken [the Scriptures] unto yourselves, that ye may have hope..." So to gain hope and act on it, learn of Christ in the Scriptures. All of the Standard works testify of Christ in so many ways.
2. You have to do what Christ tells you to do.
So you can't have hope in Christ when you don't even do what he commands. As you learn of Him, you will learn what He commands. Then you must make it your ultimate goal to follow those commands as you journey through this life.
3. Don't let doubt or anything else stop you.
Your hope in Christ and His teachings must be constant and unwavering. Tough situations or the ridicules of the world can't bring you down. Your hope must shine brightly in your countenance always as you choose the right daily.
Endure
This is probably my favorite part of the three word slogan. EFY filled me with such belief and hope that I can endure to the end and that I can take on any challenge that comes my way. So endure to the end and go through all your trials with a smile. As Latter-Day Saints we endure all things. Anything that comes our way can be overcome with the Lord's help. The Gospel and teachings of the Church can pull you through anything. God created all things, so with His help why would you not be able to endure all things? And endurance has a purpose. President Henry B. Eyring stated that "God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life." (Henry B. Eyring, "Adversity") I want you to always remember that. Next time you are faced with a difficulty, remember that it is to help you achieve eternal life. That is why God permits bad things to happen, and that is why you must always endure.
So these three verbs all connect to the 13th Article of Faith. This is the longest of the Articles of Faith, and I think for that reason it is oft ignored. You know that while you were in Primary, you stayed away from the big 13 and tried to memorize some of the easier ones. And if you didn't then good for you, you are awesome! But anyway, this week the 13th Article of Faith has become one of my favorite Scriptures. It goes as follows:
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
I could go on and on about this particular Scripture, but I challenge you to study this out. Look at each part of the Scripture and study it well. I know you will find out how to Belive, Hope, and Endure if you do this.
Comments
Post a Comment