Favorite Excerpts from "Daughters in the Covenant"

By Henry B Eyring. I hope this speaks to you like it did to me:

You were tutored by Him before you came into this life. He helped you understand and accept that you would have trials, tests, and opportunities perfectly chosen just for you. You learned that our Father had a plan of happiness to get you safely through those trials and that you would help bring others safely through theirs. This plan is marked by covenants with God.

It is our free choice whether we make and keep those covenants. Only a few of His daughters have the opportunity in this life to even learn of those covenants. You are one of the favored few. You dear sisters, each of you is a daughter in the covenant.

Heavenly Father taught you before you were born about the experiences you would have as you left Him and came to earth. You were taught that the way back home to Him would not be easy. He knew that it would be too hard for you to make the journey without help.

You have been blessed not only to find the way to make those covenants in this life but also to be surrounded by others who will help—who, like you, are covenant daughters of Heavenly Father.

Heavenly Father smiles on you as well whenever He sees you help a daughter of His move along the covenant path toward eternal life. And He is pleased every time you try to choose the right. He sees not only what you are but also what you may become.

You may have had an earthly parent who thought that you could be better than you thought you could be. I had such a mother.

What I didn’t know when I was young was that my Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father, sees greater potential in His children than we or even our earthly mothers see in us. And whenever you move upward on that path toward your potential, it brings Him happiness. And you can feel His approval.

He sees that glorious potential in all of His daughters, wherever they are. Now, that puts a great responsibility on each of you. He expects you to treat every person you meet as a child of God. That is the reason He commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and to forgive them. Your feelings of kindness and forgiveness toward others come as your divine inheritance from Him as His daughter. Each person you meet is His loved spiritual child.

Little children are being inspired to say great and marvelous things, as they did when the Savior loosed their tongues when He taught them after He was resurrected.3

While Satan may be attacking sisters at earlier ages, the Lord is lifting sisters to higher and higher levels of spirituality.

By revelation, Eve recognized the way home to God. She knew that the Atonement of Jesus Christ made eternal life possible in families. She was sure, as you can be, that as she kept her covenants with her Heavenly Father, the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost would see her and her family through whatever sorrows and disappointments would come. She knew she could trust in Them.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”7

I know that Eve faced sorrows and disappointments, but I also know that she found joy in the knowledge that she and her family could return to live with God. I know that many of you who are here face sorrows and disappointments. I leave you my blessing that, like Eve, you may feel the same joy that she felt as you journey back home.

I have a sure witness that God the Father watches over you in love. He loves each of you. You are His daughters in the covenant. Because He loves you, He will provide the help that you need to move yourself and others upward along the way back to His presence.

I know that the Savior paid the price of all of our sins and that the Holy Ghost testifies of truth. You have felt that comfort in this meeting. I have a testimony that all the keys which bind sacred covenants have been restored. They are held and exercised today by our living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I leave these words of comfort and hope with you, His beloved covenant daughters, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

To hear or read the full talk go here.

Because of Him

Paul's Counsel to Me

This morning I woke up early and was able to read my scriptures for a few minutes before the kids came and climbed in my bed.  I read in 2nd Timothy, as that was the reading for my New Testament class that I have been attending.  These verses in particular spoke to me :

2 Timothy 3:12, 14-15

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

"But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;"

"And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

It's hard enough facing our challenges and trials, but somehow hearing Paul tell us that everyone that is trying to follow Jesus will suffer persecution, makes it a little easier to bear.  Maybe it's reassuring because it confirms to me that I really am on the right path, even though frequently, it feels like so many things are going so wrong.  It also gives me hope because it helps me to see that I'm not alone.  There are others that are trying to endure persecution or trials while striving to follow Jesus as well.

I love how Paul encourages us to continue on!  He counsels  us to continue in the things which we have learned.   The way Paul phrases this makes me think of two ways that I have learned things:

1. I have learned doctrine by studying it and praying about it.
2. But I have also learned personal direction or revelation pertaining specifically to my life through the Holy Ghost.  This has come to me through promptings. 

Paul directs us to remember the things that we have learned but also points out to remember that these are things that have been confirmed in our hearts and minds by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.  And then he reminds us to have confidence in that testimony and spiritual guidance because it has come from our loving Heavenly Father.
The last verse, 15, again seemed like he was speaking just to me.  I have be taught and studied the scriptures since I was a little kid.  Paul gently reminded me of this blessing in my life and encouraged me to continue building upon that foundation.  And that I should not take it for granted but continue to search and study the scriptures for wisdom to guide me through the trials in my life.