What Does it Mean to be a Good Person?

How can you and I define a good person? How can I look at someone and judge their character to be good or bad? Is it possible? I don't think so. I believe whole heartedly that there is a chunk of good and a chunk of bad in every person. While I do believe that, I don't believe that it HAS to be that way. Take Christ for example, he was perfect in every way. And yet he still faced a chunk of bad. Now before you rip my head off because I said Christ had the bad too, keep reading. I know that he had temptations of bad things, I know that because I am tempted to do bad things. He atoned for me. He bled from every pore. He felt every sorrow, pain, affliction, and temptation I and you have ever felt. He had those afflictions. Yet he did not let them affect him. That is the most amazing example we could ever have. That is how we can decipher a good person. By saying this, I am not saying to go and judge everyone according to their likeness of Christ. We should start with ourselves. I know personally that I want nothing more than to be a good person, and so I know I must make the choice to be a good person. I have a chunk of bad in me. I am tempted every day to not be good. The choice is mine. I can choose I let the bad affect me or I can choose to let the good outshine the bad. That's how I can be a good person, I just need to look and seek and do all the good I can. Hmm pretty simple I guess.     

Personal Revelation

I was asked to speak on a talk in the May 2012 Ensign titled “How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life.” By Elder Richard G. Scott. This talk is truly amazing and opened my eyes quite a bit to the little things that we may miss in our everyday life. After reading this talk for the first time I decided to break it up into 8 sections that can help us receive personal revelation and inspiration.

Section number one: Revelation is received by praying to Heavenly Father and asking.

Prayer is a huge part to receiving revelation. This week I was scrolling along pinterest as many of you probably do, and I came across an interesting quote. It said “In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.” I pondered that thought for a while. After mulling it over long enough, I decided to blog about it, it is called "finding Christ." Anyways, in my blog post, I considered the fact that the wording in that quote was wrong. The word give in the context of give this to me, can often seem demanding, having no spiritual content or feeling especially when considering something as special as having Christ by your side. After reading that quote a picture was placed in my mind of a school bully telling a timid boy to “give him his lunch money.” The timid boy might be much more willing to help the bully, if only he said something like “I forgot my lunch money, do you think you could spare some change?” This science can be applied to the receiving of our personal revelation. If we expect to be given guidance without asking, we are internally telling Heavenly Father to “give us the answers.” In that case there is no work or even humble gratitude on our behalf’s.  When we are seeking out revelation or inspiration from our heavenly father we should do so by asking, not by giving internal demands.

 

Section Two: The Holy Ghost Communicates in two ways.

            In Elder Scotts talk, he mentions two ways that our heavenly father communicates with us through the Holy Ghost. The first is crisp, clear, and essential- warranting the title of revelation. The second being series of promptings, which is considered inspiration. I find it interesting that he separated revelation and inspiration. Elder Scott states they are two different things given in two different ways communicated by the same spirit even though revelation can guide inspiration. Let me lay out some definitions. The definition of revelation courtesy of the bible dictionary is “The making known of divine truth by communication with the heavens and consists not only of revelation of the plan of salvation to the Lord’s prophets but also a confirmation in the hearts of the believers that the revelation to the prophets is true. It also consists of individual guidance for every person who seeks for it and follows the prescribed course of faith, repentance, and obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.” This shows us that revelation is something needed right away. The word revelation is tied to the word reveal. If we are receiving revelation it will be revealed to us all together as Heavenly Father would have it be.  The google definition of inspiration is “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative.” In second timothy 3:16 it says “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” My point here is that when the prophets wrote the scriptures it was not revealed all at once. They were inspired over a long period of time, receiving small bits of revelation here and there so that they would be inspired. So as revelation and inspiration are very much tied together, Elder Scott shows the two separate things, by how they come so that we can be more attentive to receiving revelation and inspiration.

 

Section Three: Revelation and Inspiration can help us Magnify Relationships Exceeding Past the Veil.          Joseph Smith said “We are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors . . . who have preceded us into the spirit world. We can not forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we can not break. . . . If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, . . . how much more certain it is . . . to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond . . . can see us better

than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. . . . We live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; . . . their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which

we feel for ourselves.” Joseph Smith received this wonderful revelation from God so that we can receive our own comfort here on earth. As we take the time to try and receive personal revelation and inspiration from God, our testimonies of the plan of salvation and the concept that families can be together forever will grow. It is so amazing that when in a time of sorrow and pain caused by the loss of a loved one, that our father in heaven takes the time to give us comfort through revelation in knowing that we  will be happily reunited with those that we have lost in this life. We can receive even more comfort by the prophets guidance. Joseph Smith tells us that our family members on the other side of the veil have become so close to us that they are always there. It is an amazing feeling to know of the abiding love and support given to us all from those on the other side of the veil. Revelation and inspiration can assure us that there is always someone rooting for us to make a homerun.

Section Four: Following Practical Principles can Enhance Revelation.

            Elder Scott gives us five basic things that we can follow everyday that will enhance our personal spiritual ability to receive revelation. The first principle is to “yield to emotions such as anger, hurt, or deffensivness.” This principle can keep unneeded contention in our lifes, making it more possible for us to love and serve others as Jesus and Heavenly Father would have us do. The second principle is “being cautious with humor and loud inappropriate laughter.” As I read this I felt myself being called to repentance. I find it particularly difficult to steer clear of humor that might harm another. It has been accepted so kindly to make fun of others and sacred things, and these things will drive the spirit away. Elder Scott is not saying that we should not laugh loud. I believe what he is saying is that there is a time and a place, but you better make sure it’s the right time and place, or we might miss out on a special gift our Father in Heaven was trying to bestow. The third principle is that “careful quiet speech will favor the receiving of revelation.” The fourth principle is that we should maintain good health practices. These include exersise, sleep, and eating habits. These things definitely will not come easy in the college setting when our typical lifes include hours of homework, partys, and ramen, but if we go the extra mile to follow this counsel we will and can be blessed. The fifth principle he gives is to “not let daily activities disrupt from the spirit.” We must decipher for ourselves what we can and cant do, but you should make extra caution to keep the spirit with you in your choices.

Section Five: Revelation can be Given in Dreams.

            Elder Scott talks about Heavenly Father communicating with us through our dreams. He said that “it is the Lord doing the teaching through the Holy Ghost. However, He may in a dream make it both easier to understand and more likely to touch our hearts by teaching us through someone we love and respect.” When the Lord teaches us through dreams it will be an extremely sacred experience from beginning to end that we should record right away so that we can have that experience with us for a lifetime.

Section Six: Recording Spiritual Experiences.

            In any important spiritual experiences it is vital that we take the time to record what happens and what we learn. Recording these experiences will show to our Heavenly Father the amount of gratitude and appreciation to him for the things that he is sharing for us. It shows that we value these things to be sacred. Recording sacred experiences also allow us to recall the experience better. There is a reason that our patriarchal blessings are recorded. We should also keep sacred recordings under lock and key so that we do not ruin the sacredness of something our Heavenly Father gave us.

Section Seven: The Scriptures can Give us Confirmation.

            The scriptures can help us understand and feel the truth of the gospel in our everyday lives. In the scriptures, there are countless stories of people who were going through a bad time, or they had a difficult task, yet no matter what as these people trusted in the Lord things always turned out for the better. Take Nephi for example. Nephi is one of my favorite prophets of old because of his love and commitment to the savior. When Lehi and his family had left the city, Nephi and his brothers were commanded to go back and retrieve the records of the ancestors from Laban. As the song goes, “laman and lemuel were both afraid to try” but as we know from nephi 3:7 Nephi was not afraid, saying “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” What an example we have. Nephi was in a tough situation. First off he had to leave his family and deal with grumpy brothers. Second he had to deal with a wicked and proud man. Third he probably had no understanding of why or what was going to happen. Yet Nephi knew that the Lord had commanded it and that it was something of significant value that needed to be done. We can take Nephi’s example into our own life as we try and live thee gospel and follow the commandments. We can receive revelation of the truth of the gospel by following Nephi’s example by going forth and doing the things the lord hath commanded. As we follow these countless examples from the scriptures we will feel and understand the truth of the gospel in our own lives.

Section Eight: Trusting in the Lord.

            This section can go along with the story of nephi. As he trusted in the lords commandments, good things came to pass. It is the same thing in our lifes here today. I can personally testify to you that trusting in the Lord is the best way to understand things in our lives. This is my first semester here at BYUI. Its been wonderful, but it has also been extremely difficult. I have newly found the joyus stress that accompanies the burdens of carrying your own responsibility. As a fresh college student, I pretty much felt like I was on top of the world. I am on my own for the first time- which is great, but believe me, I miss my parents taking care of everything for me. I came up here with enough money to last me for a good while until I found a job. Well, being so slap happy, I spent most of my money in the first two weeks. All of the sudden I was as broke as a dad on his daughter’s wedding day. I didn’t know what to do. That upcoming week I was able to have the opportunity to go to general conference and so my parents gave me what should have lasted me. While we were down there I came to the realization that I did not have enough money to get home. Luckily I have some awesome friends who made for positive that we would get home. I finally felt better, like everything was going to work out and  we could get home and I would be broke, but secure for the next two weeks or so when suddenly I got pulled over and found myself with a ninety dollar ticket in my pocket, due less than three weeks later. I was broken. I had no idea what I was going to do. People kept trying to help, but I knew that this was something I had to do on my own. I was so stressed that a single word or two could completely shut me down into a crying ball of sadness. My parents kept telling me calm down, trust in the Lord and it will all work out. For this I am grateful. My parents were giving me special advice that was sure to help me. As I took their advice things started to fall into place. I found out that if I sold my plasma I could make eighty dollars and my parents were giving me seventy five dollars for groceries. That should have covered it. I would have used all of that on groceries and my ticket. Somehow my groceries were about what they usually were and I found myself with about thirty extra dollars. I know that it was not logically supposed to work out, and yet it did. It showed me that trusting in Heavenly Father gave me inspiration to know and understand that when faced with hard things, if we turn to our Father in Heaven, he will pour the blessings upon us. It only takes a little trust.       Sometimes it is hard for us to keep our eyes open to the Lord trying to guide us through the Holy Ghost. I know that as we follow these 8 things and other divine principles given to us by the Lord that we will be uplifted in a feeling of happiness and love. Our Father in Heaven has many important things that he is looking to share with us. We must be willing and ready to learn and understand these things. We need to be spiritually and physically prepared to accept what the Lord has to offer us. I would like to bare my testimony that I know these things are true. I know that Heavenly Father uses the Holy Ghost to guide us and keep us protected. I know that when we listen to the Holy Ghosts promptings we will feel blessed and loved. I know that families can be together and I am so grateful for the temple and its sealing powers that make it possible for me to love for eternities. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet placed upon the earth to teach us what our Father in Heaven would have us hear. I know that Christ atoned for my sins so that I would have the opportunity to be made perfect in the sight of God. I love this gospel and I know without a single doubt in my mind that it is true.