Hear Him Heal You
This podcast is for those who are looking to experience the Savior more in their lives because of the peace and healing that only He can offer through revelation. Come unto Christ to get out of the mental mire, find meaning in emotion, leave bad behind, and finally, be whole. This is where we hear Him to be healed.
Hear Him Heal You
Choices: "He'll Give You Your Drunken Laban to Slay"
Have you ever heard someone say "God told me to break up with you"? Or found yourself stuck waiting for divine direction before making an important life decision? In this illuminating episode, Morgan and Joel tackle what they humorously call "the breakup dilemma" – our tendency to blame God for choices we're afraid to own.
Through personal stories and scriptural insights, they explore how God designed us to be agents unto ourselves. Rather than commanding our every move, He wants us to learn, grow, and develop judgment through making our own decisions. The hosts discuss how our emotions, knowledge, and experiences are divine gifts meant to guide us forward when coupled with spiritual confirmation.
Drawing wisdom from Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28, Morgan and Joel challenge listeners to become "anxiously engaged in good causes" rather than waiting passively for instruction. They share examples from their own lives where moving forward in faith – even without complete certainty – led to unexpected blessings and growth opportunities.
Perhaps most powerfully, they examine how Christ's willing sacrifice demonstrates the transformative power of owning our choices. When we take responsibility for our decisions while keeping the Savior at the center, our failures become springboards for future growth instead of reasons for despair.
Whether you're facing indecision about education, career, relationships, or other life choices, this episode offers practical wisdom for moving forward with faith. Take that first step, own your journey, and discover how God guides those who are willing to act.
Welcome to Hear Him Heal you with Morgan and Joel. This podcast is for those that are imperfect, rough around the edges but are still wanting to come unto Christ. Join us to get out of the mental mire, find meaning in emotion and leave bad behind. This is where we hear Him to be healed. All right, joel. So I want to present this idea, but I think the name of the idea is kind of funny. I like to call it the breakup dilemma. Tell me if you've ever been in this situation or at least heard someone say this yes, have you ever had someone break up with you? You and say god told me to break up with you, or you know, or they'll, or they'll say it like this I just it's. I just really felt god told me we shouldn't date, or something like that.
Speaker 2:you know, all the time I'm like man God really hates me and my love life.
Speaker 1:And there's lots of ways we could present this idea. But the reason why it's always bothered me is I honestly don't think God is like, no, you can't date that person. I think, really, what I'm trying to say and what bothers me most is just. It just seems like people are refusing to take responsibility for the choice they're making. Me most is just. It just seems like people are refusing to take responsibility for the choice they're making. Instead of saying I don't want this relationship, or this is my choice, that we shouldn't get married or whatever, right, they try to pin that blame on God so that way they don't have to be the reason for it, you know.
Speaker 2:And like how am I supposed to argue with God? Yeah, exactly, they put it up to someone who you can't argue with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I really think the more we take that approach in our decisions, the more it hurts us, because it's kind of like saying I can't make a decision until God tells me what to do, which we know for a fact that God does not. He wants us to make our own decisions. There's a reason why he gave us agency because agency is God's plan. He doesn't want to make all our decisions. He'll guide us in our decisions, but he doesn't want to make those decisions for us, right? No, not at all.
Speaker 2:He wants us to grow and develop to be independent and self-reliant beings, and that means making our own decisions. That's why he gave us what we call moral agency, the idea or the phrase free will. Free agency doesn't appear really in the scriptures, right, but the idea of a moral agency which is him giving us a conscience and giving us the light of Christ so that we can know right from wrong. That's what we learned from the fall. We learned right from wrong, and so we now have from the fall. We learned right from wrong, and so we now have that choice and the ability to choose good things or to choose bad things. He wants us to choose the good things for ourselves, without being compelled to do so. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I also think like kind of going along those lines is like God has given us lots of resources to help guide us in our decisions, like, first off, we first have the light of Christ is kind of like imbues everything, it's the reason why we are drawn towards good and wholesome and spiritual things, right. And then when we're baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is essentially just a greater measure to the knowledge of God through the Holy Ghost, right? But and then some other things I think we don't take, we don't give enough account for is, first off, we have God gave us knowledge, he gave us the ability to learn from experiences. So that way, going forward, we get better and better refinement on what we need to be doing, what makes us happy, what makes us fulfilled. And then, on top of that as well, we have our emotions as well and I think sometimes we distrust our emotions. You know, have you ever felt that before?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's for good reason at times. I don't think. I think sometimes because we know when we're super emotional that we can make decisions like if you're really angry right doesn't mean you should go act out on that anger Right. And so there's certain emotions that we have to bridle and certain passions we have to bridle to understand them better. But sometimes I think that gets in the way of us trusting some of our other emotions that are good and actually given to us to guide us, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, and I do think all emotions stem from a need that isn't being met. Well, negative emotions, for example, I think, when I feel unseen or unheard or like people aren't listening to me, I get frustrated and mad, and sometimes I let that frustration and anger kind of like consume me and I kind of withdraw from those people when really I should say, hey, I'm feeling angry because I don't feel like you're actually understanding what I'm trying to say, and so I think God has given us these emotions to help us. The more in tune and the more insightful we become with our emotions, god can kind of also use our emotions to teach us and guide us in the right direction as well. So I think, like it's not a hard and fast answer with emotions, right? Neither is it a hard and fast answer with following the Spirit. Sometimes you feel prompted to do something and you're like well, I didn't understand that prompting completely 100% either, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think we forget that our emotions are given to us as well to help keep us safe, Like the emotion of fear is used to keep us safe, right, but when we can't see the fear, that's what causes anxiety, right, it's like a fear and what you can't, but you can't place it quite. So learning that's something that we have to learn to regulate, whether that's counseling, seeking help through medicine, things like that. But sometimes we need to realize that they can be our emotions, or how God can warn us, how he can direct us, how he can confirm that we're doing good things right. I mean sometimes, like when you're serving someone right and you're out doing the work for Heavenly Father and you feel really good, and that positive emotion, you know, and you feel happy, that's Him confirming that you're doing a good thing, you know. So those emotions, I think we have to like almost try them against the Spirit, right? So you have your emotions, you have the Spirit. Then you kind of try and use the Spirit as your rubric.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think your example was perfect because you said when you're out serving, not before you go serve, right, and I think that is the key to a lot of choices is God doesn't really give us confirmations beforehand. He kind of in my experience and I can only speak to my experience some people may have felt very strongly that something was a good choice before they did it, but I don't think that's always a hundred percent how God communicates with us and I think it's naive to think that that's how God is always going to work with us. Right, I think we have to be in the process of making that decision, doing the actions that follow that choice, and that's where God kind of gives us those positive feelings. He gives us confirmations, he gives us the knowledge that we need to do to continue forward and continue on that path right. Exactly One thing I think has always been a really powerful scripture in the terms of making decisions has been Doctrine and Covenants 58, 26 through 28.
Speaker 1:And essentially what it says is it says for behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things, for he that is compelled in all things the same is a slothful and not a wise servant, wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily, I say men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will and bring to pass much righteousness, for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. I honestly love this, because he's saying I want you guys to grow up, I want you guys to become knowledgeable, I want you to be agents unto yourself, I want you to go do many things of your own free will to bring about righteousness. And I think like, just that, right there, if you're always being like, okay, I'm going to go do things of my own free will to bring past much righteousness. How many choices does that clear up for you, joel?
Speaker 2:I'm just thinking. In that verse you just read, I feel like God's saying get off, stop sitting on your hands Like what are you doing? Are you just sitting around waiting for the second coming? You waiting for the resurrection? Oh, that's great. How about you get up and go do something to help prepare the way? Right? John the Baptist wasn't out there just sitting waiting for Christ, right? He was out there actively baptizing people, preparing the way of the Lord, teaching repentance, right, all these things he was doing something preparing.
Speaker 1:And so, I think, so many of us get caught up on.
Speaker 2:Oh well, you know, I would consecrate everything I had if the Lord asked. He just asked. Like he has already. Right, we are a covenant to do that. It's like, oh, I would do this if the Lord asked. He has, he already has. No, but if, like the prophet came to me, if the prophet, the prophet's, got other things to do, man, like, what makes you so special that he needs to come personally, tell you to give more of your time and to serve or to give the charity? I was just thinking about how often we get caught in this trap of, oh well, you know, the prophet hasn't addressed this issue or this topic, or you know we really don't need to worry about this because we haven't received a direct commandment specifically to do that. I mean, the Lord has given us commandment to go out, be agents unto ourself, to go learn. It's our responsibility to teach ourselves, to learn of the doctrine and to share it. Right, yeah, and the church is to strengthen the body of the saints, to provide priesthood ordinances, structures to families, right, could?
Speaker 1:you imagine? If like so, first off, we wouldn't have the Doctrine and Covenants if the saints were always like well, we don't have knowledge on that. We shouldn't push the boundaries or seek more knowledge on that topic.
Speaker 2:We'll just wait till Brother Joseph gets to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think there's so many things as we like. Yeah, we don't know much about this topic, but maybe if I dedicate my life or or my time and my energy to figuring out these questions, god will reveal answers onto you or tell you hey, actually focus on this question instead, and I'll you know, and I, so I just think, are the pioneers, our pioneer ancestors. They lived in this. They had to make mistakes. They would start doing something they thought was right, and then they find out, like Joe Smith would come in and be like I don't do that, that's not 100% right. And then he would teach them, give them principles to live by and adjust their course. Were they bad people? Because they tried and they were just on the wrong path for a little bit until they corrected course? No, they weren't bad people. That's why God teaches us good from evil, and then, as we get off course, he invites us to repent and correct course, and then he encourages us to seek the spirit and develop our discernment abilities, going forward. Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was reminded of a talk from 2010 called Act in All Diligence, by Elder Iron. He was in a priesthood session and I really love this. Towards the end of his talk, he says I close now with this counsel to the Lord's priesthood servants Ponder deeply and diligently. He says what the Lord wants you to do, plan to do it. Promise him to obey, act with determination until you've done what he has asked. Then pray to give thanks for the opportunity to serve and know what you might do next. So I love that.
Speaker 2:That spoke to me so hard. That hit me to my core on my mission, right when I was listening to that talk and as I was listening to it, I was like holy cow Especially as a missionary, there's so much work to be doing. And as I was listening to it, I was like holy cow Especially as a missionary, there's so much work to be doing and sometimes it's like, oh, why do I not feel like I'm being led by the Spirit to the perfect person, to the right door for the person who's just waiting for the restored gospel, who's had all the questions that we're about to ask them? And I realized the Lord's not going to trust that soul or that person with me until he knows I'm ready and I need to take the initiative to pray, to ponder, to study and to make a plan, to act out that plan, give thanks for it when it goes through and ask for the next thing. You know, pray and seek for the next thing to do. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:And I think, like taking this into real world applications. I think we see this a lot, um cause I've been through YSA award after YSA award, and YSA awards are always great places to be because you see people making life altering decisions day in and day out. They're trying to decide what career to do, what school to go to, who to date, um, who to marry, and sometimes I think I see people feel like they're like I don't feel like I have any direction on what I should do for school or what I should study or what I should do for a career, or they're like I don't know who to date. They just and I might, and I kind of like I shouldn't get frustrated because I've been there, I've been that person, but yeah, because I've been there, I've been that person, but yeah. But I do think like sometimes you have to take a path. Just start. You know well, I'll tell you my own experience. So I work in sales, I'm an account executive for a tech company right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, really First time I've ever heard this.
Speaker 1:I know. But funny enough, I got my degree in physiology and neuroscience. I don't do anything with that degree right now, but so you're like, was my education a waste? I don't think so, but this is kind of how I fell down this path. So I was really good. I really like science in high school, so I was like I'll study something in science and I'll figure it out, and I really enjoyed my degree in physiology and neuroscience.
Speaker 1:However, in the course of my college education, I found door-to-door sales and I found that door-to-door and working in sales really like brought out a lot of my weaknesses and insecurities that I wanted to be better at. And over the course of doing this, summer after summer, I got better at these things. I got more confident, I was better at facing rejection and towards the end of my college I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to PA school to be a physician's assistant or not, and I actually spent a couple grand applying to PA schools, sending an application, writing all these reports, and I never felt settled in that decision. I just felt I felt antsy, I felt nervous and I felt like I know I'm smart enough to do this, but it really came down to is I don't really feel connected to medicine. I just don't think I really find fulfillment in that.
Speaker 1:And that was God talking to me. And so in the middle of a summer I was I'm not going to PA school and I'm going to go all in on cells, and in that moment I found peace. I didn't. I felt settled, I felt I'm on the right path and I'm so glad I did it, because I don't regret not going to PA school and God has provided. I've done really well. I've made the money I needed to survive, I've met great people. I've done all these great things and I don't think I would have been led to the right place if I hadn't been trying to figure out what I wanted to do. If I had refused to pick a career, I don't think I would have ended up where I'm at today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so many things that I feel if I didn't just make this decision, if I just waited around for it to happen, then there's so many things I would have missed out on my life. When I moved out, you know, after my mission, I decided to go okay, I need to move out. I was like, okay, I need to move out, I need to go somewhere. My mom was like, have you prayed about it? Have you felt that this is what you need to do? I was like no, but I'm 20 years old and a grown man. You know, I have a beard. I should probably get out of my parents' house and so, and then I was all right. So I was like I got to move out. So I found a out, help me out man, help this work. And I'm so grateful because, like, I ended up moving into your ward right, I ended up meeting you and I ended up meeting a lot of great people.
Speaker 2:And I also think back to dude deciding to serve a mission instead of playing. I had an offer to go play right after. Like, if I just right out of high school, like, yeah, if you come right now, we'll take you. I was like what if I go on my mission first, right out of high school, like, yeah, if you come right now, we'll take you. I was like what, if I go on my mission first, it's up break. We need people now, not in two years, we'll have people in two years. And so I was just like dang, you know, like I had a spot, I had something kind of there.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, I missed out on that. But I'm so grateful because I met so many wonderful people on my missions. I have friendships now that I feel will last a long time People I love, experiences. I needed to get better, to get stronger, to be humbled. And so if I hadn't just made those decisions and instead of sitting there waiting for the Lord to say, you know, go on a mission or go play football, instead I'd say, you know, I'm going to go on a mission. I always said I was going to go. As a little kid, you know, I always told myself I'm going to go on a mission. So I did it right, I just did it. I didn't think about it that much, I didn't really pray that hard about it. I read my scriptures anew. I'm like I should probably go do this.
Speaker 1:If I were to go back to freshman year, right off the mission Morgan, I think the one thing I would tell myself is just do it. Take the class, join the club, date the girl, do the job and experience as much as you can, because I think that's what God intended for us in this life is to experience much, to learn much and through it all, through all our experiences, we will find what's right for us. You will find the right job because you've tried out different things. You will marry the right person because you dated lots of great people and you found the one that I guess God wanted you to be with and I'm not saying there's just one person out there, but I think there's people that are more right for us than others.
Speaker 2:You're going to find the kind of person God wants you to be with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. And so I just think just don't lean into the fear, lean into the faith and just go with the experience. If you mess up that's why we have a savior, that's why we have repentance you can be forgiven. Nothing's permanent and you can't. If you stumble or you take three steps back, God's going to spring you forward even farther, because you're following his teachings and his gospel and, essentially, you're trying to come unto Christ. However, if you do remove Christ out of these equations, who knows where you end up? Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Like sometimes we can forget. You get so swamped up and like I'm being independent and making my own decision, right. It's like, okay, do think about it, though, you know. It's like I'm not saying just jump into it without thought right. It's like we definitely need to make sure we're thinking about these decisions, but we don't have to feel like God has to tell us what the decision is. You know, we have to think all right, does this align with my morals and my values and does this line up with the teachings of the church? Does this line up with the teachings of the Savior, teachings at the church? This is lined up with the teachings of the of the savior right? And if those things are okay, and some and not every decision we make is a moral decision, there's plenty of decisions we make that are completely amoral. Right they have. They have no effect. If I grab a black shirt or a gray shirt, it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect anything.
Speaker 1:Whoa, whoa, whoa. I pray about the color of my car dude Every time.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you do.
Speaker 1:And I do want to add to that dude, you're going to fail. You're never, not One day life is going to kick you in the mouth, and there's definitely been times where I felt I was making the right decision and I failed. Does that mean God didn't help me out? And I don't think. I think the answer is no, because I don't think a confirmation is a guarantee of success. I think a confirmation through the spirit is a green, because I don't think a confirmation is a guarantee of success.
Speaker 1:I think a confirmation through the Spirit is a green light to get to work, and sometimes our execution is just not there. We were too lazy at our job or we I don't know. We kind of let relationships go to the wayside and we lose friends, or someone breaks up with with us and it doesn't work out, or whatever. That doesn't mean that God let us down, and sometimes I think we do shift that blame on God, being like Heavenly Father, you were supposed to make that work. You told me to do it, why didn't you? And I think that places in a very precarious situation when we start to blame God for things not working out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think sometimes we get almost like you said. We kind of trap ourselves If we wait around for God, if we believe we're waiting for God to tell us everything to do, then we're going to end up being mad at Him when it doesn't go the way we want. Right, or like why haven't I figured this out, like you said. Going back to when people like you said in YSA wars I don't feel like I have any direction or know what I'm doing. I'm living at my parents' house, going to school, but I don't even know what I really want to major in. Yet I've been going for the last three years and I'm not even close to getting my bachelor's, you know, and it's kind of. And then they start to be resentful towards God and I hear them tell me these things.
Speaker 2:I was like well, I mean dude, like what do you want to do? What are you waiting for? Well, don't be mad at God. God's probably just as frustrated with you and he's dude, I gave you so many skills, gifts, potential, all these things, these resources, friends, family and connections. Use them. He's like use them, man. Go, make yourself better, go grow, go learn. I see all these return missionary friends of mine and they come back like I don't really know what I'm doing, I don't know what's up or what I want to do with life, man, and I'm just like dude, like go figure it out then like you used to plan your day.
Speaker 2:You used to plan your day out every day. You used to wake up at the same time, you used to get out the door at the same time every day. And now you home. You can barely tie your shoes and wipe your butt Like dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mission. It's funny that missions actually are so easy. They're not easy, the work is hard, but this is why they're easy. First off, you. You are given your choice. You're go out and teach, reach, find people. You don't have to decide to do that Obviously. To get there, you had to, you had to make the initial decision, but day in and day out, you don't have to keep making that decision. However, when you get home from your mission, dude, the world is your oyster. There's a thousand different decisions you have to make, and sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, right, and I think that's where life gets hard, because you're like God. Tell me who to date, tell me what to study, tell me what to do for work, tell me how to make money, and the answer to all those things are a thousand different answers. You know, and I think that is an adjustment for people coming home from missions or people leaving home for the first time, because I know, not everyone serves missions, right?
Speaker 2:That reminds me. Do you ever feel, do you remember as a kid you couldn't figure something out, whether it's like a TV remote or how to build like your Lego set or something? You go to your parent and complain or whine about and they'd say, go figure it out. Like, go figure it out. And it's like, okay, I don't know what I want to do. But I start with hey, what do you not want to do? I know what I don't want to do, man, I know.
Speaker 1:I know exactly what I don't want to do.
Speaker 2:Right, and I'm like like any given day I can tell you like five things right off the top of the bat I don't want to do. I don't want to wake up at my alarm, I don't want to go to no, I'm just kidding, but you know what you don't want to do, and then you know what you don't want to do and then you know what you like to do. So, kind of find something in the middle, if you know what I'm saying. Right, it's like, okay, what's something that I can do that avoids the things I hate and something that I can do that allows me to do the things I love right and that's what kind of gave me direction on where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, I'm like this is something that can fit the lifestyle I want to have, and I think our Heavenly Father is just dying for us to come to that realization that, hey, as soon as you realize, take this perspective. I know if you're. Let's go back to the dating scenario. I want to date someone who's worthy. I want a temple marriage. I want to raise my kids in the church. I want to find someone who enjoys missionary work and daily scripture study and is passionate about the scriptures. I don't want someone who only goes to church for the cultural purposes. I don't want someone who you know what you do or don't want if you look at it through that perspective, right.
Speaker 2:And so now go with that perspective, talk to someone hey, what's your opinion on church? You know, what do you like? What do you like about church? You're like I don't really know. It's kind of boring. I hate going. You know, I don't really read my scriptures Like, okay, maybe that's probably not the person I want. Move along right. So it's like there's so many things we can do and so many tools and resources that Heavenly Fathers provide us with. I mean, there's no excuse to not know where to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100% If. Or you know the things you don't want to do. So go explore the things that you either don't know anything about or that you do like. And I was having this same conversation with my brother, because both me and my older brother, we both work in sales. We don't think we want to stay in sales the rest of our life. But he's like and he was telling me he's like, morgan, if there's ever a time you do want to leave sales and I want to leave cells, I'm not saying now's the time, but he's like go do what you love, because if you do what you love, money will follow.
Speaker 1:And I think that is part of the answer. I think there's another part. I think first go and love Christ and do what you love, and the rest will be taken care of. Because I think if we always forget about Christ in any equation and any steps we're making, we run the risk of missing turns or missing adjustments and we'll find ourselves 50 miles off course one day. And so I think I just want to amend what my brother said and just say, like add Christ to every equation and because he's the foundation to everything, right, and kind of going along that like.
Speaker 1:So if, at points, we do find failure in the choices we make and we start to blame God or Christ, that creates a separation between us and them. And I've seen this with people who've gone through divorces, who have lost their dream job and I see how it rocks their faith and sometimes I think it's because they're asking God why would you do this to me? I thought you were supposed to take care of me Rather than asking the question of God. What do you want me to learn from this? I think that simple switch in that question and that perspective closes the gap between you and God in difficult situations, rather than being like why would you do this to me? Which creates separation.
Speaker 2:Last thing I got in my mind, I got something from the Book of Mormon. Right, I love the Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon is true, it is better than the Bible. Let's see, we know, we know. Yeah, book of Mormon is so good, I love it. I read it every day. I can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2:But in Jacob 2, right In verse 18, it says seek ye, but before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. Why did he write that so weird? And after you've attained a hope in Christ, you shall obtain riches if you seek them. And you will seek them for the intent to do good, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to liberate the captive and administer relief to the sick and afflicted. So I want to kind of change that. As you seek Christ and then you seek a spouse, right, you're going to seek him for the right reason you seek Christ. And then you seek for a job, you're going to seek it for the right reason. Right, if you're looking for where you should live, look for the Savior first. Right, if you are trying to do what the Savior wants and you're trying to participate in his work and in his glory, you're trying to serve. God's going to provide a way. If you're trying to do what he wants you to, he's going to make it happen. Go ask Nephi once you get to the next life. Obviously, you can't really talk to him right now he's kind of busy, but it's like go ask him, man.
Speaker 2:He wrote it down for a reason. I went forth, not knowing the things I should do, right, and he said there wasn't a plan. There wasn't a plan of what to do. He just went in there, man. He just went in there, saw Laban, drunk, took a sword, cut his head off, put his clothes on, went and got the plates right. I mean, that's a really rough way to say it, but I mean, you know, he just knew that God wanted him to do these things. God wants you to get married in the temple. God wants you to have a family. He wants you to have a house where you can raise that family. So go out there and try to get those things and God's going to provide a way. He's going to give you your drunken Laban to slay so that you can get your plates.
Speaker 1:He'll give you your drunken Laban to slay man. I'm going to put that up on my wall. That was the best quote of the month. Okay, I do want to add a little bit to that. That's like a mic drop, dude, you should just walk away now.
Speaker 1:But one thing I really think is super important is God wants the burden of our choices to be upon us, and it's the reason being and he wants us to understand that as well Because if we're always taking responsibility for the choices we make, we're always going to be more willing to repent. We're always going to be more willing to turn to God in moments of question or moments of doubt or moments of failure. And I think the other half of that is if we didn't have skin in the game when we made choices, how hard would we actually work for those things to work out? And I think about this when it comes to careers and who we want to marry. Yes, god could just give me a job, or it could fall in my lap or whatever, but I would take it for granted because it's like I don't really want to show up to work today. So why should I work hard? Or, you know, god told me to marry this person. But you know, I'm not feeling it today and we could just kind of give up in all our choices because we didn't make those decisions.
Speaker 1:But when we are choosing and when God pushes us to make our own decisions like sometimes he's not going to give a firm answer it's because he wants us to also be responsible for the things we do in this life.
Speaker 1:And I think when we willingly take things upon us and choose them first, we gain a greater love for those choices, because it's like I made this choice, I created this or I am creating this right, and we find a more, a greater sense of pride and joy in the things we're doing when there are choices. And I think that's so understated. I wish I would have understood this more, because there definitely been times where I felt like I was forced to do something and I get into it and I'm like I'm like hey, my father, I didn't even want to do this, like I want to give up, like you know, and like there's plenty of examples of that. But lean into the burden of the choice, really, to make those conscious choices and take responsibility for them, because you'll love those decisions more, you'll love being in those moments more. They'll still be stressful, but the pressure and the stress of those situations are what transform us and make us into the people Heavenly Father wants us to be.
Speaker 2:Amen. Pressure makes diamonds yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think the perfect example of this is our savior, jesus Christ. Could you imagine if Christ woke up one day and Heavenly Father was like hey, you're going to be the savior of the world, you're going to suffer. It may almost kill you, actually, in fact, it will kill you. It will kill you and there's going to be moments where it feels like hell. And could you imagine if Christ felt forced into that situation? Do you think he would have had the willpower to withstand the temptation to give it up?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 2:No it's just not the same. Sacrifice is not the same. If it's not intentional, right, that's just not a sacrifice at all right. And if you're not giving something up of value or that you're invested in willingly, then I mean there is no true sacrifice there. And I think that's what Christ was trying to teach Peter. When Peter's trying to defend him and he cuts the servant's ear off, right? If you read just a few verses earlier and this is only recorded in the book of John it says, when he spoke the phrase that I am he, that the people stood back and fell over because of the power of his words, and I think at that moment they realized that they were standing in the presence of God. And I think he was trying to tell Peter. He's like Peter.
Speaker 2:Did you not just see me knock everyone over with my voice? I don't need you to defend me, peter. I'm doing this of my own free will. Don't get in the way of my work. Okay, I've made my decision. I have the power to protect myself. I don't need you to get in the way. Okay, I have to do this. I want to do this because I love you, yeah.
Speaker 1:Christ gave everything. Love you. Yeah, christ gave everything. He gave his life. I think we just take that for granted. Christ put his heart and soul into bringing about the atonement and he's still putting his heart and soul into fulfilling his father's mission, which is to bring to pass the eternal life and immortality of man. Right. And since Christ gave everything, he asks us to give everything as well, and I don't think we'll ever be there 100%. It's a process. We're learning how to give up everything, but he does ask us to start with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Speaker 1:The gospel isn't about doing the bare minimum. It requires a full-hearted sacrifice and effort, and if we're always shirking away or shrinking away from the choice to repent, to embrace a choice that is in front of us, we're not truly going into things with a full heart and we're not going to get sacrifice for the result we want right, going to get sacrificed for the result we want. Right. There's post-traumatic stress, right, where things happen to us and they stick with us. Right.
Speaker 1:However, I've read a few books now where there's something also called post-traumatic growth. We can let life choices, failures, disappointments keep us from making the next decision. I'm guilty of it. I see plenty of people guilty of it, but I also see people who have taken those failures, disappointments and turned around, got back to work and created something better than they expected and became someone better than they're expected. And I think that is where I think the reason there's opportunities for post-traumatic growth is because of Christ's working in the background. Our personal failures are his springboard for our future growth.
Speaker 1:And so I guess, just in wrapping this up, just ask yourself if I continue to blame God or avoid responsibility, what will my future look like Then? Flip that question and be like what if I step up, take ownership and make choices with god's guidance? What will my future look like? And I think those are the key to our success. Ask god, what can I learn? Ask god, how can I step up, how can I show up and how can I do the work that he wants us to provide, and you'll end up somewhere greater than you ever imagined. You'll be someone more than you ever thought possible, because God is in the works. Make the choice, own the choice and lean on God, and everything will go the best way possible. With that said, little flock, remember despair, not build upon the rock. Do good and always hear him See ya.
Speaker 2:Hey, little flock. If you found this episode beneficial to your testimony, remember to leave a review. Share with others. Hear him See ya.