WEBVTT 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:08.070 Paisley: Hey, everybody Paisley imperfect here again with 00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:13.050 another message. We're going to talk today about why people try 00:00:13.050 --> 00:00:17.640 to improve themselves. I started thinking about all of those 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:21.150 things that we have discovered, all those different 00:00:21.450 --> 00:00:25.080 characteristics that we can work on within ourselves, to help 00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:28.920 make ourselves better to help make ourselves become the people 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:35.730 that we are able to become. And when I was looking again, when I 00:00:35.730 --> 00:00:41.460 was trying to figure out where to start, I started thinking 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:46.350 about it. And I was like, Why? Why do people try to make 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:50.970 themselves better? I think I know what my reason is. But I 00:00:50.970 --> 00:00:55.440 was curious as to why other people do it. Especially people 00:00:55.980 --> 00:01:03.300 who may or may not know, their divine origin, right, as a child 00:01:03.300 --> 00:01:05.730 of God, may or may not believe that. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:11.870 And so I went into my search engine, and I just put in, why 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:15.290 do people try to improve themselves? And it sent me to 00:01:15.290 --> 00:01:20.180 this article that basically had two reasons that it said I had 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:24.380 seven reasons. But they were all really just saying two things. 00:01:24.770 --> 00:01:27.290 The first thing that they were saying is that people try to 00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:31.190 improve themselves, because they're the only ones that can. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.890 So we are trying to improve ourselves, because we're the 00:01:36.890 --> 00:01:43.580 only ones that can improve ourselves. Okay. And then the 00:01:43.580 --> 00:01:49.250 second reason that they gave was, or the second kind of 00:01:49.250 --> 00:01:53.960 lumped together reason that the game was because life requires 00:01:53.960 --> 00:02:01.790 it. So if that's, but is that really why people improve 00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:05.780 themselves? And I'm honestly curious, I realized that the 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:08.240 tone of my voice doesn't necessarily sound curious. It 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:12.200 sounds more accusatory, that's just the way that things come 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:18.350 out of my mouth. But is that really? Is that really a reason 00:02:18.350 --> 00:02:22.190 that people try to improve themselves? Like they, they 00:02:22.190 --> 00:02:26.030 know, they're the only ones that can and so they just do it? Or 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:29.090 because life requires it? And so you're just kind of like, well, 00:02:29.450 --> 00:02:36.230 I guess I better get better, because I kind of have to. That 00:02:36.230 --> 00:02:44.060 doesn't to me. And if that works for you. Great. Cool. That is a 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:50.690 very simple reason. Go go with it. To me, it's a little those 00:02:50.690 --> 00:02:56.120 two reasons are a little too simplified. They're a little, 00:02:56.420 --> 00:03:03.020 they're not motivating to me. So I changed. And when I first got 00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:05.870 that answer, and I was reading through it, I was like, really? 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:10.460 Is this really why people? Okay. Maybe I didn't ask the question 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:12.980 the right way. And so I went back to my search engine, and I 00:03:13.190 --> 00:03:17.360 re asked the question, and I put in why do people care about 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:20.450 improving themselves, and I got a much better response. 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:26.390 I actually got five reasons why people care about improving 00:03:26.390 --> 00:03:28.670 themselves. And I thought that these reasons were really good. 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:31.520 Two of them, number one, and number five, I think kind of 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:35.780 circle circle through each other kind of cycle back and forth. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:40.760 But the first one is personal fulfilment. So people try to 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:44.870 improve themselves because they, because it's fulfilling, they 00:03:44.870 --> 00:03:48.110 feel good. And when I thought about it that way, it was like, 00:03:48.110 --> 00:03:51.560 Well, yeah, I mean, that's why people practice things like a 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:57.980 musical instrument or a sport, or something else. Whatever else 00:03:58.010 --> 00:04:04.010 people do art. They practice their craft, because it's 00:04:04.010 --> 00:04:08.120 fulfilling and when they get when they get better. They feel 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:12.080 good about it. I have this friend with a very interesting 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:20.840 talent. She is really good at cutting in on like a painting. 00:04:20.840 --> 00:04:23.360 Like if you're painting your wall, she is really good at 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:28.040 cutting in on the between the wall and the ceiling. My brother 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:31.790 is also really good at that. So like just these random and she 00:04:31.790 --> 00:04:35.900 practiced it and she practiced it when she was fixing up her 00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:39.770 own house. She practiced this skill, and she now has this 00:04:41.450 --> 00:04:46.040 skill. That is kind of random, but also very awesome if you 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:48.410 need somebody who can cut in between the wall and the 00:04:48.410 --> 00:04:56.030 ceiling. So to improve yourself to help yourself get better, is 00:04:56.030 --> 00:04:59.810 fulfilling. You can set a goal and you can accomplish that 00:04:59.810 --> 00:05:02.330 goal. don't feel good about what you just accomplished. 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:05.840 The second reason is better relationships. And if you think 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:09.260 back or remember back to what we talked about on Tuesday, and 00:05:09.260 --> 00:05:14.900 about how the relationships that we as women are building with 00:05:15.020 --> 00:05:19.520 women of other faiths, and how important those relationships 00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:23.660 are to the furthering of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to 00:05:24.140 --> 00:05:29.930 improve yourself so that you can build better relationships helps 00:05:30.590 --> 00:05:34.010 further that work even more, which goes into number five, 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.160 which we'll talk about in a second. But it says improving 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:39.890 oneself can lead to better relationships with others. When 00:05:39.890 --> 00:05:42.380 people work on their communication skills, empathy, 00:05:42.380 --> 00:05:46.130 emotional intelligence, all of those things, we learn to better 00:05:46.130 --> 00:05:48.830 communicate and interact with other people. And we can 00:05:48.830 --> 00:05:52.490 interact on levels that we maybe couldn't have before. And so 00:05:52.490 --> 00:05:56.660 that personal improvement, helps us build stronger relationships 00:05:56.690 --> 00:05:58.130 provide personal fulfillment. 00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:03.470 The third reason is career advancement. Self improvement 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:07.310 can be a pathway to professional success, developing new skills, 00:06:07.310 --> 00:06:13.760 gaining new knowledge, improving our overall skill set, or our 00:06:13.760 --> 00:06:17.660 knowledge about certain things can help if if we are career 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:20.870 people, it can help further our career can help make us better 00:06:20.870 --> 00:06:25.640 in our field. Cutting on the lives a little bit sharper. 00:06:26.930 --> 00:06:30.140 The fourth reason that they had was health and well being some 00:06:30.140 --> 00:06:34.310 of our goals are physical. And there's a lot there's a lot more 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:38.420 information out in the world now than there has been in the past 00:06:38.630 --> 00:06:42.140 about a lot of things, but also about our health and our, our 00:06:42.140 --> 00:06:49.100 wellness, about how when we improve ourselves, and we focus 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:58.040 on and we can feel ourselves like feel when we can recognize 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:00.440 anything, that's the word I'm looking for when it when we can 00:07:00.440 --> 00:07:05.870 recognize how we really are feeling on the inside, and know 00:07:05.870 --> 00:07:10.010 how to or learn how to harness those feelings. Some people call 00:07:10.010 --> 00:07:14.060 it emotional intelligence, some people call it well being there 00:07:14.060 --> 00:07:18.860 are a lot of different I think catchphrases for it. But it's 00:07:18.890 --> 00:07:21.110 kind of that finding stillness that we were talking about 00:07:21.110 --> 00:07:31.130 before being confident, humbly confident in who we are, which 00:07:31.130 --> 00:07:32.780 I'm going to get to in a little bit. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.950 And then number five is a sense of purpose. So when we build 00:07:36.950 --> 00:07:39.380 those relationships are as we are working to build those 00:07:39.380 --> 00:07:44.660 relationships. And as we are experiencing personal 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:47.720 fulfillment, and remember how I said number five, and number one 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.420 kind of cycle through each other, we have a sense of 00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:54.080 purpose and personal fulfillment, we have this sense 00:07:54.080 --> 00:07:57.860 of purpose. And then when we accomplish that goal, it is very 00:07:57.860 --> 00:07:59.420 fulfilling and rewarding. 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:07.730 There is one missing from here, that that is really my reason 00:08:07.730 --> 00:08:11.960 and something that I did some searching for. And I found some 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:15.830 quotes, these are all going to come from the church's website, 00:08:16.190 --> 00:08:21.440 different talks, three, actually. One of them is not a 00:08:21.440 --> 00:08:25.040 talk, it's an article that's coming out in the July 2024 00:08:25.310 --> 00:08:28.700 Liahona. If you don't have your physical copy yet, you can get 00:08:28.700 --> 00:08:33.440 it online, I'll make sure that it's linked in the notes. But 00:08:33.470 --> 00:08:36.350 it's called quotes for when you need to trust the Lord. So I'm 00:08:36.350 --> 00:08:39.350 going to come back to that one here in a little bit. That's the 00:08:39.350 --> 00:08:43.040 first one. The second one is called Give me a light that I 00:08:43.040 --> 00:08:47.030 may tread safely into the unknown. And it comes from also 00:08:47.030 --> 00:08:52.670 from the July 2020, for Liahona by Elder Patrick Kieran. And 00:08:52.670 --> 00:08:58.160 then the third one comes from November 2019. Liahona. And it's 00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:01.310 called knowing who you are and who you have always been by 00:09:01.310 --> 00:09:07.220 sister do Sheri L. Dew. So I'm going to start here with a 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:12.680 couple of quotes. Because the stuff that she says in here, I, 00:09:13.040 --> 00:09:15.320 I really just want to read the whole thing. I'm not going to do 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:19.850 that to you. But I mean, you can go read it yourself. I'll make 00:09:19.850 --> 00:09:24.110 sure that the link is in the notes. It's not very long. She's 00:09:24.110 --> 00:09:27.320 talking about how her she had her niece and her nieces friend 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:30.170 over they came over for a sleepover. And they were asking 00:09:30.170 --> 00:09:34.340 her house she had become so confident because as a kid, she 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:38.360 said that she had absolutely no self confidence. And the first 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:41.690 thing that she says was that it wasn't until I began to 00:09:41.690 --> 00:09:44.960 understand how the Lord felt about me that my feelings about 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:51.110 myself and my life slowly began to change. And that is kind of 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:55.160 that's the motivation for me. Improving myself. 00:09:56.830 --> 00:10:02.890 I do not claim to know x exactly how the Lord feels about me, I 00:10:02.890 --> 00:10:06.940 have a small glimpse of that every once in a while, I have a 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:10.750 small glimpse of that when I watch my daughters do something. 00:10:10.750 --> 00:10:14.230 And I know that they're just trying so hard when I watched my 00:10:14.230 --> 00:10:17.620 seven year old practice piano, and she's trying so hard, and 00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:22.810 she wants it so bad. And I, and I watch her and I'm just like, 00:10:22.870 --> 00:10:27.670 Yes, you got this, just keep trying, just keep trying. I get 00:10:27.670 --> 00:10:32.620 small glimpses of, of how the Lord must feel about me. And 00:10:33.160 --> 00:10:36.820 when I think about it that way, like I want the world for my 00:10:36.820 --> 00:10:40.150 daughters, I want them to be able to be anything they want to 00:10:40.150 --> 00:10:45.820 be, and be confident in their own skin, while helping others 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:51.550 and serving others. That's what I hope for them. I don't care 00:10:51.550 --> 00:10:56.710 whether they do it as a writer or a surgeon or a site, like 00:10:56.740 --> 00:11:03.400 what whatever they're going to do it as will be wonderful. I 00:11:03.400 --> 00:11:08.260 just hope that they will know who they are, understand their 00:11:08.260 --> 00:11:15.880 divine, origin, their divine nature, and be happy. 00:11:17.020 --> 00:11:20.530 And so when I think about like, it wasn't until he began quoting 00:11:20.530 --> 00:11:24.580 Sr, do again, it wasn't until I began to understand how the Lord 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:28.570 felt about me that my feelings about myself and my life slowly 00:11:28.570 --> 00:11:32.170 began to change. So thinking about how the Lord feels about 00:11:32.170 --> 00:11:42.580 me. Where do you even start with that? We? Hopefully, you have 00:11:42.580 --> 00:11:45.970 felt his love in your life. And if you have felt his love in 00:11:45.970 --> 00:11:51.130 your life, then you do kind of know how he feels about you. And 00:11:51.910 --> 00:11:55.090 does that change your life? Does that change how you look at 00:11:55.090 --> 00:11:57.100 things? Does that change how you do things. 00:11:57.540 --> 00:12:00.630 And so she talks about how her and her knees and the friend 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:03.090 kind of went through the scriptures and talked about how, 00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:07.680 how important it is to be able to feel and recognize and 00:12:07.680 --> 00:12:11.760 understand the spirit when he is speaking to us. Because she says 00:12:11.790 --> 00:12:15.150 it is the Spirit who reveals to us our identity, which isn't 00:12:15.150 --> 00:12:19.620 just who we are, but who we have always been. And that when we 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:24.060 know, our lives take on a sense of purpose, so stunning that we 00:12:24.060 --> 00:12:31.230 can never be the same again. So I go back to the original 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:37.440 question, why do we care about improving ourselves? For me? 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:41.940 Sure. It's fulfilling, it gives me a sense of purpose. It has 00:12:41.940 --> 00:12:45.120 helped me in my career, and it helps me in a lot of different 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:59.010 things. But also, I want to do, I want to do the best I can. So 00:12:59.010 --> 00:13:08.190 that I don't, I want to say this the right way, I I don't want to 00:13:08.190 --> 00:13:14.460 disappoint my Father in heaven. Now, when I say that, I also say 00:13:14.460 --> 00:13:16.890 that with the knowledge that I can repent of things that I do 00:13:16.890 --> 00:13:25.620 wrong. And I say that with the knowledge that the knowledge of 00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:30.450 a parent, right? When my daughter does something wrong, 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:34.890 yeah, I'm disappointed. But it doesn't make me love her any 00:13:34.890 --> 00:13:43.020 less. And it helps me think of different and better ways to 00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:49.080 teach her new things. So when I take those things, and put those 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:52.560 together, and if I think about my father in heaven as a loving 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:55.890 father, who wants the best for me, and wants to see me get 00:13:56.100 --> 00:14:03.870 better. The disappointment doesn't feel. I just don't know 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:05.790 that disappointment is the right word. But I think you know where 00:14:05.790 --> 00:14:06.600 I'm going with that. 00:14:07.770 --> 00:14:11.400 Okay, so she talks again about our spirits long for us to 00:14:11.400 --> 00:14:14.610 remember the truth about who we are. Because the way we see 00:14:14.610 --> 00:14:18.300 ourselves, our sense of identity affects everything we do. It 00:14:18.300 --> 00:14:24.180 affects the very way we live our lives. So when we know who we 00:14:24.180 --> 00:14:29.820 are, we live our lives differently than when we're 00:14:29.820 --> 00:14:35.700 trying to figure that out. And she says, Can you imagine that 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:40.530 God who knew us perfectly, he knows us all perfectly reserved 00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:44.280 us to come now, when the stakes would be higher in the 00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:48.420 opposition more intense than ever, when he would need women 00:14:48.420 --> 00:14:51.390 who would help raise and lead a chosen generation in the most 00:14:51.390 --> 00:14:57.780 lethal spiritual environment. He picked me to do that. Can you 00:14:57.780 --> 00:15:01.650 imagine that he chose us because he knew If we would be fearless 00:15:01.650 --> 00:15:06.150 and building Zion, are we fearless? I don't know, I'm kind 00:15:06.150 --> 00:15:07.470 of afraid of some things 00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:11.250 noble and great, courageous and determined, faithful and 00:15:11.250 --> 00:15:14.160 fearless. That is who you are. And that is who you have always 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:18.090 been. Understanding that truth can change your life because 00:15:18.090 --> 00:15:20.400 there's knowledge periods of confidence that cannot be 00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:27.840 duplicated any other way. It cannot be duplicated, it can be 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:35.790 imitated, but it cannot be duplicated. So understanding who 00:15:35.790 --> 00:15:38.460 we are noble and great, courageous and determined, 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:42.720 faithful and fearless, being able to understand that that's 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:47.880 who we were before we came here. And using the Holy Ghost as our 00:15:47.880 --> 00:15:55.260 guide to help us be those things here will help us to become the 00:15:55.260 --> 00:15:56.880 best version of ourselves. 00:15:57.270 --> 00:16:02.760 So for me, my the reason that I want to get better, and the 00:16:02.760 --> 00:16:05.580 reason that I want to work on those things that we talked 00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:08.280 about in a play to my sisters from President Nelson, the 00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:10.800 reason that I want to work on those things is because I want 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:19.020 to become the person that he sees me being. Alright, so let's 00:16:19.020 --> 00:16:24.780 go to these other quotes. You know what I need to log in, I 00:16:24.780 --> 00:16:27.960 had to restart everything because my camera wasn't working 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:31.350 and all that fun stuff. So I'm going to sign in again really 00:16:31.350 --> 00:16:32.100 quick here. 00:16:38.090 --> 00:16:46.850 And then my highlights will show up, here we go. Okay. So he 00:16:46.850 --> 00:16:50.870 talks about, we're looking at give me a light, that I may 00:16:50.870 --> 00:16:55.130 tread into the unknown, safely into the unknown. That comes 00:16:55.130 --> 00:16:58.790 from a poem, by the way, which he's got the text of in his 00:16:58.790 --> 00:17:04.850 talk. But he talks about what the gospel promises us is that 00:17:04.850 --> 00:17:08.090 if we are led by God with our hand in his, we will be guided 00:17:08.090 --> 00:17:10.610 through life's tests and struggles and into his ever 00:17:10.610 --> 00:17:16.970 increasing light. So yes, we search for self improvement, we 00:17:16.970 --> 00:17:20.300 try to become better because we want to be the people that he 00:17:20.300 --> 00:17:27.320 knows we can be. And he doesn't leave us to do that by 00:17:27.320 --> 00:17:31.160 ourselves. He doesn't leave us to figure it out on our own, he 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:35.090 will take our hand and help lead us through that. And then he 00:17:35.090 --> 00:17:39.980 asks that we serve other people. So leadership, and in 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:43.160 particular, public speaking did not come naturally. To him. He's 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:49.880 talking about King George King George the sixth. And how he 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:55.940 gave his great like famous speech. But he didn't start out 00:17:55.940 --> 00:18:00.380 as a leader, he he had prolonged efforts, including overcoming 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:04.070 his stuttering speech impediment, so that he was able 00:18:04.070 --> 00:18:05.660 to effectively serve His people. 00:18:07.190 --> 00:18:11.750 He says, to lead others in the way that the Savior lead in the 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:17.600 way that he would have us lead is to serve them. So we've come 00:18:17.600 --> 00:18:23.150 from why do we try to improve ourselves to serving others? 00:18:24.020 --> 00:18:32.510 It's serving others, when you think about those other. When 00:18:32.510 --> 00:18:35.600 you think about these five reasons, even the sixth reason 00:18:35.600 --> 00:18:38.270 that I added on here, when you think about personal 00:18:38.270 --> 00:18:40.670 fulfillment, better relationships, career 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.220 advancement, health and well being and sense of purpose, 00:18:43.550 --> 00:18:50.630 every single one of those involves somebody else. Through 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:57.860 personal fulfillment, we feel we feel fulfilled, when we 00:18:57.860 --> 00:19:02.150 accomplish a goal when we when we have a sense of purpose. And 00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:05.960 that sense of purpose comes through our willingness and our 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:10.040 ability to reach out and help other people, better 00:19:10.040 --> 00:19:13.340 relationships, helping other people, career advancement. 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:17.450 You're not going to get very far if you're trying to advance in 00:19:17.450 --> 00:19:23.000 your career by yourself. And then our health and well being. 00:19:23.540 --> 00:19:29.570 Yes, that takes our own focus. But we have so many others, 00:19:29.600 --> 00:19:33.650 there are so many others out there experts in self help 00:19:33.860 --> 00:19:40.280 experts in self regulation, experts in meditation, and all 00:19:40.280 --> 00:19:44.870 these different ways to help us find that stillness to help us 00:19:46.430 --> 00:19:53.030 take a breath and be okay with who we are. All of these things 00:19:53.060 --> 00:19:54.140 have to do with other people. 00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:59.660 So he's talking about serving others the way that our Savior 00:20:00.290 --> 00:20:08.210 serve them. He quotes President iring. President iring said, 00:20:09.530 --> 00:20:13.430 remember that you serve a Master who loves you, who knows you, 00:20:13.610 --> 00:20:17.240 and who is all powerful, he loves you, He knows you and is 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:19.850 all powerful. And if we couple that with what we talked about a 00:20:19.850 --> 00:20:26.090 little bit ago, how He will help us through this process. We 00:20:26.090 --> 00:20:31.250 can't fail. He says he has created not demands for your 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:36.200 service, but opportunities for your growth. So think again, 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:42.320 about the fulfilment, personal fulfillment, and better 00:20:42.320 --> 00:20:48.680 relationships, and the sense of purpose. And then when we put 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:52.250 that together, he has created not demands for your service, 00:20:52.250 --> 00:20:56.150 but opportunities for your growth. So all of those things 00:20:56.150 --> 00:21:00.080 that we think are, oh, this is so much work. It's an 00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:01.940 opportunity for our growth. 00:21:02.750 --> 00:21:05.300 And trust me, I do not think about things like that all the 00:21:05.300 --> 00:21:08.930 time. I do not, these last couple of weeks have been 00:21:08.930 --> 00:21:13.910 really, really hard. And I was not thinking about opportunities 00:21:14.060 --> 00:21:19.070 for growth. I am getting to a better place. 00:21:19.520 --> 00:21:22.280 He says you can pray to Him with confidence and ask what would 00:21:22.280 --> 00:21:25.760 you have me do next? If you listen humbly and with faith, 00:21:25.790 --> 00:21:30.110 you will feel an answer. And you will, if you're wise and good 00:21:30.170 --> 00:21:33.260 set about to do that which your master has commanded. And you 00:21:33.260 --> 00:21:36.320 will leave the residue in his hands and he talks about residue 00:21:36.320 --> 00:21:39.620 in the paragraph before that too. You will go and do your 00:21:39.620 --> 00:21:44.660 best. And whatever you cannot fulfill, you leave the residue. 00:21:44.660 --> 00:21:48.020 That's the residue what whatever you can't do. That's the residue 00:21:48.020 --> 00:21:50.480 and you leave that in the Masters hands in our saviors, 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:53.420 hands and Jesus's hands. And then he takes that and make 00:21:53.420 --> 00:22:00.860 something of that the real thing that I was looking for, and the 00:22:02.090 --> 00:22:04.370 this is like the one thing that says it all. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:08.080 It's also in this article and it's a it's a little section 00:22:08.080 --> 00:22:11.560 header, it's the very bottom, and it says your Father in 00:22:11.560 --> 00:22:17.530 heaven believes in you. Do you need more reason for personal 00:22:17.530 --> 00:22:22.540 growth than your heavenly father believes in you. My dad said to 00:22:22.540 --> 00:22:26.650 me once, and I am sure that this quote comes from somewhere 00:22:26.650 --> 00:22:31.060 somehow my dad said to me once, of course, I love you the way 00:22:31.060 --> 00:22:35.020 you are, I will always love you the way you are. I love you too 00:22:35.020 --> 00:22:38.740 much to leave you that way. And I really believe that our 00:22:38.740 --> 00:22:42.730 Heavenly Father loves us just the way we are. But he also 00:22:42.730 --> 00:22:46.510 loves us too much to leave us this way. And he for sure isn't 00:22:46.510 --> 00:22:50.110 going to help us get worse. That's what Satan does. He tries 00:22:50.110 --> 00:22:51.190 to help us get worse. 00:22:52.540 --> 00:22:57.160 Okay, and then there's this other article in July 2024, and 00:22:57.190 --> 00:23:01.600 not the Ensign it's called the LIahona now. Sorry, little slip. 00:23:02.260 --> 00:23:05.530 There's an article in here, quotes for when you need to 00:23:05.530 --> 00:23:08.470 trust the Lord. And there are some good ones. 00:23:08.890 --> 00:23:13.180 President Nelson God knows all and sees all in all of eternity. 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:16.060 No one will ever know you or care about you more than he 00:23:16.060 --> 00:23:19.690 does. No one will ever be closer to you than he is. He 00:23:19.690 --> 00:23:22.690 demonstrated his ultimate love when he sent his only begotten 00:23:22.690 --> 00:23:27.610 Son to die for you to be your Savior and your Redeemer. Nobody 00:23:27.610 --> 00:23:30.520 knows you better than he does. And he sent you here at this 00:23:30.520 --> 00:23:33.970 time because you have a very specific and special purpose and 00:23:33.970 --> 00:23:38.470 role to play. Play it. Nobody can do it the way that you can. 00:23:39.940 --> 00:23:43.990 And then there's one from Elder Christofferson. I bear witness 00:23:43.990 --> 00:23:46.660 that God the father lives that his son Jesus Christ is our 00:23:46.660 --> 00:23:49.810 Redeemer and that the Holy Spirit is present with us. And 00:23:49.810 --> 00:23:54.220 here's the real kicker, right? Their desire to help us is 00:23:54.250 --> 00:24:01.120 undoubted. And their capacity to do so is infinite. All we need 00:24:01.120 --> 00:24:05.350 is the desire to get better. Their desire to help us is 00:24:05.350 --> 00:24:10.480 undoubted. And their capacity to do so is infinite. They're on 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:15.160 our side. All we have to do is try they will double our 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:19.240 efforts, they will increase our efforts they will help take up 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:22.180 the residue and help make something of what we left 00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:22.870 behind. 00:24:24.490 --> 00:24:28.420 I am excited to start working on some of these things. And I 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:33.130 promise that we're gonna get into them soon. I just wanted to 00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:36.520 make sure I was covering my bases like what are these things 00:24:36.520 --> 00:24:39.940 that we need to work on? Why are we working on them? We will 00:24:39.940 --> 00:24:43.390 probably need to come back to our purpose at some point. But 00:24:43.390 --> 00:24:49.420 right now I feel like we know what they are. We know why we're 00:24:49.420 --> 00:24:54.820 doing this. And it can you can have your very own reason number 00:24:54.820 --> 00:24:59.560 seven. If you do I would love to hear what it is. We have our 00:24:59.560 --> 00:25:05.710 purpose As we have our list, now it's time to get started. And I 00:25:05.710 --> 00:25:08.350 think I might start with happiness because in doing all 00:25:08.350 --> 00:25:12.370 of this, I came across a quote from President Nelson created a 00:25:12.370 --> 00:25:16.090 little sticky note and stuck it on my wall. It says Satan 00:25:16.090 --> 00:25:24.580 delights in your misery. I don't know why I needed to see that 00:25:24.580 --> 00:25:28.750 particular quote this week. I saw it yesterday. And as soon as 00:25:28.750 --> 00:25:34.660 I saw it, I was like, he delights in my misery. He 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:39.100 totally does. I don't want to give him anything to delight in. 00:25:39.400 --> 00:25:43.960 So it's time for me to get rid of the misery. I am not claiming 00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:47.710 that you can just turn it on and off. That's not how it works. 00:25:47.980 --> 00:25:51.070 Depression is a real thing. Anxiety is a real thing. 00:25:51.280 --> 00:25:55.540 dysregulation is a real thing. These are real things that we 00:25:55.540 --> 00:26:01.450 have to work through. We can still choose whether to be 00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:07.150 miserable as we work through them. Or, and I found another 00:26:07.150 --> 00:26:10.720 quote, I saw another quote, I posted it. I think we talked we 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.690 talked about it on Tuesday, that quote from SR ubank, that's 00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:20.560 happiness isn'tisn't pasting a plastic smile on your face. It's 00:26:20.590 --> 00:26:23.620 following in our Savior's footsteps. And I'm, I'm 00:26:23.620 --> 00:26:27.640 paraphrasing, if you want to see the The full quote, you can 00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.520 check the Instagram or you can check my Instagram or my 00:26:30.520 --> 00:26:34.990 Facebook page, the real the, quote, the whole quote is there. 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:39.310 But sister Eubank talks about how happiness isn't just pasting 00:26:39.310 --> 00:26:42.820 on a plastic smile and calling it a day. That's not happiness. 00:26:42.970 --> 00:26:48.160 That's fake. She's talking about where happiness comes from. And 00:26:48.700 --> 00:26:52.750 I think we might dive into that, because Satan delights in our 00:26:52.750 --> 00:26:55.600 misery. And I think too many of us are miserable this these 00:26:55.600 --> 00:26:59.710 days. And if you're anything like me, sometimes I just let 00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:03.700 myself sit in it. And I have sat in it for long enough. It's time 00:27:03.700 --> 00:27:11.770 to be it's time to serve others so I can find my own happiness. 00:27:12.520 --> 00:27:16.390 I hope that you are having a good day. I hope that you're 00:27:16.390 --> 00:27:20.290 having a great week. I hope you're enjoying your summer. 00:27:21.190 --> 00:27:24.520 Depends, I guess on which half of the world you live in. I hope 00:27:24.520 --> 00:27:28.480 that you are enjoying your month. Thank you for sticking 00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:31.930 with me for hanging out here. And let's do this together. 00:27:32.020 --> 00:27:35.110 Let's just keep going together. Thank you so much, everybody.