Paisley Imperfect

UPDATE: Quite a few people have asked for a copy of the document I shared during the video. You can download a copy below.

Before I get started, I need to correct something from last week’s video about Alma. You may remember that I was questioning whether it was Alma the elder or Alma the younger who became the first chief judge of the Nephites. I ended up settling on Alma the elder because him and Mosiah were friends. But I was wrong.

Alma the younger because the first chief judge when Mosiah’s sons refused to become kings and elected to serve missions to the Lamanites instead. That’s been bothering me all weekend!

I don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready to dive into Elder Bednar’s talk now. It’s from the most recent General Conference and is titled, “Be Still, and Know That I Am God.”

Up to this point in our month, we’ve been talking about finding stillness and recognizing what it feels like. The thing that struck me most about Elder Bednar’s talk that he tells us how to built or create stillness.

He says this, “I believe the Lord’s admonition to ‘be still’ entails much more than simply not talking or not moving. Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power ‘at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in.’ Thus, ‘be still’ may be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things.”

But he said that right before this header: Build upon the Rock.

And this is where we get into building or creating our own stillness.

First, let me ask a question, and I’ll pause for a couple of seconds to let you ponder. Elder Bendar says that the Lord’s intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power. Where does that begin?

Honestly, I don’t remember the exact moment when I really began to remember and rely upon Jesus Christ. I have some spotty memories from my childhood and some from my youth where I can say I was relying on him, but I don’t have a moment in time when that all clicked.

I can remember the moment when I knew the Church was the right place for me to be. I can remember the first time I felt the Holy Ghost. But I don’t remember conscientiously making a choice to rely on my Savior in all things.

So, I ask the question again – more for myself, I guess – where does that begin?

Elder Bednar suggests that it begins as we build our spiritual foundation. He quotes Helaman 5:12, “Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea when all his hail and his mighty storms shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

Elder Bednar goes on to further explain how foundations for buildings are constructed, but first he points out something critical. He says, “Please note in this verse that the Savior is not the foundation. Rather, we are admonished to build our personal spiritual foundation upon Him.”

Then he talks about how the foundation of a building is what connects it, securely, to the ground. He used pictures throughout this portion of his talk, and if you want to jump in a little deeper, go check them out. That’s not what I want to focus on here though.

I have another question. What is stillness?

We’ve been talking about finding and feeling stillness, and now we’re talking about building or creating it, but have we really defined it?

I can’t define stillness for you – that’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. When I took a minute as part of the whole process of creating this video to define it for myself, here’s what I came up with.

I started with a simple fill-in-the-blank type sentence or statement: I feel still when… here’s my answer:

• I feel still when I know I’ve done my best.
• I feel still when I believe I am doing right by others.
• I feel still when I feel heard or seen.
• I feel still when I’ve done something to help someone else, and I did it without complaining.
• I feel still when I do the right thing.

There were some other things that came up too, but they can all be lumped into those five points – I’ve done my best, I’m doing right by others, I feel heard or seen, I’m helpful, and I’m making the right decisions for myself and my family.

What do those five things have to do with my foundation? Do they suggest that I’ve built my foundation on my Savior? Or do they suggest otherwise? Do I need to make adjustments?

Here’s what Elder Bendar suggests stillness is, “Incrementally and increasingly, ‘in process of time,’ ‘virtue [garnishes our] thoughts unceasingly,’ our ‘confidence [waxes stronger and stronger] in the presence of God,’ and ‘the Holy Ghost [is our] constant companion.’ We become more grounded, rooted, established, and settled.”

There’s the magic word for me – settled. Grounded, rooted, established, and settled. That sounds like more than stillness, but I don’t have a word for it yet. It’s a strong, anchored, stillness that is “steadfast and immoveable”. But let me finish that quote… “As the foundation of our lives is built upon the Savior, we are blessed to ‘be still’ – to have a spiritual assurance that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior.”

As I look at the difference between Elder Bednar’s definition of stillness and mine, I can see that he’s defining it on a much larger scale than me, or with a much more eternal perspective.

He says, virtue garnishes our thoughts unceasingly – mine was I’ve done my best and I’m doing right by others.

He says, our confidence waxes stronger and stronger in the presence of God – mine was I’ve done something to help someone else and I did it without complaining, and I’ve done the right thing.

He says that the Holy Ghost is our constant companion. Mine says when I’ve done the right thing, or I’m doing right by others. Being seen or heard wasn’t in there. Instead, he said that we can have a spiritual assurance that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. That means that we are seen and heard every day. Maybe not so much by the people around us, but it also suggests to me that I need to take another look at those interactions and decide which ones have more eternal significance. Those are the ones I need to care about. Being heard or seen in situations that lack lasting importance – well, I need to learn how to let go.

I think we’re going to come back to Elder Bednar’s talk again. Last week we talked about finding and feeling stillness. Today we’re talking about building or creating it. But this talk also tells us how to keep it once we’ve found or built it.

There is one other thing in here that I do want to share today, though. It’s the promise at the end.

He says, “I promise that as we build the foundation of our lives on the ‘rock’ of Jesus Christ, we can be blessed by the Holy Ghost to receive an individual and spiritual stillness of the soul that enables us to know and remember that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we can be blessed to do and overcome hard things.”

We could go on for a lot longer on how to build that foundation and what those bits and pieces are to keep it securely tethered to the rock, but not today. Maybe next time – I think that sounds like a great idea, actually. I’ll look into that. Thanks for being here and hanging out with me again today! Enjoy your week!