Jana's Talk on Becoming acquainted w/God through righteous living

This afternoon I would like to address you on the topic of becoming acquainted with God through trials and righteous living.




This week we celebrate a great heritage of the early saints who scarified so much to know God. some of us may have to do a little digging, some maybe not so much and others may be able to just take a look in the mirror but whatever makes up our pioneer heritage we all have someone to thank because they chose to follow Christ and bless our lives with his gospel.



One specific pioneer story I would like to share that many of us have probably heard, is an experience that conveys that trails bring us closer to God.



The experience takes place: In a Sunday School class where there was sharp criticism of the ill-fated Martin and Willie Handcart Companies, which met with tragedy because of their late start on the trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

An elderly man [ in that Sunday school class] arose and said: “I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts … give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife … too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but … we became acquainted with [God] in our extrem[i]ties.



“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. … I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.



“Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company”



This story along with many others shows the faith and endurance that is required to know God.



So whomever that ancestor is of yours that chose to follow Christ, know that you have been deeply blessed by their sacrifices and that others will continue to be blessed by yours.



President James E. Faust, said of the Willie and Martin handcart companies and their rescuers that “ in the heroic effort of the handcart pioneers, we learn a great truth. All must pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. There seems to be a full measure of anguish, sorrow, and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do right and be faithful. Yet this is part of the purging to become acquainted with God.



trials in our life are a necessity because they help us to focus on what the important things are in life.



In the talk “The Race of Life” given by President Thomas S. Monson he states:



In this fast-paced life, do we ever pause for moments of meditation –

When compared to eternal verities, most of the questions and concerns of daily living are really rather trivial. What should we have for dinner? What color should we paint the living room? Should we sign Johnny up for soccer? These questions and countless others like them lose their significance when times of crisis arise, when loved ones are hurt or injured, when sickness enters the house of good health, when life’s candle dims and darkness threatens. Our thoughts become focused, and we are easily able to determine what is really important and what is merely trivial.



It is the trials that we face that give us the opportunity to learn of God, become acquainted with him and keep him in our lives.



Just this weekend our country and the the city of Aurora Colorado had tragedy strike when a gunman entered a movie theater and took 12 lives and injured many more. What I thought was interesting about this horrific event was what I read in a news article of what the survivors of this event were posting on their blogs. After this tragedy hit many wondered where God was in all of this. How could a merciful higher power allow this to happen? As it stated in the news article, but one survivor expressed that even after experiencing such evil firsthand, she believes that there is a God and he is indeed merciful. I was relieved to hear that this women did not let this event cloud her faith and to keep believing even after experiencing such a violent crime.



Some trials we can never prepare for and they are completely unpredictable and it is not uncommon to hear people question if there is a God and how could he allow these things to happen.



But as we study the truthfulness of the gospel we learn the why to trials.

In D&C section 29 verse 39 - And it must needs be that the adevil should btempt the children of men, or they could not be cagents unto themselves; for if they never should have dbitter they could not know the sweet—



It is no doubt that trials will turn our thoughts to God as they are intended to do so.

The Lord tests and tries us so we can prove ourselves worthy of celestial glory.



We all know that the Saints must be made pure, to enter into the celestial kingdom. It is recorded that Jesus was made perfect through suffering in Hebrews 5: 8

Though he were a Son, yet alearned he bobedience by the things which he csuffered;



The purpose of us coming and experiencing this life is as expressed in Abraham 3: 25 And we will aprove them herewith, to see if they will bdo all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;



Trials are intended for us to become acquainted with God. But it is not every day that we experience such life changing trials and since that is the case God gave us the blessings of commandments, principles, laws and ordinances to keep our minds and hearts centered in his gospel and on Him.



I have come to learn of the importance of having these blessings in my life. I have learned so much of God, what he is like and how he is to us his children. My heart has truly delighted in the scriptures and I have found that as I earnestly and consistently search them I have come to know God better. The Book of Mormon has truly become a great companion to me. Bringing truth, light and peace into my life as I read and more fully understand the ways of God.



in my reading of the BOM, earlier this summer I was reading in Jacob about the Allegory of the Olive Tree. I of course have read this story before but this time as I was reading through it, it taught me a great deal about who God is and the chances he gives to us to become better.


The part that taught me this is when the Lord of the Vineyard and his servant returns to the Vineyard after they had spent so much time and effort pruning, digging and nourishing the trees and grafting in good branches so that the corrupt branches would not take over and that the trees would then bring forth good fruit instead of corrupt fruit. As they went down into the Vineyard and after all the work they had done they saw that all the fruit had become corrupt.

The Lord of the Vineyard then began to cry and said to his servant, “What could I have done more for my Vineyard?” Now it is good for nothing except to cast it into the fire, but then

The servant says to the lord of the Vineyard “Spare it a little longer” – it was this phrase that hit me that this is how the lord is with me and with each one of us. He gives us more time, gives us another chance and has more patience then I could even comprehend. Though this story was about a tree it was really about people and that was a message to me of how much we can really come to know God through studying the scriptures.

As I have read and studied my scriptures I have found that my thoughts are turned more to God and my understanding of his ways and his gospel become more clear.

We are truly blessed to have the fullness of the gospel and to be able to take upon ourselves ordinances that will bless our lives, our families lives and those around us because as we keep the covenants made in these ordinances we bring Christ to the center of our life and become more familiar with God.

President Uchtdorf said, “The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.”

During this week as we celebrate pioneer day I hope our thoughts are turned to those who sacrificed so much to be acquainted with God because their experiences truly transformed them and refined them into men and women ready for the eternities.

We too have the same obligation to faithfully endure so that we may become acquainted with God and to do all things that the Lord God shall command us.

Not only our trials but righteous living will refine us especially as we earnestly seek to do right and be faithful - we will then become acquainted with God.