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Janette Hales Beckham, former general president of the
Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, spoke of the importance of trusting in the Lord and being
trustworthy in her devotional address at Brigham Young University-Idaho
Nov. 12.
Sister
Beckham began with a story about a time when she visited her sister-in-law,
whose oldest son ran up the stairs and in a breathless voice said, “What
time is it?” His mother stopped in mid-sentence, glanced at her watch and
exclaimed, “Oh, I forgot. We’re late for Little League!” With all the
indignation a six-year-old could muster, her son replied, “Mother, can’t
you be trusted?”
Trust
is important because it is the underlying ingredient in the development of
faith, the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Sister Beckham
said. She emphasized trust in three ways: learning to trust God, living so
that God trusts you and living so that others trust you.
She
quoted a writer for the Deseret News who said that his work
sometimes dented his optimism because over the years, people had
disappointed and deceived him. He commented, “The lesson I need to learn is
this: instead of praising people for being good, I should praise the source
of all good things and just love the people. . . .It’s what Jesus must have
had in mind when he said, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, that is God.” (Mark 10:18)
Sister
Beckham cited several scriptures on trust: Proverbs 3:5, Psalms 118:8, Proverbs
16:20 and John 5:32-39. While we can develop trust through the blessing of
others’ witness, ultimately, we must develop our own relationship with
Heavenly Father, Sister Beckham said.
“We
are blessed by the testimony of others and we are strengthened by that
light, but in case it may last only for a ‘season,’ we must each develop a
relationship of trust with our Heavenly Father by our own experience – our
own prayer, our scripture study and by listening to the witness of the Holy
Ghost as we apply what we learn.”
She
noted the trust the Lord had in Enos (Enos 1:12) and in Nephi (Helaman
10:5).
“For
us to have such a promise, we would have to understand our Heavenly
Father’s point of view. We would have to live so that God trusts us,” she
said.
She
read the words of a dollar bill, “In God We Trust,” and remarked that
Heavenly Father’s trust in us must come from more than a symbol or just
words.
“Because
trust is such a needed commodity in the world today, perhaps we can find
ways to improve our behavior and increase our Heavenly Father’s trust in
us,” Sister Beckham said. “When it comes to trust or being trusted, there
are no unimportant items. We become trustworthy before the Lord as we
practice and make corrections. Perhaps we make errors and need to be
taught. Perhaps we make mistakes and need to repent, but we want to let our
Heavenly Father know that He can count on us.”
Trust
also involves accepting Heavenly Father’s ways. She read from Alma 29 and
then said, “How much of our lives we waste wanting things to be other than
they are. Do we sometimes avoid the work at hand because we wish the
circumstances were different?
Sometimes wanting to be grand keeps us from being good. We are
bombarded by the attention given to super stars, super athletes, Super
Bowls, and everything super sized. . . . But, each day we must withdraw
from the oversized images placed before us and remember the things our
Heavenly Father has taught us. Our Heavenly Father has put his trust in us.
He knows we can do hard things.”
When
we trust in Heavenly Father and live so that He trusts us, living so that
other people trust us follows naturally. She quoted President Gordon B.
Hinckley in his book Standing for Something.
“It
is possible to so live that others can trust us – can trust our words, our
motives, and our actions. Very simply, we cannot be less than honest, we
cannot be less than true, we cannot be less than virtuous . . . if we are
to merit . . . trust,” President Hinckley said.
She
quoted Karl G. Maeser, an educator from Germany who served as the first
president of Brigham Young University.
“I
have been asked what I mean by ‘word of honor,’” Maeser said. “I will tell
you. Place me behind prison walls – walls of stone ever so high, ever so
thick, reaching ever so far into the ground – there is a possibility that
in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor
and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to
cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I would die first.”
In
concluding, she referred to the Prophet Joseph Smith in liberty jail and
his pleadings with the Lord as recorded in DC 121. She then read the Lord’s
comfort to Joseph in verses 7-9.
“This
is the promise given to those who trust in the Lord – peace in this life
and exaltation in the world to come,” Sister Beckham said. “There is a
secondary promise here also that can reassure us we will receive support in
our troubles. The Lord tells Joseph Smith in verse 9, ‘Thy friends do stand
by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly
hands.’ Your friends trust you.
“Trust
is the basis of friendship and of all good relationships. Trust is the
basis of our relationship with family members. Trust is the basis of our
relationship with God.”
Sister
Beckham served for for five years as the general president of the Young
Women’s organization. She was also a counselor to Ardeth Kapp in the
general presidency of Young Women and a member of the Primary General
Board.
Next
week’s devotional speaker will be Elder Gordon T. Watts, a member of the
church’s Second Quorum of the Seventy. # # #
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