"Stand and Be Not Moved"

Sister Lisa L. Harkness, the First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came to BYU-Idaho today to give her devotional address “Stand and be Not Moved.”  

She based her talk on the scripture found in The Old Testament, Joshua 24:15, which says, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” In her talk she analyzed each message of this short phrase. There seems to be a fear of having the ability to choose and make decisions, but that is the reason why we are here on this Earth.  

When she was asked what she would advise those who are afraid of making decisions and failing she expressed enthusiastically, “Just do it! Just go out and try. It’s okay to try and fail and try again.”  

In her talk, she shared an experience she had talking to a girl in her 20’s who was trying to make lots of decisions, she was worried about her semester, what classes to take, whether to go on a mission and who to have as a roommate. As she listened empathetically, she thought of Joshua’s words again.  

“Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with the withersover thou goest.”  

Everything can be left to do later, but is that the wiser option?  

“Many of the choices we make cannot be tabled for some future day when we have time to get around to them. Some must be addressed daily, with intentional diligence,” She said in her talk.  

We need to decide today what we are going to choose in life and if that will be following Jesus Christ, she said. 

Sister Harkness expressed that one of the ways to improve on procrastination is daily repentance. When she was called to The Primary General Presidency at General Conference in 2018 and had to walk down the aisle to get to the stand there were people that started shouting. This shouting broke the reverence in the room. She heard a distinct voice that told her to keep moving.  

“Sometimes we don’t know what we are doing and we are afraid sometimes and we are unsure but if we listen to the Holy Ghost, we listen to Heavenly Father’s promptings that tell us, ‘Oh honey, just keep moving, keep moving, keep moving’…we are going to end up in the right place,” she said.