As I searched for inspiration on a topic for today I felt the Spirit say to me, "Help them remember who they are." Today I want to share with you the importance of remembering.
When my children were at home and before they went out on activities with friends I always said to them: "Remember who and what you are." Did your parents not say the same to you? My children heard it so often they'd say, "yeah, dad." But what is significant about this word remember? What was it I wanted them to remember? President Spencer W. Kimball said:
"When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be 'remember.' Because all of [us] have made covenants...our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day-to take the sacrament and listen to the priests pray that [we] 'may always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given [us].' ... 'Remember' is the word."[1]
President Bruce Blanchard, a counselor here on BYU-Idaho's campus, serves as a member of my stake presidency. In stake conference he told the story of a man he counseled when he lived in Utah before coming to BYU-I. The man was in prison and had actually served as a missionary in the same mission as President Blanchard. President Blanchard asked him "How does a temple-endowed returned missionary, who bore testimony, end up in prison?" The man simply answered "I forgot who I was. I forgot my Savior." He forgot and fell away.
So let's go back to my counsel to my children of "Remember who and what you are." Who are we? To know who we are today we must first ask who we were before we came to this earth. I have always thought that if I but could remember who and what I was in the premortal existence I would definitely strive to be more righteous. One of my greatest fears in life is that I will not live up to what was promised me in the premortal existence and I would allow earthly moments to over shadow eternal truths and the pleasures of the earth to beckon me from my course.
What a great blessing it would be if we could but remember that important time of decision. Think about it. We were in the Great Council where we were taught the Plan of Salvation. We accepted that divine plan, including the privilege and responsibility of becoming sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and even grandparents. We understood life's challenges. We were willing to come to earth no matter the conditions; even if it meant being born in Tremonton, Utah, like I was. We accepted whatever body Heavenly Father would give us, for the privilege of having a body. For some we accepted bodies that may not be complete or whole. For some we knew we wouldn't be considered handsome-and that includes most of us. We knew our lives might be filled with great trials and challenges. Yet we knew as we came to earth that we would be tested and tried to see if we would do all things whatsoever the Lord would command us. We looked forward to proving ourselves. In Abraham we learn:
"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
"And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon."[2]
Were we one of the noble and great ones?
We kept our first estate. But, so did billions of others. So why are we different? Today, all of us were born under the covenant, or have received the covenant through baptism and temple endowment. Because of this blessing I believe we have in us this nobleness and great potential. We must have proven worthy in the premortal existence to have the gospel in our lives.
What promises did we make there? President Spencer W. Kimball taught, "We made vows, solemn vows, in the heavens before we came to this mortal life...We have made covenants...We committed ourselves to our Heavenly Father, that if he would send us to the earth and give us bodies and give to us the priceless opportunities that earth life afforded we would keep our lives clean and would marry in the holy temple and would rear a family and teach them righteousness. This was a solemn oath, a solemn promise."[3]
When I was your age I remember hearing the brethren talk about the chosen generation and how I, Joshua Holt, was one of the chosen. I'm thinking, "A kid from Tremonton, Utah is part of the chosen generation? Wow! I must be something." Then President Hinckley came along and said this about your generation:
"There are young people in the Church of whom I am proud and concerning whom I have a great sense of gratitude and a compelling sense of optimism. In saying this, I do not wish to imply that all is well with all of them...But...I have great confidence in our young people as a whole. I regard you as the finest generation in the history of the Church. I compliment you, and I have in my heart a great feeling of love and respect and appreciation for you."[4]
What? I am no longer one of THE chosen generation?! I felt usurped. How could this be? I teach you students. Many a day goes by and I think "Are you THE chosen generation?" How could President Hinckley say this? This caused me to reread what Peter said about "chosen generation." As I did I noticed a small word that stood out.
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people."[5]
Peter didn't say THE chosen generation but A chosen generation. This meant that I still could be part of a chosen generation.
As a professor, sometimes if I struggle with a student's effort and attitude to school and my class, if I but take the time to remember that they are sons or daughters of God it helps me change how I see them. I then start to see them as our loving Father in Heaven sees them and how Pres. Hinckley sees them when he made these remarks at the Hinckley Building dedication on this campus:
"I want to tell you that I love you. I love you kids, you wonderful young people of this Church. I love you. I believe you are the best generation this Church has ever had. No generation which has gone before measures up to the stature to which you measure up...God bless you for what you are and who you are."[6]
Interesting! Even a prophet wants you to remember who you are and what you are.
President Hinckley knew it was important to remind you who and what you are, because sometimes we forget. Darkness and shadow overcome us and we lose our way. When I was a campus ward Bishop there were times when I met with ward members who were struggling or who had broken commitments, commandments, and covenants. I wanted to ask them "How could this happen?" But just as with the returned missionary at the beginning of my talk, who was in prison, I knew the answer. They had forgotten who they were. Because if they remembered that they are sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father, they would never put themselves in situations where they failed to keep their covenants. We all falter. We get discouraged. We succumb to temptations. Sometimes we fall in moments weak, because the Adversary wants you to forget. Lucifer does not want you to remember. But the Lord has given us tools to help us bring our premortal memories into our daily thoughts.
The challenge to remember who and what we are even affects the noble and great ones. Today I want to briefly discuss four resources that will help us remember.
First, the scriptures have been written and preserved at great cost so that we can "treasure up" the truths of the gospel. We have a responsibility to know what these scriptures contain. Sister Joanne Doxey, a former member of the Relief Society General Presidency, suggested:
"If we treat the scriptures lightly, letting them gather dust on the shelves, unopened and unread, they are unable to bless our lives as planned. We will be denied the sweet whisperings of the Spirit in guiding our lives and the lives of our families unless we pay the price of studying, pondering, and praying about the scriptures. If we immerse ourselves daily in the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon, we will have increased discernment."
Now, please pay close attention to Sister Doxey's, next words:
"We will have power to do good and to resist evil, and our ability to solve problems will be expanded. Messages to help us in our day were foreseen by the Lord and were divinely placed on the pages of the scriptures to assist us and our families."[7]
The scriptures help us solve our problems. They assist us in facing the challenges of our day. Reading the scriptures gives us insight on how others tried to remember who and what they are. Note how many times King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon uses the word remember.
"My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates [meaning the scriptures], which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.
"For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children...
"O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also these records are true...
"And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God."[8]
If King Benjamin's people had not had the scriptures, they would have been like the Mulekites, who "denied the being of their Creator."[9] The scriptures are your first resource to remembering.
Second, covenants. Anciently the Lord made covenants with His children to help them remember who they were and what was expected of them.
The children of Israel made covenants, and certain tokens were given to help them remember the Lord their God. But through disobedience they forgot, just like the Nephites forgot, and they reaped the consequences.
In our day, we again have a chance to make covenants to keep us in remembrance that we are sons and daughters of God desiring to return to His presence.
Teaching the importance of ordinances and covenants cannot be taken casually by Latter-day Saints. SLIDE: Elder Boyd K. Packer shared his insight when he said: "Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality."[10]
Keeping our covenants should make a difference in the way we live, the way we act, the way we speak, the way we dress, the way we treat each other. If we "always remember him," we will "always have his Spirit to be with us."[11]
Thus, by worthily receiving the sacrament, we are blessed by the Spirit to enter into a wonderfully beneficial circle of remembering, returning again and again in our thinking and devotion to Christ and His Atonement. Going to the temple regularly allows us to remember the covenants we make there. If you are endowed, return regularly to do sealing and initiatory work. If you aren't endowed go regularly to do baptisms and confirmations. Temple attendance helps you remember your own covenants.
A third resource to help us remember who we are is to learn from the examples of those who remembered. Let's look at two individuals heavily involved in the restoration of the church. Both men we highly favored of the Lord, yet were contrasting examples: Oliver Cowdery and Hyrum Smith.
Oliver Cowdery shared with the Prophet Joseph Smith many of the profound events of the restoration. Oliver had witness after witness of the truth of the restoration. He shared with the Prophet Joseph the events of John the Baptist and Peter, James and John in restoring the priesthood and authority to baptize. He was a party to the marvelous appearances in the Kirtland Temple, becoming one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon and Moroni's visit. Oliver penned all but a few pages of the Book of Mormon as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph. President Faust said:
"No one except the Prophet Joseph was more honored with the ministering of angels than Oliver Cowdery. But when the Prophet Joseph fell upon hard times, Oliver was critical of him and became estranged from him. Despite the efforts of the Prophet to reach out the hand of fellowship to him, he became hostile to the Prophet and the Church and was excommunicated."[12]
Oliver allowed his thoughts and concerns of the moment to overcome his experiences in the past and distort what he saw of the future. He forgot who he was and what he had experienced He forgot all the spiritual witnesses that the Lord had given him. Because of this forgetting, he became blinded by his own personal ambition and lost his exalted place in the leadership of the Church.
Yet later, a few years after the Prophet Joseph died, Oliver remembered who and what he had been in the church. Realizing the errors of his past Oliver repented and expressed interest in coming back to the Church. Oliver appeared before the high council and said:
"Brethren for a number of years I have been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humbly and be one in your midst...I seek no station. I only wish to be identified with you...I wish to become a member of the church again...I...handled with my hands the gold plates from which [the Book of Mormon] was translated. I also beheld the interpreters. That book is true."[13]
He remembered his testimony.
In contrast, President Heber J. Grant said of Hyrum Smith:
"There is no better example of an older brother's love than that exhibited in the life of Hyrum Smith for the Prophet Joseph Smith...They were as united and as affectionate and as loving as mortal men could be...There never was one particle of...jealousy...in the heart of Hyrum Smith. No mortal man could have been more loyal, more true, more faithful in life or in death than was Hyrum Smith to the Prophet of the living God."[14]
In D&C 124:15 the Lord said;
"And again, verily I say unto you, blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me, saith the Lord."
Hyrum responded to every need and request from his younger brother, Joseph. Though Hyrum did not have the spiritual witnesses of Oliver he spent his time moving forward the work of the church. He preached the gospel through several missions, recruited members for Zion's camp, when the Kirtland Temple was announced he immediately took his scythe and cleared the weeds and began digging the temple's foundation. He served as an Assistant President of the Church and served under his younger brothers, the Prophet Joseph. President Faust said, "He was ever a source of strength and comfort to his brother, whether in Church service or in the Liberty Jail. As persecutions came and Joseph fled the mob at Nauvoo in 1844, Hyrum went with him...[in] Carthage...they died as martyrs within minutes of one another. Hyrum had been faithful to his trust even to the laying down of his life. In all respects he was a disciple of the Savior."[15]
Oliver forgot, but eventually remembered but lost his exalted place in the church. Hyrum never forgot who and what he was and become a martyred witness for the truth.
The last and most powerful resource to help us remember is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Consider the experience of Alma.[16] After contemplating his many sins, and his moments of weakness, he remembered the words his father had spoken:
"And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
"Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
"And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more."[17]
Isn't it interesting as Alma remembered the counsel of his father and turned wholeheartedly to Christ, he found that he could "remember my pains no more" and in verse 21 found there was "nothing so exquisite and sweet as was [his] joy."[18] This same joy awaits each of us as we yield ourselves to the "enticings of the Holy Spirit, and [put] off the natural man."[19]
Elder Marlin K. Jensen said:
"If we pay close attention to the uses of the word remember in the holy scriptures, we will recognize that remembering in the way God intends is a fundamental and saving principle of the gospel. This is so because prophetic admonitions to remember are frequently calls to action: to listen, to see, to do, to obey, to repent. When we remember in God's way, we overcome our human tendency simply to gird for the battle of life and actually engage in the battle itself, doing all in our power to resist temptation and avoid sinning."[20]
In Helaman 12 (starting with verse 5) Helaman tells them to remember the words of King Benjamin, and the Savior.
"For they remembered the words which their father Helaman spake unto them. And these are the words which he spake.
"Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words."
Now he tells them their names were chosen to help them remember:
"Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.
"O remember, remember, my sons, the words which King Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.
"And now, my sons, 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 storm 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.
"And it came to pass that these were the words which Helaman taught to his sons...
"And they did remember his words; and therefore they went forth, keeping the commandments of God."[21]
By remembering the rock our Redeemer and taking advantage of his atonement we have enabling power to accomplish all things and keep the promises that we made long ago. Keeping these promises along with the enabling power of the atonement will help us so that our lives may reflect our Saviors will so that we may return with honor, full of joy and happiness beyond our understanding.
I believe, coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him is, the ultimate purpose of all remembering. The Lord has given us scriptures, covenants, righteous examples, and ultimately our Savior, to help us remember. The man in prison forgot who he was and forgot his Savior and fell away. If we but remember we will not fall away. Oliver temporarily forgot but finally remembered. Hyrum never forgot-always remembered and is an example to us of one who always knew who he was. Through this song, by Newell Dayley, I would like to share my testimony of the role of the Savior in leading us home. I want to thank my daughter, Amy Sadler, for accompanying me today.
Remember, by remembering who and what we are we may find our lives used in serving Him and His light will be a constant, guiding star to lead us to his eternal glory, which is our divine purpose. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Circles of Exaltation [address to religious educators, Brigham Young University, 28 June 1968], 8
[2] Abraham 3: 22, 26
[3] "Be Ye Therefore Perfect," devotional talk, University of Utah Institute of Religion, 10 Jan. 1975
[4] from Ensign, May 1992, 69
[5] 1 Peter 2:9
[6] Pres. Hinckley, Hinckley Building dedication, 2002
[7] Remember Him, Ensign, Nov 1989, 89
[8] Mosiah 1:3-4,6-7
[9] Omni 1:17
[10] Ensign, May 1987, p. 24
[11] Moroni 4:3
[12] James E. Faust, "'Some Great Thing', Liahona, Jan 2002, 53-56
[13] Reuben Miller, journal, 1848-1849, Family and Church History Department Archives, 21 Oct. 1848; punctuation and spelling modernized
[14] Heber J. Grant, "Hyrum Smith and His Distinguished Posterity," Improvement Era, Aug. 1918, 854-55
[15] James E. Faust, "'Some Great Thing', Liahona, Jan 2002, 53-56
[16] Alma 36:12-16
[17] Alma 36: 17-19
[18] Alma 36:21
[19] Mosiah 3:19
[20] emphasis added "Remember and Perish Not," Ensign, May 2007, 36-38
[21] Helaman 12: 9, 12-14