Sacrament Meeting Talk from Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Back in July, I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on the 12th of August, and since I love writing and speaking in front of other people, this was an easy thing for me to do. With the exception of the talks that I gave in Primary as a child, I have always written my on my own without any help from my parents. This has to be one of my favorite talks that I have given so far in my life, but I'm pretty sure that there will be another talk that I give in the future that will top this one, but that has yet to happen, so for now...

ENJOY!

Amanda

Here is my talk...

I am truly grateful to have been given this opportunity to speak today. I haven’t given a talk in Sacrament Meeting since I was a youth speaker, which was over six years ago, and so I’m certainly excited to have been given this opportunity. As I’m sure all of you remember, I sang in Sacrament Meeting two weeks ago, and I can honestly tell you that was one of the most terrifying moments in my life, so I can understand how a lot of people get nervous about speaking in Sacrament Meeting and try to avoid making eye contact with Brother Bedwell in the hall. But for me personally, speaking in Sacrament Meeting is, in my opinion, one of the easiest things to do, and although I’m sure many of you would surely disagree with that opinion, it should be noted that you have strength of character when you get up to speak. I love having the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting, and I can’t wait to be given the opportunity to speak again.

Brother Bedwell assigned me to speak to you on Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk “The Laborers in the Vineyard” from this last General Conference. Although I had started working on my talk the day it was given to me, it wasn't until last Saturday that I sat down at the computer, and started writing it all down. Anyways, I'm about 9/10 done with preparing my talk when I realize that I've been paraphrasing almost every other sentence from Elder Holland's talk. It was at that point that I felt strongly that I needed to switch gears and focus my talk to a reoccurring topic in Elder Holland’s talk, which was the Atonement. And so there I was with my talk almost complete and I realized that I was going to be starting over completely and I asked Heavenly Father why he would do that to me, and the only answer I got was, “JUST DO IT.” The Atonement can be a very difficult subject to speak on because I personally don’t feel like I will ever be able to grasp the full meaning of it until after this life is over. With that said, I can only hope that I will be able to do justice to Elder Holland’s talk since everyone knows that he gives the best conference talks.

Elder Holland begins his talk with paraphrasing the parable of “The Laborers in the Vineyard” found in Matthew 20:1-15. Elder Holland stated in his talk that “this parable—like all parables—is not really about laborers or wages any more than the others are about sheep and goats. This is a story about God’s goodness, His patience and forgiveness, and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a story about generosity and compassion. It is a story about grace. It underscores the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”

Forgiveness and mercy towards others are essential if we wish to also obtain forgiveness and mercy. In his conference address from last General Conference, “The Merciful Obtain Mercy,” President Uchtdorf stated that “we all depend on the Savior; none of us can be saved without Him. Christ’s Atonement is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes with conditions. We must repent, and we must be willing to forgive others.” Our Savior has taught that “blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

We need to seek forgiveness from those whom we have hurt. We need to give forgiveness to those who have hurt us. It is important for all of us to realize that we all make mistakes, say and do things we know we shouldn't, and don't say or do things we know we should. One of the most important points though is this, if we are merciful towards others, if we can learn to forgive each other, none of it will ever matter in the end, but if we are not merciful towards others, if we refuse to forgive one another, everything will matter in the end. We cannot expect the Lord to forgive us if we don’t forgive others. The Lord stated the following in 3 Nephi 13:14-15, “For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” To be able to partake of the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, it is necessary that we forgive others. The Lord reiterates his words from 3 Nephi when he states in D&C 64:9-10 that “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.” If we want to be forgiven, if we want to be able to fully partake of His Atonement, we must forgive. The only perfect person to ever walk the earth was our Savior. It is essential that we understand this because we all need to realize that our parents, brothers, sisters, children, friends, and everyone else in the world will never be perfect in this life, and to expect perfection from someone, is extremely unhealthy and damaging to our relationships with others. It is even more unhealthy and damaging when we expect perfection from ourselves. As a footnote in his talk, President Uchtdorf added, “When the Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror.”

The one thing that stands out to me the most from Elder Holland’s talk is when he states, “I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in this parable, but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.” The Atonement is there so that we can return to our Father in Heaven, but we can only do that if we actually use the Atonement.

Elder Holland concludes his talk by saying, “it is never too late so long as the Master of the vineyard says there is time.” Our Father in Heaven has blessed all of us by bringing truly amazing people into our lives to teach us something, to help us understand something we might be struggling with, to help us see things differently, and to help us feel of His love for each of us.

I have very recently been richly blessed by our Father in Heaven when He brought one such person into my life, who let his love of our Savior radiate from the way he treated everyone around him. It was through his example and his love of our Savior, that he was able to teach me that If we Keep the Faith and Look to Him. If we Feel of His Love and Find Strength in His Peace. If we Experience Joy in His Service and Gain Truth in His Words. If we Become One with Him through the Saving Power and Light of His Infinite Atonement, we will never find ourselves in a place where it cannot shine. It was through him that I began to understand the Atonement and look at it in a completely different manner, in a way I had never even considered before. It was through his example and his love of the Savior, that he was able to teach me that I am willing to give whatever our Father in Heaven asks of me, that I am willing to give up everything, even my life if necessary, to have the opportunity to serve a mission and teach others what he has taught me about what it means to become one with our Savior.

I want all of you to know that I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to this earth through His prophet Joseph Smith. I know that we live in the dispensation of the fullness of times. I know that our Father in Heaven lives and that He loves us all more than we will ever be able to comprehend. I know that we are all His children. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, lives and that he loves each of us so much. He is our Elder brother, and He came to earth where He would be hated, despised, betrayed, beaten, to suffer not only the sins of the world, but to feel our every emotion, from our sorrows, our anger, and our resentment, to our joyfulness, our excitement, and our happiness. He has felt all of our heartaches and burdens. HE Has Felt It All. He did this for us, so that No Matter How Alone We Might Feel at times, He would be Right There with us, having felt Everything We Feel, and all we would have to do is Look To HIM to find comfort and peace. He paid the price of our sins through His Infinite Atonement, and it is by HIS Stripes that We Are Healed. I know our Savior, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for us and arose three days later so that we might be able to do likewise. The Gospel is TRUE; of this I have NO DOUBT. I know our Father in Heaven knows each of us individually. He has given us our weaknesses so that we will turn to Him and He will give us strength. The Savior has borne our trials. We are truly blessed to be members of His Church. If we Keep the Faith and Look to Him. If we Feel of His Love and Find Strength in His Peace. If we Experience Joy in His Service and Gain Truth in His Words. If we Become One with Him through the Saving Power and Light of His Infinite Atonement, We Will Never find ourselves in a place Where It Cannot Shine. He is Standing At The Door, Knocking, and Waiting For US To Open It, and allow Him into our lives. It is my prayer that we not only allow Him into our lives, but that we apply the Atonement in our lives and it is with that final thought that I leave these things with you, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.