Elders,
Survived the snow? I hope that you are having a great week. I was at my daughter’s basketball game today. They were less than 5 minutes into the game and one of her teammates picked up her fourth foul and all of her team’s starters had at least one foul. The opposing team had nary a single foul. The coach called a timeout to try to settle the girls down. Everyone was obviously frustrated and on edge – and on top of all the fouls they were down 10 points. The girls had a choice. They could continue doing what they were doing or they could come together, adjust their style, and update their game plan.
How do we react in similar situations? What do we do when adversity strikes – sometimes in waves?
I learned an important lesson from those girls. They could have easily given up, blamed the referee (I did – she was horrible), and been miserable the rest of the game. They didn’t. They totally changed up the way they played and found a way to avoid the ref’s ire. They battled back and sent the game into overtime. They didn’t ultimately win, but I was so proud of them. They figured out how to work as a team, build each other up, and have fun. They had to check their hearts and came out better than when they started.
In our last quorum meeting Matt Newton challenged us to ponder over and journal three questions:
- Ask Heavenly Father “How do you see me?” Get an accurate picture of who you are and where you stand.
- Ask Heavenly Father “What are you trying to teach me right now?”
- Ask Heavenly Father “What can I do to glorify you and your work?”
Have you taken up the challenge? Do you know where you stand with God? This isn’t an activity to beat ourselves up and feel bad for all the things wrong in our lives. It is all about building our relationship with our Savior.
This Sunday Ken Stonebrook will teach our lesson on Elder Bednar’s talk “Gather Together in One All Things in Christ” https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/gather-together-in-one-all-things-in-christ?lang=eng I encourage you to take some time and review the talk in advance.
Elders, we have a great quorum. I hope that we can come together and strengthen each other when adversity strikes.
Finish the week strong,
President Oldroyd
801-573-6828