When setting goals you cannot compare yourself to others; goals are for YOU to accomplish not for your next door neighbor or friend.
"Every accountable child of God needs to set goals (Ezra Taft Benson)." Think about what your long term goals are and your short term goals. Write down your goals of what you would like to accomplish each day. Keep in mind the covenants that you have made as you go about your daily tasks. Make sure that when you set goals, that they are ATTAINABLE goals, work on them in accordance and pray for your Heavenly Father's help. Be specific but also do not set yourself up for failure with your goals. Set a time limit for accomplishment; make sure you give yourself a sufficient amount of time to accomplish your goals but not too much time.
Setting short term goals help us to accomplish long term goals. What is it that you want to accomplish right now? In a year? In your life? Do not procrastinate accomplishing goals--you will not accomplish nearly as much if you put it off until the end. Don't trip over your feet trying to get there--take your time and ensure that you are accomplishing your goal correctly and with the right amount of time and effort.
Do we make sure that we put enough time aside for spiritual things? Yes it is important to do the daily things such as eating, exercising, spending quality time with our family, but are we making sure that we are putting time aside for the Lord? It is ESSENTIAL to make time to read your scriptures, pray individually as well as with your family/spouse, attend the temple, etc. Righteous living will strengthen our testimony--knowing the gospel is the true church of God is the basis of our testimony, if you are not doing the little things our testimony itself will begin to crumble.
The best indicator of if/when we have come unto Christ is the way that we treat other people despite how they treat us. By accomplishing spiritual goals we will have better relationships with others; the spirit of contention will truly dissipate when we make the effort to put the Lord in our lives.
Doctrine and Covenants 100:5--
"Therefore verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;" If we are prepared (if you do your scripture study), when you are placed in situations where people are asking you about the gospel, the spirit will bring to mind scriptures that you have read in the past to answer their questions. If we act upon the promptings from the Spirit, we will begin to receive more promptings form the Lord. If we don't, they will cease to com to us.
We have no idea of when trials will come our way; so instead of dreading them or forgetting that we do have trials we need to prepare now for them. That way when trials do come upon us, we will be ready and they will not overcome us. Helaman 5: 12 says-- " 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." Without a firm foundation, our trials will overcome us; without the Lords help we will fail our trials.
Sunday School:
Moroni 7:4-9
"And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.
For remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also.
For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
For hehold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
And likewise also is it counted evil unto man, if he shall pray not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such."
It is not enough for us to do good works; but rather we should WANT to do good works. If we are grudgingly doing acts of service we are doing ourselves more harm then good. Verse 6 has a footnote that tells us to read Leviticus 19:5--
"And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will."
Dallin H. Oaks gave the following in a CES Fireside on 1 March 1998:
6 Principles of Righteous Judgment
- A righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate.
- A righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest.
- To be righteous, an intermediate judgment must be within our stewardship.
- We should, if possible, refrain from judging until we have adequate knowledge of the facts.
- Whenever possible we will refrain from judging people and only judge situations.
- If we apply unrighteous standards, our judgement will be unrighteous.
"But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil."
When making judgment calls, ask yourself "Does______________ invite me to love and serve God? Is ___________ inspired of God?"
Moroni 7:15-19 continues with
"For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.
And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgement which ye judge ye shall also be judged.
Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.
When you are beginning to feel down--as if the world is weighing you down, ask the Lord for help. He wants you to succeed and triumph against them. Moroni 7: 26 & 33 states:
"And after that he came men also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons of God. And as surely as Christ liveth he spake these words unto our fathers, saying: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you...
And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
There are many examples of how the Lord has provided help to those that have had faith in Him not only in the Book of Mormon but also in the Bible--we hear of the children of Israel that were told if they would look at the brass serpent that was fashioned by Moses they would be healed of their bites. The children Israel were starving and thirsty; Christ provided ways for Moses and the children of Israel to have food and water throughout their trip--but they had to have faith.
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