Paradox on Promises

As I prepare to be sealed in the temple at the end of this month, I have given reflection to the topic of covenants--and discovered many things I do not know, and more still that I do not fully understand.

Two questions have been mine, which I have pondered in my heart, which I offer to you now.

The first question was to ask Why does God use covenants to grant us eternal life?

Mortality is a stewardship in which we are entrusted with many things which are not our own. A body, a family, all of these earthly possessions, even our very lives—these things do not belong to us. They have been entrusted to us by a living God, through an agreement which we made with him before we came to this life. It is an agreement we accepted here on earth with baptism, and it is the reason we have everything we treasure right now. They are gifts from God because He promised to care for us, and to provide us with an inheritance if we are faithful. If we honor our God and keep His commandments, if we are just and honorable stewards over those things which do not yet belong to us, all of these things we treasure will become ours.

In Luke 16, Jesus teaches:

10 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust in much.
12 “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?”

If we want to inherit eternal life, we must be faithful and build His kingdom with all we have been given in our mortal life. In all that we are, in all that we do, and in all we possess—we must build the kingdom of God. That is the promise we have made in all of our covenants. By doing so, we create the inheritance we shall receive. We shall have an eternal family because we have made an eternal family. We shall have the celestial kingdom because we built our own corner of the celestial kingdom.

 If we have built a lesser kingdom through our words and deeds, that is the gift we shall receive. I believe the phrase my mother would use here—one that expresses my point perfectly—is “You made your bed, and now you lie in it.”

My second question was one of comprehension. Oftentimes in recent conferences and talks in every imaginable setting, I have heard the phrase “Cleave to your covenants,” with the promise that they will provide protection from the temptations offered in this world. And I realized that I didn’t know what it means to cleave to my covenants. They aren’t physical, I can’t touch them, I can’t hold them—so how would I cleave to them?

To cleave to our covenants has two parts. First, it means to maintain our part of the agreement by keeping the commandments of God. It means to live up to who we are and what we've promised, no matter what the cost. Jesus taught:

“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

John 14: 23 (to Judas Isacariot)

I have found that every time I have disobeyed a commandment of God, it was because I simply didn’t love Him enough to do as He said. It was because I had forgotten the worth of His atoning blood in my life, and I had lost sight of His power to rescue me from anything and everything. There is no peace to be found in this world, or in our hearts, until we make peace with Christ. That’s why He always invites us:

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Revelation 3: 20

To cleave to our covenants is no different than to cleave to our Savior. There is no difference between them.

The second part of cleaving to our covenants is to trust God to keep His end of the agreement. We must believe in our hearts that God is our Father and that He loves us. We must have faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and have faith that He wants to forgive our sins and save us. We must trust in the future they have prepared for us, no matter what form that future may take. “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29: 11)

 Isaiah and Paul both testified:

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

1 Corinthians 2: 9

When I was in Brazil, there was a phrase I saw everywhere. It was painted on buildings, printed on store receipts, tagged on the backs of street signs, and was written in many of their hearts. The phrase was “Deus é Fiel.” God is faithful.

We have more reason than anyone else in the world to believe that God is faithful because we are members of His restored Church. We have made covenants with him through His restored priesthood authority. When we cleave to our covenants and keep God’s commandments, having faith in Christ, we can be assured that the future is as bright as our faith.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

To change a Paradox

"Forgive my father"

I took you to the city

carried you in my pocket

a little blue and dog-eared

from long waiting

but still ready

an empty box

that never leaves my mind

I kept looking

over my shoulder

looking for your face

swaying like a pendulum

looking forward

holding back

looking forward

holding back

Until dizzy eye

couldn't see

I fell asleep

my heart calling

(the line was busy)

across time

for no answer

for the answer

for no answer

for the answer

So instead

I took your hand

and prayed

And began to wait

for you

Now instead of

chasing me

through days

and  two ways unsettled

wounded

and

willful

I wait for you

to come to me

to sit beside me

in a calm place

for us to smile

and not to speak

 but to be in a place

At Peace

unchanging

Paradox's Presidente da Missão

Elder Richard G. Scott's talk from General Conference has been weighing on my mind all weekend. Because I am preparing to be married at the end of May, I came into General Conference with a lot of thoughts and questions about how to build a Christ-centered home. His sage counsel reminded me once again of how much admire this servant of Christ for how he exemplifies in this regard.

Yesterday he told of a missionary who was the only member of the Church in his family. At the end of his mission he asked to spend more time at the mission home so he could observe a Christ-centered home and family. I admit, that story brought back some of the most precious memories of my mission because I had the same experience, with the same desire.

My mission president is the most Christ-like man I have ever met, and every time I saw him and his wife I rarely called them by their name or title. To me, they were always Pai and Mãe. That is how I genuinely feel about them. They represent everything I aspire to for my life.

What did I observe in them that engendered this level of esteem? What exactly did they do that I want so much to emulate?

President was always happy. Even when he was under intense pressure from having two districts in his mission, 180 missionaries, and a never-ending list of things to do with local church leadership all over São Paulo, he never complained. He was always smiling. No matter what problems he was having, he dealt with them with inspiration and power, then would laugh with us about them later. I cannot say enough good things about this dedicated servant of Christ. Every time he ever called me filha and said we would be together forever, I believed him and I look forward to it every day of my life.

His wife is in every way as much of a giant as he is. Wherever he was, she was there. I had the privilege of worshiping in the temple together with them as the witness couple, and I will never forget that experience. Having made that connection with them in those roles, I always see them there at the altar--giving everything they have to the Lord. Sister Pinho taught me about sacrifice and love, and what it means to support your husband through anything and everything. I can only imagine the conversations they had about all of us and how best to care for us, like only loving parents would. They helped me through some of the hardest challenges of my life, and they always did it together. I felt the love of a mother every time I was with Sister Pinho, even when she had to correct me for something I was doing wrong--like feeling sorry for myself, or drying my clothes in the microwave.

When I think about the mission home they created, part of me longs to be back there. I have been inside of million dollar mansions before, but none of them compare to how rich our mission home always seemed--and not just because those were the best 4 or 5 showers I took my whole mission. (President always used to joke that we loved being there because of the carpet.) But really, it was because their home felt like the safest, cleanest, purest place in São Paulo. The only other place we could feel such a spirit was in the temple. It was all the purity of being inside of the temple with the ability to talk and laugh with the people we loved as dearly as our own family. Sister Pinho's pão de quejo could make me cry right here, it was so good and I miss it so much because of the love I could taste in every bite.

The thing I treasured most was how they treated me like an equal--a powerful servant of Christ. They treated me with a love and respect so powerful that my entire self-perception changed. I saw myself as someone who could do miracles and follow Christ anywhere, even into hell--which is exactly where my service took me sometimes. When my self-confidence crumbled, they were there to build me up again in the image of my Savior. My life has been forever changed by nothing short of who they are.

I saw a thought that said that if I am able to see further than anyone ever has, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. That is how I view President and Sister Pinho. They are two of the tallest spiritual giants I have ever met personally. They have lifted me up to heights I had no idea I could reach.

I want to be like them because I know that if I do, I will become truly Christ-like.