So you have come to the Disciple of Christ/Priorities class? Did you come here because there was no seating in the other classes? Be honest:). Or did you come here because you felt like you needed some help on knowing what becoming a disciple means? Or do you feel like you are striving to become a disciple and just wanted some encouragement and inspiration to keep moving forward? Wherever we are all at, we are all welcome. The Lord said, “Come Unto Me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest…My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He welcomes all people, male and female, bond and free to Come Unto Him. We could spend hours discussing what Come Unto Him/becoming a disciple means and how to do it. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will attend this class and be with all of us that we can learn how to be better disciples of the Lord by organizing our priorities so that our desires and our actions are one with His.
The 1st Step that I am going to focus on is The Plan:
Before God created the earth and man, He had a plan, it was The Plan. The Plan of Exaltation, The Plan of Happiness, and it goes by many other names as well but most of you have heard of it:). Just like God, it helps to have a plan when we want to become a disciple of Christ. A plan or a goal is critical in achieving anything. So here is what the plan of discipleship might look like.
0. We must be introduced to Jesus Christ and begin to have faith in Him
1. We have a desire to become a disciple of Christ
2. We study, ponder and pray. Good places to go are the scriptures, the Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, the words of the living and deceased prophets, the Life of Jesus, the Lives of the Prophets and faithful saints throughout the ages, mentors that have walked down the road of discipleship and have been successful.
3. We need to practice one principle of discipleship at a time until we do it well and then while we nurture that principle, if we can, we add another.
4. We need to be tried and tested, refined if you will, and be faithful to the end.
5. We speak with The Savior face to face and know that He Is, either in this life or the next.
This may seem simple but it is anything but. And by writing it out so linearly don’t be fooled into believing that this process is linear. It is very cyclical. Because let’s be honest, becoming a disciple is multifaceted and life demands more of us than simply becoming a disciple right? I mean even Peter and John and others of the Apostles of old were fishermen, husbands and fathers, Mary and Martha, and the other women who followed Jesus as his disciples were sisters, mothers and wives with many demanding responsibilities. In fact we find in all of these good people’s lives, the tug and pull of daily responsibilities in conjunction discipleship. They sometimes left their nets and meal preparations but other times had to focus on those chores as they tried to balance and prioritize their discipleship. They didn’t always succeed in doing the right thing at the right time but they continued to try in faith so that their families would be fed and so that they could fulfill all the Lord required of them.
The 2nd Step I want to focus on is: Deciding to Give our Lives and Hearts to the Lord:
In the first step of creation, Heavenly Father didn’t create man (of course I mean men and women when I say man). He had a plan and the plan had an order. He had to organize matter first to create a world. Then He had to create the world. Then He had to divide the Light from the Dark. Then they had to separate the water from the dry land. Then He had to create plants and then animals. It wasn’t until He had prepared a place for man that He could create man.
Here is matter unorganized. How do we take the ‘matter’ of our lives and begin to organize it? The only way I know of is to pray and read our scriptures, attend the temple and move forward with your day to day life. Creation of a Disciple is not something we can do by simple willing it to happen, or creating a plan like a CEO of a company would do it (unless that CEO is full of the Spirit of the Lord and being led by Him:). We can’t do it by positive thinking alone, we need the help of The Creator to Create discipleship in us. So in order for this to happen, we have to Come Unto Him…there that phrase is again, Come Unto Me.
We have to somehow, give our hearts and lives over to Him and find out what is the next step. This may be one of the toughest parts of becoming a disciple and it may not happen right away. But it has to happen nonetheless. Maybe it is just simply saying in a prayerful, sincere moment, “Lord, you have permission to lead me.” Or Lord, “I give you my heart.” Or maybe there isn’t a word said but you simply begin doing what His Will is for you. How ever you start, this part is critical. I read a great story by a Russian author once that told of a good man who really wanted to find God but he couldn’t find him in the Russian Orthodox Church’s complicated rituals. So he searched for God in the great philosophers of old and modern times but couldn’t find him. All the time he was searching, this good man was working the land, serving others selflessly, being kind when others were not, working and striving to become better than he was before and in the end found that by living his life righteously to the best of his knowledge, he did know God and had become like him. My point is that becoming a disciple doesn’t mean you have to go through some great ritual but somehow, somewhere you have to want to be more like Jesus and eventually choose to follow the Savior and give your heart to Him.
The Third Step of Becoming a Disciple that I want to address is: The Creation:
In creating a disciple of Christ, or better put, becoming a disciple of Christ you have to understand what matter you are working with. I am sure Jesus Christ knew what elements He was working with when He created the earth. I am sure He left unimportant matter alone and only used the important matter. He obviously didn’t use all the matter in the infinite space that He had to work with. He chose carefully what matter was needed and organized it.
In order to begin to create within us discipleship and Come Unto Jesus Christ we have to take an honest assessment of our lives. We have to take a hard look at the “matter” in our lives, what we have to work with. In the next 2 minutes I want you to write down everything you did yesterday from when you pulled yourself out of bed in the morning to when you closed your eyes on your pillow last night. Don’t be so specific that it will take you 10 minutes. For instance, you don’t have to write “For breakfast, I got a box out of the cupboard, opened it, pulled a Twinkie out, unwrapped it and ate it quickly.” Instead write, “I had a Twinkie for breakfast,” or “I wore my same old dirty clothes” or “I read 3 verses of scripture” or whatever. In other words, you won’t need a blow by blow of every motion you made, just try to capture honestly a snapshot of your day. Also, if yesterday was not a normal day, you can use the day before but don’t do any day farther out, I want you to remember the details as best as you can. Ready go.
While you are writing, I will share a short story about where I learned this little exercise that I am putting you through right now. At BYU, I had a class…I don’t remember the name…but I think it was a general elective class that helped focus freshmen towards their goals in life. In that class the teacher had us do a simple but profound exercise. She asked us to journal the things we spent our time on during the week. Not the things we meant to do but the things we actually did ever day. We did this for a week or two and then we sat down and discussed it. I highly recommend that you do this. Joseph Smith said, “No one can ever enter the Celestial Kingdom without being strictly honest.” (Joseph Smith the Prophet by Truman G. Madsen, page 104). I believe that in order to be a disciple that is growing closer to Jesus, we have to be strictly honest with ourselves. No real growth can happen if we are not strictly honest. One of the ways of being strictly honest with ourselves is taking a hard look at how we use the minutes and hours of our days. So don’t skip this part, it could be very revealing:).
Now that you are done, or finishing I want you for the next two minutes to write your most sacred and important goals down on the next blank piece of paper. In our lives we need to know what “matter’s most” so that we can organize the matter in our life starting with what we have and moving towards what we want to have. I have listed some of my goals over the years as I have tried to become a better disciple of Christ. You will notice some of traditional “church” goals and some are maybe less thought of as “disciple” or “Coming Unto Jesus” goals but all are. They are goals specific to my discipleship. (*Note that my goal list wasn’t always this detailed or long. It started out much more basic but as I was able to accomplish one line, I would move to another while continuing to nourish the habits/principles that I had achieved.)
I. Living with Heavenly Father in the Highest Level of the Celestial Kingdom.
a. Doing what is right
b. Saying my prayers
c. Reading my scriptures
d. Going to my church meetings
e. Serving faithfully in my Visiting Teaching and other Callings
1. Setting aside time on Sunday and Wednesday to fulfill my assignments
2. Being prayerful about the sisters I serve with and serve
3.
f. Attending the Temple regularly
g. Being married in the Temple so that I can be together with my family forever.
1. Strengthening my marriage by talking with my husband on the way to and the way home from his work
2. Going to the temple together
3. Friday night date night every week
4.
II. Home Schooling my Children
a. Enjoy my amazing children
b. Helping them find their talents, roles and missions
c. Starting at 9 a.m. every morning with Devotional
d.
III. Developing my talents and sharing them
a. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. to write
b. Drawing and painting every day from 12:00 to 2:00 while children read and write
c.
IV. Becoming a Disciple
a. Reading Neal A. Maxwell’s book Men and Women of Christ, or President Hinckley’s Biography, or Joseph Smith the Prophet by Truman Madsen, or Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson, or whatever the book or conference address is…
1. Underlining key principles I need to start doing or improve on
2. Make a goal about the most important principle I need to work on.
3. Follow up on that goal on Fast Sunday
Now is the hard part. Once we have the real and honest picture of what we do with our time each day…do they match up with our most important goals? If they don’t, how can we do better? What is one way we can become more congruent with our deepest desires and our daily actions? These are the tough questions of Discipleship. But the good news is that when we put our hearts and lives into the Lord’s hands, we can get there one step at a time. He will lead us, if we listen. And if we falter or fall, we can repent and turn to Him and try again.
Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I had quite a few things in my life in order. I was faithful in the church, had a good marriage, had three beautiful daughters who were under the age of nine and was pregnant with my fourth child but I felt the Lord wanted me to increase my discipleship. It was during General Conference when I had this deep yearning to serve the Lord by serving His Children in the world. Again, I had the other things in my life in order (not perfect, but in order). Shortly after that Conference I began to dream and daydream about a fantasy story. I had written in my journal since I was nine and a year or two before this General Conference I had begun to write parts of my life’s story that I thought were interesting and though I hadn’t finished it, it taught me how to storyboard ideas and write better. It prepared me for when this fantasy began to unfold in my mind. I began writing it down and more and more parts began to materialize. Even though I was pregnant and home schooling my children, I would take spare moments while waiting for swimming lessons, or in the shower or even while going to the bathroom (as a mom you take what you can get sometimes), or before I fell asleep or when I was waking in the morning after a good dream and think about my ideas or write them down. By the time my fourth child was born, I had the basic storyline down and though I often felt frustrated because of my lack of time and energy, my story continued to unfold, while I was nursing or while I was up comforting a child during the night.
Remember that while I am doing all this, I am trying to keep the other principles of discipleship in order, saying my prayers, reading my scriptures, fulfilling my callings, building my relationship with my husband and children, homeschooling, etc…Very often this new responsibility the Lord asked of me, fell to the bottom of the pile. I don’t remember exactly when but around the time either right before or right after my son was born I felt impressed at another General Conference that I needed to start arising at 4:30 in the morning to write, so that I could focus on my family during the day time when they needed me…Sure…You have to know that I had been working on getting to bed at a decent time for years. I was a night owl for my whole life, so going to bed on time wasn’t my strength. But to get up by 4:30?!! I was sure the Lord had the wrong number. But I tried. I tried really hard. I fasted and prayed and struggled and failed often. In fact I would say that I only succeeded at getting up by 4:30 two or three times a week, if that. I would often go weeks without getting up on time Even now, I am only consistently getting up three or four times a week at that hour. But I am not giving up. Every time I try to get out of this, things fall apart. I know the Lord wants me to do this but my son is now 6 ½ and I am only about %50 in my ability to obey my Heavenly Father in this command.
But with all my failing, I have been greatly blessed. I finished writing and editing my first fantasy novel about 6 or 7 years after I began. It is about the size of New Moon for those of you who can relate to that. I also have the entire series of three books plus a prequel (that will be published at the end of the series) mapped out and have painted over ten paintings to go with my series. Some day I will get up every morning at 4:30 but until then, I am going to keep doing what the Lord wants me to do. I see that writing this novel came out of the deep desire of my heart to bless other people’s lives and to serve them but I also see that the Lord is using this novel to make me a better disciple of Christ.
I know that as we nourish the most important things in our lives and desire to become a disciple of Christ, the Lord will lead us patiently by the hand. I know that each of our lives are in very different places right now. I know that we each have very different backgrounds and circumstances. I know that we each have very different talents and gifts to share. But I also know that the Lord has invited all that are heavy laden to Come Unto Him and he will give us rest. I know that His burden is easy and his yoke is light and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Some afterthoughts:
Stories of Jesus…coming to know Him. Jesus the Christ. Kingdom and the Crown. Stories of disciples.
Trials…how trials help us to Come Unto Him or destroy us. We either trust the Lord and grow closer to Him and more like Him or we get hurt and close our heart off and grow farther away.
What does discipleship look like?
It looks different for everyone.
For me it has to do with being a wife and mother, callings in the church and writing books.
For others it may look differently…talents, professions, service in the church and out of it, family, children, trials lived through faithfully,
What does your discipleship look like?
How do we find out our life’s missions?
Study Patriarchal Blessings
Pray, fast, temple, attend meetings
Look at what our talents are.
Ask family members and close friends what they think we are good at.
Serve in our callings and see what we are good at.
Accept opportunities that seem to come randomly to us. Opportunities to serve in church, community, business opportunities, odd jobs, etc…
Discipleship is different for everyone.
My mom faced huge trials that came to her and was faithful. She is an example to many as she serves as a wife and mother while fulfilling callings, doing her genealogy, and serving in the temple.
Steve Young felt his football skills were a mission he had in this life.
Sheri Dew is a Disciple of Christ and has been her whole life. A single woman who would love to be married but is serving the Lord valiantly in any way she can. She was a member of the General Relief Society Presidency. She was CEO of Deseret Book. She wrote at least three Biographies of prophets. (President Benson, President Hinckley and President Monson). She walks and serves alongside the prophets and apostles and spends her life encouraging and strengthening women and Heavenly Father’s Children all over the world. She has been a speaker in high profile arenas such as the United Nations counsel on families.
I know a woman who dedicated her life to Jesus and went through a lot of difficult trials, got divorced, remarried a nonmember and stayed faithful in the church, developed her singing, dancing and acting abilities and teaches others to develop theirs. While doing all this she has raised good children and is helping raise her grandchildren and serves faithfully as a seminary teacher while praying that her husband will go to the temple with her someday.
I know a woman who felt her life’s mission included having a large family in a day and age when that isn’t often done. She did and had seven of her 11 children serve missions (more are still too young to be able to go on missions yet) she serves faithfully in the church in anyway the Lord asks her to do.
I know a woman who came from the street gangs of California to the church. She married and is working to raise a family. Her mission is to break the chains of divorce and keep her family together so her children can have a easier time of it when they are married.
I know a young man who is a very gifted writer. He is also very business minded and wanted to go to school for something that would make him a lot of money. But sometime during college he listened to people who know him the best and knowing he would never make a great amount of money at it, he began to study English and technical writing. He is now waiting for a response from Harvard on whether they will publish his Master’s Thesis.
I know a great man who was in my Stake Presidency as a youth. He was a great lawyer and made lots of money. He was a dedicated father and husband and died faithful to the Lord. He was one of my spiritual mentors and I watched him closely when his wife died and he had to go on. He never gave into the trials, wife dying at a young age leaving him with 6 children, missing his wife, tremendous back pain, children falling away and going through tough times.
Think about the prophets who were faithful as husbands and fathers and in their callings and in their professions and through their trials.
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