Talk on the Christlike Attribute of Righteousness

 

Gaye Strathearn said, “…calls of discipleship often require alterations to our personal life plans.”  Well, just like she said in discipleship, alterations were required this week as I was asked early on to give this talk.  I have been sick all week and watched as the sickness spread to the majority of our family, I had to get a kid graduated, make sure another kid was prepared and got all his tests taken so he could pass his current grade, go to school myself and do homework all while trying not to go crazy in the midst of it all.  But my guess is that I’m not alone in having a crazy week or even a crazy life while trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  So how do we be that disciple that Gaye Strathearn talked about?  We go with the flow all while remembering what being righteous means and most importantly, we are gentle with ourselves as we fall short at times.

So what does it mean to be righteous?  Elder William R Bradford said that when we are righteous, we embrace the principles of heavenly power.  He says that when we have faith and hope righteousness is fulfilled.  And the Institute manual for the Church says that righteousness is following the example set by Jesus Christ.  I want to go over these 3 examples of righteousness today in hopes that this will help you in wanting to attain this Christlike attribute.  And we can do this all while living in the current world with lives that are busy or lives that are not ideal.

When Elder Bradford said that we show righteousness when we embrace heavenly power, 2 things came to my mind:  the power of the priesthood and the power of truth.  Let’s talk about the priesthood first. 

The Priesthood is the authority and power of God.  It is through this power and authority that Heavenly Father accomplishes what He said in Moses 1:39, “For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”  The holders of the Priesthood are worthy males of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Worthy men have direct access to the blessings of the Priesthood…but so do covenant keeping women.    Both have direct access to the blessings of the Priesthood.  Both can be led by the Holy Ghost, can gain eternal life, can receive personal revelation, can be sealed forever with our families, can have direct council from our Lord through Priesthood blessings, and so much more!  What I am getting at is that we are showing righteousness when we tap into and access these blessings.    Sometimes I think we get caught up in feeling weak and that tapping into these things is almost a needy thing but really, we are showing our personal righteousness by allowing our hearts and Spirit to be blessed by the Priesthood power.  Can you see the “power” in the Priesthood now?

The second “power” that I want to talk about is that of truth.  First of all, the power of the Priesthood is truth.  And as we use the Priesthood to find truth we will find ourselves attaining that attribute of righteousness more and more in our lives.  Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “…as you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart, you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down, and more willing to go where the Lord wants you to go.”  Does that quote not sound like a perfect definition of an attribute of the Savior?  To add to that quote is another one in which President Spencer W. Kimball said, “I have learned that where there is a prayerful heart, a hungering after righteousness, a forsaking of sins, and obedience to the commandments of God, the Lord pours out more and more light until there is finally power to pierce the heavenly veil and to know more than man knows.”  Did you pay attention to that?  The Lord wants us to seek after truth, for truth is righteousness! 

YOUTH

But what if seeking after truth means you feel like you are doubting an eternal truth?  What if you have been taught something in the home or at Church but you have questions?  I personally have had those questions and have felt incredibly guilty about it.  I felt like there was something wrong with me because while everyone around me seemed to know that something was true, I had not gotten that revelation at all!  But remember, we are talking about truths here and to be able to embrace heavenly power means it encircles truth!  And sometimes the only way to find truth is to go searching for it.  Therefore, it can’t be bad! That guilt I was feeling was unnecessary.  Sheri Dew said, “When we have unresolved questions, our challenge doesn’t lie in what we think we know.  It lies in what we don’t yet know…The Lord wants us to ask every probing question we can muster because not asking questions can be far more dangerous than asking them.  In other words, sin makes you stupid- and so does refusing to seek after truth.”

The second thing that Elder Bradford brought up as a key to righteousness is that of having hope and faith.  It put a smile on my face when I read this.  There are many aspects that we can learn from these 2 Christlike attributes but when I personally have to boil it down to what I see faith and hope as I see faith as an action word and hope as a word of pure desire.  There is a time for faith and there is a time for hope and they both are vital in becoming like Christ. 

Being righteous is as if having a Christlike attribute.  In fact, its as if it embodies all of His attributes.  Therefore, to be righteous we need to follow Christ’s example.  This is where we need to remember what I said at the beginning of the talk in being gentle with ourselves.  We will never perfectly embody this during this stage of our lives.  We are human after all.  But every time we put a little effort it, our righteousness increases.  The Prophets wife, Wendy Watson Nelson said, “Every time you pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father, and then listen; every time you study the scriptures seeking answers to the questions of your heart; every time you avoid anything that would wound your Spirit; every time you worship in the temple; every time you find an ancestor’s ordinance-qualifying information, you are choosing to increase your personal purity.”  I love this quote because it goes over the big and the little things that qualify us in our personal purity.  What are the small and big things that we could be better at incorporating into our lives to make sure we are on the path to righteousness? 

Am I taking the time to let Heavenly Father know how I am doing in my life through a heartfelt prayer?

Do I honestly answer a text when a friend has been vulnerable and opened up enough to ask me for a favor?

Do I stop, listen to a child, and then and answer in a loving way to let them know that they were heard?

Do I stop and pick up pieces of garbage in the chapel?

Ok, that last one seems so simple right?  But does it really show righteousness?  One of the definitions of being righteous is to act in a way that Christ would.  Do you think Christ would stop, while walking, to pick up a little piece of trash?  I really think he would.  I remember years ago watching, via satellite, an open house of a temple.  Walking across the lawn of the temple grounds, President Hinkley, all of 90 + years old, stopped, bent down and picked up a little piece of trash and put it in his pocket.  It was so simple.  Yet, to this day I not only remember it but when I am in a Church, I make an effort to find at least one piece (which honestly isn’t that hard) of trash and pick it up.  Its simple but think about it.  If we can’t do the simple things, will be able to do the harder ones like accepting a calling when we fear it will be too hard for us?  Or making a renewed effort to read our scriptures daily? 

But why are we doing any of this?  Why are you here today?  I believe deep down that we all believe that we are acting in some sort of effort to be righteous.  We are not perfect.  But we are trying.  As Jeffrey R. Holland said, “We get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed.”  I think a lot of us believe that being here has to mean something, even if we are struggling.  I’m here to tell you that it does!  It does mean something.  I believe that with all my heart or I wouldn’t be up here making a fool out of myself because we all know I’m not that great of a speaker.  But I’m trying.  And you are trying.  And somehow that brings peace.  We all, as Elder Cook says, “…earnestly hope and pray for universal peace, but it is as individuals and families that we achieve the kind of peace that is the promised reward of righteousness. This peace is a promised gift of the Savior’s mission and atoning sacrifice.”  If you didn’t get that, a promised reward of righteousness is that of peace.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want peace in their lives. 

 -I ended it with my testimony.  It was an interesting experience.  Normally I get really nervous but because I wasn't feeling well, I guess I didn't focus on that.  It went real well.