CC Discuss w/ Friends (Do You Want to Be Happy?)

Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have a living prophet today. Brothers and sisters, the Savior declared, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. Welcome to Conference Chronicles, where we systematically take one conference talk per week from the previous conference and dissect it and learn from it. I'm your host, Taylor Lithgow, and I firmly believe that as we listen to and apply the Lord's teachings through His living prophets, we will fulfill the full measure of our creation and we will be prepared for the Lord at His second coming. So please join with me each week as we take this quest called Conference Chronicles. All righty, brothers and sisters. We are back and at it with another interview and discussion style episode. And we've brought back my good friend, Jeremy. So Alex, who was on last week, is out of town for the week, and so he wasn't able to make it. But super excited to have Jeremy back and discuss this week's episode entitled, Do You Want to Be Happy? by Elder Yoon Won Choi of the Seventy. So let's kind of dive in. He starts the general conference talk by asking a question, do you want to be happy? What makes you unhappy? President Russell M. Nelson said, if you want to be miserable, break the commandments and never repent. If you want joy, stay on the covenant path. Isn't it simple to be happy? Just make covenants and keep them in your lives. So with that kind of as the backdrop of our discussion today, Jeremy, I wanted to kind of start by asking, how has making and keeping covenants in your life brought you happiness and peace? Yeah, I love this question, and it really made me think. So the thought that came to my mind was that, so we were discussing another talk actually in church this past Sunday in elders quorum, and a lawyer brought up the fact that he reads contracts all day. And this talk was also on covenants. And he kind of talked about the contracts he reads and how they're different, et cetera. And my mind was thinking like, one of the best parts of a covenant with our Heavenly Father is that it's a contract facilitated by a perfect being who's our loving Heavenly Father. So contracts, you know, for business or for solar are facilitated by imperfect people who run companies or organizations, and they can mess up, you know. That's why there's legal mumbo jumbo, and that's why a lot of legal people have jobs. So thinking about like this covenant relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father, it brings me happiness because I know that He will always hold up His end. So as I do my part and try to keep my covenants and be better and, you know, consistently and earnestly repent, I know that He will keep blessing me. So that's really what I thought of, like He is perfect at His part, and He allows us the opportunity to grow and to become better at keeping up our part. And thinking of the first covenant that we make at baptism and how we're able to make these promises with God, like He really does, I think, try to teach us from a young age if we're baptized, you know, if we choose to be baptized at eight or whatever age we're at, He's helping us to really see that, like, there is a pattern here. If we keep our covenants, He will bless us. And when we don't, we need to repent, as President Nelson says, and then we're open to receiving those blessings again. So that happiness has just come to me by trying my best and repenting daily, and He just continues to hold up His end. So it's amazing. That is incredible that the promises from His end are always sure. You know, I love that. And what other organization or contract that you think of, if the other end of the party breaks that, their end, tries so earnestly and desperately to help them, you know, keep their end. Oftentimes it's really rigid and sterile. You know, it's not, there's not a lot of love, you know, associated from one side to the other. Yeah. Whereas you have a being, our Heavenly Father, who is perfect in His end, but yet is so merciful, you know, when we don't hold up ours. Yeah. You know, if I could add, just a scripture that came to my mind, it's Doctrine and Covenants section 130, and it's verses 20 and 21, it says, there's a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which is predicated. So going back to your original question of how is making, keeping covenants brought me happiness in this life? I have, you know, as we hopefully all have lived this scripture, like as I have done the little things that almost seem so, so simple, I don't want to call them easy, but our Heavenly Father rewards us for even the little things that we do because He loves us. And as you said, He is going to keep His end perfectly. So I'm grateful for that. Totally. I thought when you, the last part you just said, I thought of the scripture that says by, you know, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. And I think we'll talk a little bit more about that principle as our discussion goes on a little bit, but just how the Lord will magnify our efforts and how when we do make and keep covenants with Him, we become so much stronger than we could have been before. I guess maybe that is a good segue into that question. How have you noticed through your making and keeping covenants that you yourself have become stronger or better or more capable than you could have been on your own? Yeah, I think a lot of that realization has come from where and what and how my covenants lead me in my actions or words or thoughts. Like when I think of covenants, the first thing that comes to my mind is like our temple garments and the temple in general. So every day when we choose to put on our temple garments, it's been said that they're an outward expression of an inward or inner commitment. So every day when I put those garments on, whether I realize it or not, I am actively choosing to accept Christ more and to make a choice to be in the world, but not of the world. And similarly, when I go to the temple, I'm choosing to spend time there. And I could be doing something else. So I think part of the way that our covenants transform and change us, because that was the question, right? How have I seen them change me? Or how have I felt that? Yeah, for sure. I think part of that is what they lead us to do and to become if we accept it and allow it. Totally. Yeah. I think that's also another example of Heavenly Father lovingly helping us to keep our covenants, right? If you're talking about the temple garment being an outward expression of an inner commitment, every time we put them on, it's a reminder of those covenants. I had an institute teacher in college who was a convert to the church, and he has an amazing conversion experience. I don't have time to share it all now, but as a new convert, he would hear the prayer, the sacrament prayer every week where we promised to always remember him. And he was kind of troubled by it a little bit, thinking, man, that's a big task that I'm committing to do each week. And he asked his bishop at the time, you know, so how are we supposed to always remember him? Like, what are some things you think I can do? And the bishop kind of actually was a little bit casual about it, and he's like, oh, well, you know, you can't really do that. Just try your best, you know? Which I don't think is necessarily terrible counsel, but it didn't sit well with my institute teacher because he's like, well, that's not really what I'm promising to do. I'm actually promising to always remember him, not just to kind of do my best. So what he did is he, it was back in the days when a lot of people wore those like digital watches, you know, you can set like little timers or beepers on them. And he would set a beeper to go off on his watch every hour. And every time the beeper would go off, he would take a moment and pause and think of the Savior. And he said that day after day, week after week, month after month, this was happening. And it got to the point he would be like, oh, I wonder when my beeper is going to go off so I can think about the Savior, you know? And he's like, well, hey, I don't even need to wait, right? I can do it now. And it started to really shift his brain to always remember the Savior. So kind of going back to those reminders that the Lord gives us out of love, you know, garments. Every week we have the sacraments, right? There's these things that are little checklist things that we do daily or weekly or whenever it is that help keep us on the covenant path so that we can keep our end of the bargain. Of course, with our master who is perfect, he'll always keep his end. So that's I kind of thought of that when you shared that. So thanks for bringing that up. Oh, that's amazing. So kind of segueing in to maybe discussing why this lifestyle is the way, right? Why it brings happiness that, you know, the verse in the Book of Mormon that says, consider the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God, right? This is the happy path. Why do you think that is, right? And maybe that's an overly simple question. But in your perspective, Jeremy, why do you think that this is the right way that truly does bring happiness and joy? Yeah, as I said earlier, these are great questions and they really caused me to think so I appreciate the time that you put in. When I was thinking about this, what I came down to and it was a thought that I had earlier this week as well, but number one, my covenants helped me to return to live with my Heavenly Father. So the very bottom line is that the reason that this is the lifestyle that I choose to live and the lifestyle that brings me the most joy is because it's the way that our Heavenly Father has given us to live with Him again. So kind of to expound on that, He has a goal and I was thinking about like planning this week and that's where this thought, kind of this train of thought came from, but our Heavenly Father's goal is for His children to come back to Him, right? We read in the scriptures, now behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. So that's His goal. The plan that He has in motion for that is obviously a lot of things, but the very most important part is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, right? He gave us a Savior. There's no other way we could return. I think with that comes the covenants that we make and the opportunity He gives us to change through making those covenants. Those are kind of the thoughts I had, like why do I choose to live like this and why do I feel so good about it? I think it really is just because our Heavenly Father has given us this way to live with Him again. So yeah, that doesn't mean by any means that it's an easy life. I think in this life, it's actually easier to make wrong choices like 90% of the time. I think I could be wrong, that's just my opinion though. Oftentimes, it is harder to choose the right to do something that we feel like God wants us to do or that He would do. But with that being said, when I make those right choices or when I don't and I repent and I return to that path focused on Christ, there's no other place I would want to be because of the joy that I feel. I think the reason that I chose to be here and to walk this path and the reason it feels so good and I feel more joy than I could ever feel anywhere else is because it's the path that He's given us. I hope that isn't coined as an easy answer, but that's my genuine thoughts, what I thought of. Totally. Yeah. It's interesting because choosing the wrong might be easier in the moment, but it's always harder later. Choosing the right might feel harder now, but it always makes our lives simpler and easier later. And so it's kind of like any investment, really. It's kind of hard to invest now, to think of how am I going to save the money or how am I going to put it in now? But as you choose to do the hard thing, you might feel like it's restrictive at first. Oh, I don't have this much money to work with now because I've put it in this stinking investment. What am I going to spend? How am I going to spend my extra money on shoes or clothes or whatever? But you'll be thanking yourself years and years and years later when now you have such a more free and open lifestyle because of the sacrifice you made then. And so the same principle applies here. I also kind of thought when you were talking about how it's just the path that He has laid to bring us back home to Him, the covenant path. So if there is a God, which you and I believe very strongly that there is, but for maybe anyone listening that is questioning whether there's a God, if there is one, think He would know a thing or two about how to navigate this earth that He created. He created this earth and He knows pretty much everything. You probably maybe know a thing or two about how to live this life in a fulfilling manner and a happy manner, and He does. And totally that way is the covenant path, right, what we've been talking about this whole time. Yeah. And I think with that, we talked in seminary this morning actually about Nephi and because we're reading right now about how he, obviously the long travel in the wilderness they had and building the boat, and the Lord didn't give Nephi the tools. He inspired him to know that he can make tools out of rock, which is awesome. So thinking about the tools that we've been given, and we had this talk in seminary, as you said, it is the path to return to live with Him, and if anyone is listening who might be wondering if there is a God, one of the tools that He has given us as we fulfill our end of this covenant relationship is the Holy Ghost. And we talked a lot about that last week, but again, like the way that He allows us to receive revelation, to act on these good thoughts that we have, whatever it is, is through the Spirit. So number one, again, shows that He does love us, but number two, as we keep our covenants, you know, what we are promised at baptism, that first covenant we make is that we will have the Spirit. So again, He has a goal, He has a plan, and He gives us the tools to do our part to work with it. And the very largest of that being the atonement of Jesus Christ, none of this is possible without the atonement, and a large part of that as well is the Spirit. So it's amazing. That's a good point, Jeremy. I hadn't really thought about that specifically leading up to this, but yeah, the very first covenant we make, baptism, He then blesses us with the gift of the Holy Ghost to help navigate all of the rest of the covenants and the rest of our life. It's cool. I think of a covenant, you know, it's a promise, of course, but it's kind of just an indication. It's us showing Him that, hey, we want to be on your side, right? We want to link arms with you. We're going to make a promise with you. And this is how we're showing that. I think of that with other things in life, for instance, last night, I was helping somebody get the solar process started for their home, and they were feeling a little uneasy. They weren't fully committed yet, but we were talking about how we needed to do an inspection on their home to see if it was going to be passed, if we would qualify. We were looking at their roof and everything, and they were like, well, can't we just do that inspection but not have me sign this application first? And I was like, well, we need to sign this application to show our office that you have real intent to do this. We're not just going to send these inspectors to everyone's houses just willy-nilly. We have to pay them to do that, right? So we're not just going to be sending them to every single home. The way that you show that you have a little bit of skin in this game and that you're interested in it is by signing the application, right? And then we can send the inspector over to your house. And I think the same thing with covenants, right? Heavenly Father is like, I want so badly to give you this gift of the Holy Ghost, but it's such a precious gift, and I want to know that you're going to have some skin in the game. Right? So make covenants. Make a promise with me. Right? Show me. Indicate to me. And we do by being baptized. Yeah. And then so on and so forth. And he gives us, you know, more as we make further covenants, but I hadn't really thought about it in that way yet. So I appreciate you pointing that out. Oh, and I love what you said. So with all of that being said, we are not perfect. You know, a lot of times we'll make covenants, and we will kind of stray, you know, from the covenant path occasionally. So I kind of wanted to think about anyone out there who might be off of the path or struggling, you know, finding their way back. And I just kind of want to ask if you had any words of advice or words of wisdom for somebody that maybe doesn't know how or feels like they're not worthy to get back on the covenant path. Yeah. I love this question, too. As I said, like some serious revelation, you know, you sending me these questions is awesome. So this is a really important question for me because I think it's something I take really seriously because not all of my family are in the church, which is totally fine. Some of them have, you know, never been baptized. Some of them have. So this is something that is always prevalent in my life. Not that those who have made covenants have not lived up to them, but just that we've all made different choices with how we want to worship, right? And if we believe in God or what we're going to do, etc. So this is something that like I have topics around this have always been poignant in my life and like I've had to reflect on them and I've had to, you know, in some cases defend my faith with tactfulness and with love, but nonetheless defend it. So I take this, this one, I take all of them seriously, but especially this one, it really stuck out to me. So I think what I would say is actually what Sister or President Emily Bell Freeman talked about in her talk, same, you know, conference year, October of this last year, 2023. It was the first talk I think that she's ever given in conference. It was wonderful. Talks about covenants and she said, speaking of the Savior, she said, his is a mission of condescension. Jesus Christ will meet us where we are as we are. So that's the first thing I would say. If we have strayed from the covenant path, no matter the gravity of the sin, President Holland has told us that, you know, we can do nothing that will sink below the depth that the atonement of Jesus Christ can cover. So no matter the gravity of the sin, first and foremost, I would say that the Savior will meet us where we are as we are. And then she says, this is the why of the garden, the cross and the tomb. So that's the why. She says, the Savior was sent to help us overcome, but staying where we are won't bring the deliverance we seek. His is also a mission of ascension. He will work within us to lift us up to where he is and in the process enable us to become as he is. Jesus Christ came to lift us. He wants to help us become. This is the why of the temple. I love that part. And I'll conclude. She said, we must remember it's not the course alone that will exalt us. It's the companion, our Savior. And this is the why of covenant relationship. So that's what I would say, I think, if we or if anyone who's listening or if anyone you know has strayed from the covenant path, you know, it's never too late. The Savior is always there. It's so simple, but so profound. And I know it's not always that simple. You know, we get these feelings in our head like I'm not worthy. You know, I've been there. I've made mistakes, some way more serious than others. I've been there. But the path is always the same. It's always straight and it always points to Christ. So all we need to do is turn our focus back to Christ more than on whatever the sin is and then take action. And if it's seeking, I mean, it's always going to be seeking forgiveness through the Atonement of Christ in prayer, personally. And there are going to be times where we do need to counsel with priesthood authority because that's, you know, our Heavenly Father is a God of order. He's restored the priesthood. So there's times where we need to seek that help as well. And that's not always easy, but the path is always there. So I think we just need to remember, as President Freeman said, his is a mission of condescension. Jesus Christ will meet us where we are, as we are, and he will help us. Yeah, I just love that. The path is there. It's not going to change. We can always get back on it. We just have to be willing. So, yeah. Thank you for reading that and for sharing your words too. I really like that. That touched me as you read. The Savior condescends, you know, he meets us where we are, but he loves us too much to allow us to stay there. Yep. And so it's also ascending. Yeah. He meets us where we are, wherever we are, however low we are, but doesn't want us to stay there. I thought of this with talking about covenants and how the Savior, when we make covenants, we allow him to be yoked with us. And so we can do and become way more than we could on our own. And why that brings happiness, I was, I kept thinking like, you know, why is, why does that bring happiness? Why is that the way? And ultimately I've noticed that progression equals happiness. It doesn't matter where, like you said, it doesn't matter where we are on the path. We could be at the very starting point. You might feel sometimes like we're behind the starting point, right? Or we might be very well progressed along the path, but happiness comes from progressing every day. When we become stagnant, we are not happy. Our souls crave progression. I actually, that's what heaven is all about, right? Eternal increase. You know, that's, that's what the whole plan is centered around. And so I think making and keeping covenants allows us to progress. And I really like what you said in terms of just instead of focusing on the sin or whatever we've done, just focus our attention on Jesus Christ and somehow all will be well and we'll get back. All of our fears will flee away, you know, when we can look in the Savior's eyes and allow him to come to us. That was really beautifully put. There's this quote actually that we talked about in seminary today that I think goes with what we're talking about and it's by Elder Renlund and he says, speaking of Laman and Lemuel and Nephi, he says, because they were distant from the Savior, Laman and Lemuel murmured, became contentious and were faithless. They felt that life was unfair and that they were entitled to God's grace. In contrast, because he had drawn close to God, Nephi must have recognized that life would be the most unfair for Jesus Christ. Though absolutely innocent, the Savior would suffer the most. The closer we are to Jesus Christ in the thoughts and intents of our hearts, the more we appreciate his innocent suffering, the more grateful we are for grace and forgiveness and the more we want to repent and become like him. So I just think, as we've been talking about, I mean, it really comes down to where our focus is. If we have strayed from the covenant path, and again, I'm not minimizing that at all, it is, you know, those feelings are real of self-doubt and feeling unworthy and feeling like we're not loved and like we're not good enough. Like those feelings are very real. But again, as a light and a beacon of hope to anyone who has ever felt that way or is feeling that way right now, really, if we shift our focus to Christ, it can all be made clean. The penalty has already been paid. We don't need to cause ourselves any more pain. Jesus Christ has taken upon all of that. You know, he's taken that all upon himself, and he has made it right if we are willing to just turn to him and allow him to carry that. So going back to how that relates to our covenants, when we make these promises with him, again, his end and our Heavenly Father's end, it's sure, it's not going to move. So I think we sometimes focus on how we're not good enough, but again, if we just focus on Christ and how he is good enough, he is perfect, he can help us, then it's a shift and we're, you know, we can return to the covenant path. I mean, there's stories of, I think, actually in one of your podcasts, Taylor, you talk about a brother who you taught on your mission who had not been to church in years, and he started to pay his tithing, and he was back at church the next week bearing his testimony. Like, that is the truth. That's what our Heavenly Father wants. It's not, you know, we don't have to beat ourselves up any more than, I mean, we shouldn't. The Savior has covered it all. We just need to be willing to change, to allow him to change us and let us keep growing. I love that. Totally. I think you worded it perfectly. I think in closing, we can probably just maybe share our testimonies and wrap up the episode. Did you want to, I mean, all of our words have been a testimony of themselves, but is there anything, did you want to testify of anything particular before we close? I would just say, again, to anyone who is listening, to everyone who is listening, we do have a loving Heavenly Father, and everything that we've talked about today and everything that Taylor talks about on his podcast is in testimony of the fact that our Heavenly Father does love us. We are his kids, and he sent Jesus Christ to help us return to live with him. So that's my testimony, and I know that that is true because I have sought it out. I've put work in to learn, and I'm continuing to do so, and that can't be taken from me. And I know that it's true. So that's what I would share and do so in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you for sharing that, Jeremy. When you say we're his kids, it kind of makes it a little bit more personal for some Yeah. And I'll testify, too, that he is our father. He's our dad, and he loves us as such. Actually, a perfect father, you know, even more than our own earthly fathers can love us, which is, you know, saying a lot, but he can love us infinitely more. He's perfect. And I know that as we make covenants, Heavenly Father will help us keep those covenants. And as we do so, that is, and not to quote from the Mandalorian, but that this truly is the way, the way to bring happiness. So as the title of the talk asks, do you want to be happy? This is the way to bring happiness. And I know that to be true. And I close that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. So thanks for being on, Jeremy. This is awesome. Thank you, brother. This is really, really fun, what we're starting. So I agree. Hopefully next week we can have Alex on again. And if so, we'll release this episode on Wednesdays, and then the normal episodes will continue on Sunday. So thank you everyone for tuning in and we look forward to keeping this up. Talk to you soon.