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The transcription is a discussion about the importance of knowing that we are children of God and how it affects our self-view and the way we navigate life's challenges. The hosts mention a story from a conference talk about a father who temporarily lost his son and relate it to God's love for us as His children. They discuss how knowing our divine identity gives us confidence, purpose, and the ability to overcome challenges. They emphasize that God's love for us is unconditional and that challenges are opportunities for growth and blessings. 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. Hello, hello, everybody, and welcome back to this week's episode of Conference Chronicles with Friends, Discussed with Friends, and we have back both Jeremy and Alex this week. Excited to have you both. Hello, guys. Let's go. Excited to have this discussion on the talk from Elder Alan T. Phillips entitled, God Knows and Loves You. He starts this talk by telling a story of being on a road trip with his family and they stopped at a service station to kind of, you know, probably get some food or go to the bathroom and have a little rest and they hop back in the car and they're about 15 minutes down the road when his eldest son asks an important question, where is Jasper? It turns out that Jasper is one of their children and his son's sibling and they were in a panic and turned around quickly, called the cops, said, hey, we left our son here at the service station, can you go to make sure he's okay? And they zoomed back and by the time they got there, they found Jasper safe in one of the cop cars playing with the buttons, as he says, and there was some comedic relief in his story, but it was kind of rooted in seriousness and worry and anxiety, you know, for a father who felt like he maybe had lost his son, possibly. And so the basis of the talk is kind of centered around the story of how a perfect loving father cares for and loves us each individually and perfectly. And so with that as the backdrop of our discussion with you guys, I kind of wanted to open up with the question of how does knowing that you are sons of God and that he knows you perfectly and loves you perfectly, how does that affect the way that you view yourself? It means everything. It tells me who I am. So it's like, oftentimes I'll think of myself as just this human or just Alex and or like my career, like, oh, I'm a salesman or whatever it is, right. And so just remembering that ultimately my identity is I'm a son of God and therefore I am of God, I am divine. And so if I find myself judging myself or looking down on myself or speaking harmfully to myself, I'm really only doing that to God. When you're in the service of your fellow beings, you're only in the service of your God. When you're hurting your fellow beings or yourself, you're only hurting your God. Yeah, I like that. I like that perspective, too, because sometimes you'll get asked to define yourself, right? In in a few phrases, right? Well, I'm a I'm an athlete or I'm a salesman or you know, I'm, I'm short, I'm tall and strong and skinny, like, like certain ways to describe ourselves. But hopefully, the first thing that comes to our mind is, I'm a son of God, right? I'm a child of God. Totally. And none of those things that you said is what you are, right? They're all what you're experiencing, right? Like you said before, I'm not a human being having a spiritual experience. I'm a spiritual being having a human experience. I love that. I do, too. I really like that shift. What about you, Jeremy? Any thoughts on how knowing you're a son of God impacts the way you view yourself? Yeah, I agree. I love what you guys shared. I think the only thing I would add is just, as I go about each day, I think it helps me to live differently. Like, if I encounter a negative experience, or I'm going through a trial, it helps me to just know that I can get through it because He knows me perfectly. And I'm not going to experience anything that is not able to be overcome through my Savior. And also because of my divine heritage, like Alex was saying, it just gives me greater purpose. I know that I can become like God. For some people listening, that might be a bold statement. I know that I can become like God because that's what the Scriptures teach us. And that's the path He's given us. It's to become like Him. He commands us in the Bible to be perfect eventually. And we know that that is possible through the principles and ordinances of the gospel and through living righteously and through depending on the atonement of Christ. So yeah, I'm grateful for that. If it doesn't engender a little bit of confidence in yourself knowing that you're intended to become like God, I don't know what does. I mentioned this quote in the Bible a couple episodes ago, but it says, we're children of God, joint heirs, and if children then heirs, right? Joint heirs with Christ. And that definitely engenders confidence in me too. I'm not telling myself that I'm great and capable on my own. God's telling us that. You're mine. You're mine. You know, as Elder Phillips in his talk later says that about his son. You know, he said, the thing about Jasper is he's mine. God's saying that about us. The thing about Alex, the thing about Jeremy, the thing about Taylor is they're mine. They're my sons. And they can become like me. And I agree. And just one other thing that I was thinking of, it's not a coincidence that the missionaries teach usually the first discussion being the restoration. The first principle of that discussion is that we have a loving Heavenly Father. I think if you look at it, even if somebody has had a background in religion, but especially if they haven't, knowing that that's the first thing they learn about our beliefs kind of speaks for itself. That's who we are. It's deeply rooted within us. I mean, we are His. We can become like Him. Totally. Yeah, in the Bible dictionary with prayer, it talks, there's a discourse on prayer. And one of the things it says is that many of the challenges that arise in prayer in the world come from forgetting the relationship that God is our Father and we are His children. And it said that once we can grasp that concept, then all of a sudden prayer becomes natural and instinctive. And I thought of that, you know, whenever you were explaining how the missionaries, the first lesson is God is our loving Heavenly Father, you know, restoration, but that's the first point of it. Because I think ultimately that's kind of the basis of everything that we build off of, right? Probably the most commonly sung primary song, you know, you're all smiling, you know what it is, I'm a child of God, right? Because I think that once we understand that, everything else kind of makes sense. Do you have anything you wanted to add, Alex? One thing that I thought of when you were talking about that is Jesus Christ, as well, we're talking about Heavenly Father, because He is our Father. And then Jesus Christ, because of His creating the world, He is the Father of the creation. Yeah. So He's the Father of our bodies in a way, I mean, He created all this matter. And then He's the Creator, or He's the Father of our salvation because of His atonement. And so He becomes our Father, we become His children in that way, or we're begotten, we're born of Him again, again, we're born again in Jesus. And so it's just important to remember that, I think, and how I feel like Jesus is telling us that He loves us, because we are His, He bought us with a price. And so we are worth every effort, if we don't give ourselves the effort that we deserve, and then we're not showing that we care about what He did. And that it's like what He did wasn't of any worth. Yeah, He bought us with a great price. Your walls are continually before me, I've graven you, you know, on the palms of my hands. I love Him for that. That was a good perspective. Thank you. Yeah. Jeremy, you kind of mentioned when you were talking about how understanding that you're a son of God helps you navigate life's challenges a little bit, you mentioned that as you were talking earlier, I kind of wanted to ask you guys too, is how do life's challenges take on a different meaning when you think of it in the context of us being children of God? Do you think, everyone goes through challenges, of course, in the world, and not everyone has that perspective of, I'm a child of God, and sometimes even people that do, they might think, oh, I'm going through this challenge because God's upset with me, right, or He hates me, or I'm not favored by God, or depending on somebody's belief system, that really might impact the way they view challenges. So I kind of wanted to ask you guys, like, how knowing that you're a child of God or son of God impacts the way you view life's challenges? Well, I feel like it's easy sometimes to look at challenges as like, you're being punished by God. But really, everything that God does for us is because He loves us. Right. So whether it's a great blessing, and really anything can be a blessing, if it's a trial that He's put in our path, that's there to bless us, it's there to strengthen us. And so I was talking to my brother recently, he said something like, trying to find that balance between loving myself and also being hard on myself, like, to push myself, but also to show compassion. And then the discussion we had kind of turned into, well, really, both those things are loving yourself. It's not finding a balance between loving yourself and, like, pushing yourself, it's all loving yourself, because if you did too much coddling, then you wouldn't really love yourself. If you were too hard on yourself, that's not love either. And so I think God, He wants us to just grow and develop, become like Him. And so we can just remember that if He asks us to do anything, we know He has our best interests. We can always trust that we can keep His commandments. If we're asked to, I was talking with one of the youth recently, and he was deciding if he wants to go on a mission or not. And he said, I know that God wants me to go. I just don't know if I should go. I don't know if it's the best thing for me to do. So I helped him kind of see, like, but you know God wants you to go, then you can take full confidence, right, that it 100% is, He's only going to have you do things that are only going to be the best things for you. Right. That's kind of funny. I mean, of course, it's a youth, you know, it's a youth perspective, and there's a lot they can learn and grow. And thankfully, like, that youth had you, you know, to talk to them. But that is so funny. I know God wants me to go, but I might know a little bit better. Yeah, exactly. Like, what I think might be a little smarter than the Creator, you know, or, you know, the Father of our spirits. Thanks for sharing that. I would just add, I mean, it's, I think Alex summed it up really well, but just with what President Nelson, the Prophet has said about thinking celestial, that's really what came to my mind. If we can become like God and we are His children, then anything that happens to us, as Alex said, is going to be for our betterment. So I think as we exercise faith, our conversion to Christ grows. And as our conversion to Christ grows, when we come up to these trials, and maybe this is just my perspective or my feelings, but I think when we face certain trials, it's not like we just shrug it off. But in a sense, we're just like, yeah, like, and not even that you expect it, but just that it's like there. And yeah, I know that I can get through it with Christ, you know, I know what I need to do. Like we talked about in work all the time, controlling the inputs, and I know that my inputs in the gospel are things that I can control, use my agency to continually deepen my conversion. So I guess, I don't know if I said that correctly, but that's kind of my perspective. I think I agree with what Alex said, like, anything that happens is for our betterment, if we stay focused on the prize, which is the celestial kingdom with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ and his atonement. So yeah, I think that's a good point. It's like if you're focused on the on the prize, right, if you're focused on where you're going, then all of the trials and challenges, they just become kind of in your peripheral it's not dominating your very being, right, you just know that it's part of the journey. I like that because I think of that way with with goals, right, I have a goal for myself for the year for work, right, and sometimes you get cancels, right, sometimes you sign somebody up and they cancel, or sometimes you run into other competitors, right, other companies in our area, like whatever it is, right, you run into these little speed bumps, but hey, like, that doesn't matter. My eyes are set on the goal. So I hadn't really thought of challenges for some reason, in that perspective, so I really like that. And then just that second what you said, Alex, it's I think, simply put, you know, realizing that because God loves us, and he wants the best for us, he'll never allow us to go through something that can't help us improve and be better. Yeah, and to that too, a lot of times we face a challenge or trial in our life that we might think, he put us in this, but really, we created that ourselves, right? Sometimes we can create challenges or trials that he's not like, you need to go through this addiction or through this whatever, right? So then he's the most brilliant, perfect, loving father that can even turn those into things that will help you and bless you. Totally. Yeah, yeah, there's always a way. You know, no matter it's like one of those games, have you guys ever played those games where like, you make a decision, and it leads to, it gives you these options, but if you made the other decision, it leads to the other options? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I don't know what they're called. I don't remember exactly. I remember this, what you're talking about, but I don't remember exactly what it looks like. Yeah. Yeah. But life is ultimately like that. Yeah. It's like you make a choice, right? And there's consequences to that choice, of course, but no matter what the choice is, we can never go too far away from the path that we can't be redeemed. Of course. We cannot do anything that's too bad, that Jesus at one point is like, I just, I can't cover that sin. I'm sorry. I can do that to a certain point. Yeah. No, he will never give up on us. Yeah. He drank to the very last drop in the garden and on the cross. He knows it all. I, of course, kind of a segue, just as Jesus did it all for us, how is, I know this is kind of the, it's on the same token, you know, maybe it's just the other side of the token of how knowing you're a son of God impacts how you view yourself. I wanted to ask, how does knowing you're a son of God impact the way that you view other people in the world? Yeah. It just helps me when I view others as a child of God, it helps me, I think, to have more charity. Right. And if I'm being completely honest with myself and with you guys, this is something that I still struggle with. I think my wife and people who know me closely, probably you guys just think that I'm the kindest person, and I try to be, but obviously we all have struggles. There's family in my life that I think it can sometimes come out the most clearly, like with our family or those who we spend a lot of time around. So I've seen this with certain instances in my family where I need to remember that we are divine, and they are divine, and I need to treat them as such. And don't get me wrong, my relationship with most of my family is thankfully really tight, but there are just instances, especially when it does come to as interesting as it is religious topics where things are said that might be hurtful, you know, and so it's, you just have to remember, we are children of God. I just think, you know, it is hard. I mean, all of these things that we discuss on this podcast are hard, you know. The only way we can do it, as Alex said, is through the Atonement, and there's no other way to put it, but when I am thinking about people as God sees them, it just changes everything. But it is hard. It'll continue to be, I think. Yeah, I think that's a good thing to point out, because when we talk about these things, we talk about them like they're so definitive, and we're just, you know, it just is what it is, and we're just doing it, right? But quite frankly, we don't do it perfectly at all, you know, because I'm with you. It's amazing how often I need to correct my thoughts and think, like, why would I think this negative thought about this person? You know, God would not want that. God wants me to love myself because I'm his child. God wants me to love his children because they're his children, you know, so I'm with you. So it does shift the way that I think about others, but then it's so easy to forget sometimes. It is, and I think that's a really good point, Jeremy, and just thinking about how, like Taylor was just saying, why am I thinking about that person, and then you start judging yourself, right? Yeah. So it's like a cycle of just— I'm bad now. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to just remember, oh yeah, I am a human, and I am divine, but at this moment in eternity, I'm also a human, and kind of giving yourself some grace, but then you put that awareness on it, and then you can shift that. Okay, I'm going to love this person. And so to answer your question, the thought that I had is just very similar, but just you look at another person, and if we are divine, of course they are also divine. It doesn't matter what life they're living, what lifestyle they're living. God loves that child. Jesus paid the same price for that person, even if they're doing awful things. He wants them to repent. He wants them back, just as much as he wants me back, and so I can look in the eyes of another person, and if I look long enough, I can see eternity, and I can see God, and Jesus has seen everything through all of our perspective, and this is kind of getting a little bit deep, but I had this thought once of just, okay, if Jesus has basically experienced everything I have, and that he has, or she has, I can look in their eyes and see the Savior's eyes, because he's looking back at me through their eyes, and so is in all of us. I am in you, and we are all one. We are not separate. We are all one. And just remembering the way I treat you is the way I treat myself. Another quick thought I had was, I remember there was a conference talk a few conferences ago where he, somebody was talking about how, I think it was a missionary that was really frustrated with his companion, and thinking about how different he was, and a challenge he was, and how maybe he was a better missionary than his companion, and then his perspective was, you know, between comparing you two to Christ, you two aren't all that different, and so I think you can, it's easier to compare. I think it was Elder Renlund. I think so too. I'm not sure completely, but I think. You can look at someone and think you're better, or worse. You can compare yourself to someone and think they're so much better than you. When I think about the world's way of looking at things versus God's way, everything that Alex said was the divine way of looking at things. When you were talking about how no matter who the person is, what their background is, what their life is like, we can see them as God sees them. When I think about the worldly point of it, if you're driving and you see a homeless person or someone who maybe has a lot of tattoos or someone who is, I don't know, even just like drunk or something, I think that oftentimes people judge, but if we look at God's way of looking at that person, it's just so easy to see how the adversary is just trying to cloud our goggles, if you will, our spiritual glasses. We should have compassion. We should love them. We should treat them no differently. If anything, we should give them more love because they need it, but Satan over here just tells us, yeah, that person, how could they, what are they doing to themselves, what are they doing to the people that they care about, but no, it should be what can we do for them to help them know that we care about them, that God does. Just a thought I had while you were talking. That one fell a lot. Totally. I had a couple thoughts as both of you guys were speaking. One of them was, I heard this on my mission, but I think it was President Monson telling a story of a missionary who had had a lot of success in bringing a lot of people under Christ and helping them be baptized. And so he asked him, what is it? How are you having so much success? And he said, well, the first time I sit down with somebody, I look at them and I picture them all in white, and I picture them walking into the waters of baptism and making covenants with their Heavenly Father. And so that alters the way that I treat everybody. And I just thought that was so powerful, right? That shift. It kind of goes to the idea of if the prize is the celestial kingdom, if that's what our eyes are on, then nothing will really detract us or cause us to deviate from that. If you're viewing somebody that way, there might be things that come up, right? But if that's your main focus on how you're thinking of them, it will really impact what you do and how you treat them. And then the other thing I thought of, Alex, when you were talking about eyes and you look at somebody's eyes, you can see the Savior's eyes. We're all familiar with this passage in Matthew 25, but I'm going to read it. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in hunger, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. I love that scripture. Me too. I think that it's literal in a way. Of course it's symbolic, obviously, but at the same time, because Jesus suffered for everyone, there in some way is a piece of Him in us, kind of. And I believe that all the good deeds that we did, or at least all the relationships that we developed, can and will be perpetuated forever. And we'll be able to see all of those people again, and see our Savior. And it will be like a beautiful moment that our minds probably can't conceive now, like with our limited ability to think and process things. But I guess what I'm saying is, I just believe that when I said I think it's literal, I think there's going to be some miraculous way for us to all at once see everyone that we love, and the Savior, and just feel it all. And truly feel the message of what He said here, that inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brother, and you've done it unto me. I think so too, Taylor. I think that there will be this miraculous reunion, and time is so... We live in a time-bound reality, and God does not. And so He'll be able to, who knows, present us, or have us experience, remember all these people, or meet them. Yeah. Maybe as if it's happening now. Yeah. Yeah. One thing that I thought of when you were saying that was just how truly we cannot love Heavenly Father and not love His children at the same time. Yeah. We can't think ourselves more righteous. Jesus talked about how there's these people who are keeping all the commandments and doing all these things, but then they think they're better than the sinners, quote-unquote. Right. And then there's the sinners, quote-unquote, who are humble, and are seeking help, and are wanting to improve, and those are the ones that He was really spending time with, and that's what it's all about, is not thinking, now that I'm doing all this, I'm better than you guys. Yeah. We all rely on Him. And so the way we treat each other is just a reflection of how we really feel about our God. Yeah. Yeah, most definitely. I kind of started thinking, too, about God's commandments, and it kind of maybe ties in line with the conversation you're having with the youth, saying, you know, I know God wants me to go on a mission, but I don't know if it's best for me. Yeah. I don't know if I want to. Right. So I kind of want to ask you guys, in terms of viewing God's commandments, how does, again, knowing that you're a son of God, that He knows and loves you, impact the way you view commandments, like the laws and commandments that He's given? And with a little bit of context, you know, there's probably a lot of people that view commandments as a very restrictive thing. You know, man, this is holding me down, this is putting chains and ropes around my arms and legs. I can't fly because of all these rules, you know, that this so-called God has given us, right? So with that kind of, you know, as a little bit of context, I guess maybe I can, again, open it up to you guys. Yeah. The thing that comes to my mind, and I actually, I don't know if I shared this scripture on the last episode or the first one, but in Doctrine and Covenants, section 130, verses 20 and 21, it says, there is 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 it is predicated. So thinking about, Taylor, last week we kind of talked about how our Heavenly Father sets goals, or we could say He sets goals, I'm not speaking for Him, of course, but if His goal is to have us return to live with Him, which this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. So we have this goal in mind, and He sets a plan to do that, which obviously the most important part of this plan is the atonement of Jesus Christ. But I think perhaps He gives us commandments to help us move along this path, and we grow as we keep the commandments, but on the same token, as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, because He is a God of order and He's just, He wants to bless us, but as we do things that allow Him to bless us, He provides those blessings. So if we are following Satan, of course, we are denying ourselves of blessings. It's like we're holding up an umbrella and He's showering blessings upon us, but they're just going off the umbrella because we are denying ourselves of them, right? So I think being a son of God or being a daughter of God and keeping the commandments, it's like I know that I am from God. I know He wants to bless me, so if I keep the commandments, I know He will bless me and He will help me to grow in faith, He'll help me to grow in love, all these Christ-like attributes that just compound, and I think it just becomes easier and easier to choose the right. Obviously, it's not easy, but you get what I mean. They build upon each other. I hope that doesn't sound selfish, but that's kind of what came to my mind. He wants to bless us. He kind of outlines how He can. He's telling us, if you do these things, I will bless you, and it will be more than you could ever imagine. That's what the prophets tell us, that's what they have told us, that's what the scriptures tell us. Yeah, I like that analogy of the umbrella. The blessings are coming. They're showering. He wants us to receive them, but we are the ones that are blocking it. I've heard it said, we can't break the commandments. We can just break ourselves against the commandments. They're there. The commandments are there, so we can't break them, but we break ourselves against them when we choose not to live them, live in accordance with them. I like that, Jeremy. It's like, if there's a God, which we believe there is, if there is, and He created this earth, and He knows us perfectly, don't you think you would know a thing or two about how to live this life in a happy way, how to navigate it appropriately, and hence, commandments. That's what He's given us. Yeah, I think there's so much to be said, and there's probably a lot of different perspectives as to why He gives us commandments and reasons why we have them. To name just a couple that come to my mind is that He gives us these commandments, like Jeremy was saying, because He wants us to improve, He wants us to be better, and to have that parallel to a father or a mother with their child in this life. We've lived and experienced more than that child. We know better. Sure, there's probably a lot of examples of parents that aren't maybe doing the best, but generally speaking, we want the best for our child. We know that it's not best to only have candy and sweets, and we know it's best to get to bed at a decent time and get a good sleep, but the child doesn't understand that and just wants to do what the child wants to do. And so, you know, there's that perfect kind of analogy, right, where Heavenly Father knows better. Yeah. Yeah, I know that firsthand, hanging out with you and your wife, Candice, and your kids. Every time we come over to hang out, your kids are the cutest ever, and they always want to play. They love, you know, Cassidy and I, they love everyone, but yeah, it's funny, it's time for bed, right? But they'll always sneak out, all excuses, of course, to hang out with us, to be a part of the action, right? They feel like they're missing out, but I'm thirsty, or I need to go to the bathroom, or, you know, I can't sleep, or like, all just because they want to hang out, right? But you're right. We're feeling sick all of a sudden. Yeah, all of a sudden. I was feeling great all day, but if we left it up to the kids, right, of course they couldn't take care of themselves, right? What do you want to eat today? When do you want to go to bed today? Do you want to read? You want to go to school? Of course, no. The kids are going to choose what's easiest for them at the time. Right. It's that you can't give the kids the reins on just life and how to live it, right? You have structure, you have these things, and so, and again, at the same time, on the other end of that pendulum, we want our kids to be expressive in themselves, and we don't want to constantly be hounding them and restricting them. I find myself doing that sometimes, like, no, do this, do this, and I'm like, well, take a deep breath and just let the kid be a freaking kid. Let them play in the mud or whatever it is, and so, Heavenly Father, I look at the commandments, it's very easy, and I've looked at them before as restrictive. I have to do this, I have to not, I can't do this, I have to do this. That's a restrictive way of looking at it. Right. Instead, I can look at it more of like, Heavenly Father loves me so much to give me these bounds, I get to do this, I get to not do that. You know, some people have talked about, hey, Jesus drank wine, like, what's the big deal? And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, there's probably a lot of other things you can go into that, but perhaps drinking a glass of wine, only one, wouldn't be the worst thing for me, perhaps. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I'm grateful for that commandment because it's better for me to have none of it than to have the opportunity to have more. I'll never be, all the negative effects of alcohol, I'll never have any of them. Right. Because I'm not going to have one drink. Right. And so, I don't have to think, well, this is okay, well, yeah, this is a commandment God gave me, I'm better off keeping it. Right. So I tend, I like to look at commandments as boundaries, like maybe that's another word you can put in place of commandments, boundaries. God loves us enough to put some boundaries there and say, hey, if you live in these boundaries, you'll actually excel more. Right. I'm not trying to make it so you're limited. You might've heard the analogy of the kite. I think someone might've spoken about this in conference, but this little boy and his dad, they're flying a kite, he gets, it's getting longer and longer, they're letting as much string as can go, and then they get to the very, very end and it's as high as it can go. And the little boy, he wants to cut the rope, he wants to cut the string, the kite can go even higher. Right. And the dad's trying to explain that it won't work that way. He wants to let go of it, he wants to cut it. And the story goes that he finally did let him cut it, and then the flight just came crashing down. And so he learned that this boundary or this limitation actually allowed the kite to go high. To fly, yeah. It allows us to fly and to be the best we can be, not restrict us. I like that. I do too. I also thought when you were talking about with your children and how, you know, you need to give them those boundaries, but you also want to allow them to be free and express themselves. I think that's why the Lord doesn't command us in all things. Right? Most of the commandments are pretty, like, principle-based. They apply to a wide range of circumstances. It's not... He's not trying to force us to do everything like He did maybe with the Israelites, right? You can only take a certain number of steps on the Sabbath day, like those types of things, right? It wasn't so... It's not so restrictive. Ultimately, what He wants is... He wants us to be guided by the Spirit in every action. And so, okay, like, you know the verse in Galatians where it talks about the fruits of the Spirit? The fruits of the Spirit is love, meekness, long-suffering. And then it says, against such there is no law, meaning the Spirit is the highest law. So if we're living in a way that we're guided by the Spirit in all things, there's no law that can replace that. That is the highest law. If we don't have those boundaries, like you said, if we're just... If we're just cutting the kite, right, then we can never give ourselves a chance to be guided by the Spirit in all things. So I thought of that, right, when you were talking about your kids, because I agree wholeheartedly. God wants us to... God wants us to be like Him, right, which eventually means that we are totally just governed by eternal law, you know, and there's really no choice. Like, you think about God, He doesn't really have... I know, maybe that's kind of crazy to say, but all of His choices are pretty much made. He knows what He's going to do in every decision, and maybe that's, like, the ultimate form of agency. Now, maybe now we're getting a little bit too deep here, but I agree with what you said, and I love commandments because I know that they're a sign that God loves me, so... I love what you said too, Taylor, just thinking about how if we're living in the celestial kingdom, we might not have commandments, who knows, we might not have any rules because we're just living the truth, we're living the right way. But in this life, we have them for a reason. Even Jesus obeyed the commandments. He was perfect. He was guided by the Spirit, I'm sure, but He recognized, saying, the Father asked me to do this thing, to be baptized, I'm going to do it because the Father asked me to do it. Yeah, totally. Fulfill all righteousness, and... Yeah. Really quick, can I share a scripture? A scripture? A scriptural? A scriptural. I just thought of it. Here you go. It's in D&C 59, and I thought this was a really interesting perspective on commandments as well. If I remember, I think it's talking maybe about the millennium, but it says, Behold, thus saith the Lord, they who have come up into this land with the eye single to my glory according to my commandments, those that live shall inherit the earth. He goes on to say, Blessed are they whose feet stand upon the land of Zion. There's a lot of good stuff, but then he says, They shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time. So it talks about these commandments, you'd be blessed with commandments, not a few, and a great blessing. Yea. So they are blessings. They are a sign that Heavenly Father really loves us, because he gives us these commandments. Yea. I love that. It kind of goes back to what you said with, I get to, instead of I have to, I get to keep the commandments. They're blessed with them, not a few. Yea. That's great. In closing, did you find, brethren, have anything you wanted to add? You want to add any final thoughts or testimonies before we close? Just one thing that came to my mind, Alex, while he was talking, something that the Spirit whispered to me, one of the recent commandments, I say recent, you know, within President Nelson's time as prophet, one commandment that we have been given by him from the Lord is to use the correct name of the church. And I thought, just in talking about how, you know, commandments allow our Heavenly Father to bless us, President Nelson, in the talk, is literally titled, The Correct Name of the Church, and October of 2018 is when he gave it, and it's not a rebranding or anything. It's, this is the Savior's Church, the Church of Jesus Christ, so we should say that. And the, something that has always stuck with me, and I was a missionary during this talk, so we obviously, you know, reiterated this countless times, but he says, I promise that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord's Church, he whose church this is will pour down his power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen. So again, our Heavenly Father is eager to bless us. Of course, we imperfect people, you know, can mess things up sometimes, as, I don't know how the term Mormon started, but we aren't Mormons, we're, we're disciples of Christ, we belong to his church, so we need to identify as such, and as we do even something that seems so simple as that, he will bless us, the likes of which we've never seen. That's what our prophet has told us, like, that is just amazing, so, yeah, I agree with what Alex said, and what you've said, Taylor, it's just amazing, again, we're his children, and he wants to bless us, and he gives us commandments to help with that, and to allow, you know, us to receive those blessings, and I invite everyone who's listening to use the correct name of the church so we can receive those blessings, that commandment is still in effect. Totally, I agree, but I've, unfortunately, I've heard some people kind of like almost scoff at that, like, oh, it's too long, you know, when I, somebody says, oh, are you a Mormon? It's like, it's just, it's so easy to just say, yeah, you know, I'm a Mormon, I'm not going to correct them and say, you know, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that's too long, and that's okay, you don't have to, I mean, it's the same with any commandment, right? You know, we don't have to keep any of them, but here we have the prophet of the Lord who speaks with our creator, is telling us, what did he say? There will be blessings, the likes of which we have never seen. The likes of which we have never seen. Okay, well, I think I kind of want to be a part of that a little bit, you know, I want to... Most definitely. I want to maybe have a few of those blessings, the likes of which I've never seen, so I'm going to do that. I'm going to do my part of it. I'm going to say the church of Jesus Christ or the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amen, and me too, and that's a really good thing to bring up, Jeremy, because we all know that the prophet asked us to do that, but I completely forgot about that promised blessing. Yeah, that's a good point. From a simple little thing, and it goes to show that even the little things are important to God. Anything he asks us to do, it has an import. Sometimes it's easy to look at things like, okay, I'm not doing this and that, but at least I'm doing these big things, and that's fine, but it's good that you're doing the big things, whatever that might be, but truly, if we can't do the little things, we can't really do the big things. If we're not willing to keep the little commandments and say the full name of the church as we were instructed to do from our prophet and therefore from the Lord, how are we going to... that might be a small, uncomfortable thing, and I've had that uncomfortable conversation a couple of times, and honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. People say, are you a Mormon? And I just say, yeah, I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then I'll explain. It actually gives me an opportunity to explain what the Book of Mormon is, who Mormon was, what a blessing and opportunity rather than the easy yeah. So if I can't do that little, uncomfortable thing, how am I going to do the big, uncomfortable things that might be asked of me in the future to stand out as a Christian or as a member of the Lord's church? Right. That's a good perspective. That's a really good point. Yeah. I know this is maybe not the main point or principle of this discussion, but yes, to go to your point, I've had a lot of really good gospel conversations with people because I've used the correct name of the church. That's awesome. And we can be honest, too. Sure, it might be a long name. We could even say that if we felt like it. Sometimes I find myself wanting to rush through it, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but if I slowly say it, it's actually, no, it's not that long. But you can laugh at it. It is longer than most names of churches. I'm a Muslim. I'm a Buddhist. I'm a Mormon. I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sure, it's long. We can be honest. Anyways, a different thought about this, something that you said, Taylor, I really liked. We don't have to keep all of God's commandments. Back to the words I was using, I have to do this or I can't do that, those are actually not true. Right. And so you'll come to a point when you might realize, oh, I actually can do that because really I can. People will tell me, oh, you're a Mormon so you can't drink coffee. I'll be like, well, first I'll explain the name of the church, but I'll be like, I actually like saying things like I can, I just choose not to. And all of us can. You're not going to be kicked out, but I choose not to. And I think it's been also said before, God doesn't want us to just do what is right. He wants us to choose to do what's right, remembering that we have a choice. We always have a choice. We're never forced to do any of these things. Yeah, totally. Yeah, we can choose not to. We're just putting up an umbrella and blocking the rainful blessings, as Jeremy pointed out. I agree. To kind of wrap this up and put a bow on what we've discussed, the title of Elder Phillips' talk is God Knows and Loves You. And I really am grateful for the discussion that we've had with the three of us. And I feel that my testimony of that truth has been deepened through our conversation. And I wanted to testify that as we come to feel and know that truth deeper and deeper in our hearts, it will really affect the way that we view ourselves. It will affect the way we view others. It will affect the way we view life's challenges. And it will affect the way we view the commandments. And I know that all things that God does is for our benefit, because He loves us. As Jeremy quoted earlier, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I know that as we follow Him and keep His commandments, we will be happy and we will return to live with Him one day. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you again, my buds, for joining in on this weekly episode of Discuss With Friends. I wanted to remind everyone that there's also a weekly Sunday episode that's released every Sunday, and we'll continue to move forward with these weekly Discuss With Friends episodes. I would invite anyone listening, if you felt anything or enjoyed anything we discussed, please share it, right? We feel the Spirit when we're making this, and we feel that anyone else who partakes of it will also feel the Spirit. So please share it on social media. If you have any comments, you can email at conferencechroniclespodcast at gmail. You can comment on social media, on Instagram or Facebook, at Conference Chronicles. And I appreciate anyone and everyone who listens, and look forward to the future. So can't wait to talk with you next week. Bye, guys.
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