Church

Have you ever listened to a talk in Sacrament meeting that you wish everyone you know could’ve heard? Today a man whom I don’t even remember his name gave an incredible talk. It was on the gathering of Israel.
I believe any talk that has been sincerely thought about and prayed over while preparing it is a good talk regardless of the person’s physical ability to speak in public. Those that pray and put sincere thought into their words while speaking even when they aren’t very good public speakers are some of the most thought turning and spiritual Sacrament experiences. For this reason it is, as opposed to those who are confident in there speech in front of others, the shy and tongue twisted who get up there and give everything they have without slinking away by ending their talk as fast as possible provoke a feeling that one does not receive from those who confidently spew facts and bear almost robotically smooth testimonies. Those who continue to bear their shy tongue twisted testimonies in public start to gain a divine confidence that was not learned in a public speaking class. This type of situation floods ones soul with humility and it is witnessed before the entire congregation which in turn floods the room with the spirit for all to feel and take in.
This man however was not shy and tongue twisted but he also didn’t pompously spout off facts. It was incredibly obvious to me that this man had a divine testimony of the Gospel which caused him to have a continuous desire to keep learning and practicing his faith which ultimately leads to amazing and almost tear provoking talks.
This Sunday resulted in me thinking about a lot of my own personal issues. For one, I have concluded that I have a bad habit that I need to break. Something I do almost subconsciously is every so often I’ll pull my phone out of my pocket and check the time to see how much longer there is of church. Why would I do this? Why should I be so worried about what the time is if I don’t have anything more important than church at the time? At least to me, I feel like it is almost disrespectful and it’s something that today I at least tried to make an effort not to do, yet I still did not even thinking about it. It just goes to show that there are so many little things that we can do better, and so many things that ultimately are disrespectful that I’m not even thinking about that I do right now.
Second, I need to learn to speak up and let others know what is on my mind. So often I go over things I’d like to say in my mind so vividly that a lot of the time I end up again subconsciously whispering to myself what I would like to say out loud. Even today, I was thinking about a question that was asked in priesthood very intentfully and then after a few minutes the good brother to my right turned to me and asked, “What was that?” I quickly realized that I must have been actually speaking and replied, “O, nothing I was just thinking out loud.” Why can’t I just think a little bit more out loud so everyone can hear some of my thoughts? Well, I asked that question even sitting there in class and I concluded that I was afraid. Not afraid of how many people were there but of who was there. My friends were there in class with me and when I say things out loud that I feel really deeply about it is not usually a side that my friends have ever seen in me, actually it’s a side that not many have seen in me and because of that I’ve realized that it is easier to speak up when you’re surrounded by strangers as opposed to family or friends, which goes right into the next phase of this continuance, easy things are usually not the best things. That’s not always the case but I would definitely say in this situation that family and friends are the ones who need to hear the most your divinely guided testimony. So speak up! Think of the long time waiting, almost buried true desires that some of our close acquaintances need to be reminded of. They are there waiting and wanting, maybe unknowingly on the surface to even themselves but they are. Stir some feelings by speaking up and let your light so shine.
Well, all in all church was good today. I know there was much more that I wanted to share with you today but I am tired and can’t remember everything else right now. Enjoy your Sabbath and goodbye for now.