The Path of Discipleship

I was asked to speak at stake conference (a large church meeting that happens once a year). Invited to speak 5 weeks out, I had lots of time to study and ponder. Some of my best thinking happens when I walk (5 miles every week morning). By my calculations, I put 125 pedestrian miles into this talk. 

I loved studying some of Isaiah’s most beautiful prophecies of the Savior in the week leading up to General Conference. I loved listening to the talks of modern disciples of Christ. I loved my final preparation which was spending the last 10 days with 3 of my grandchildren, ages 5, 2-½ and 6 months. Which reminded me: the Savior invites us to become like a little child. 

Each day, if I looked, I was reminded of ways I could become like a child. 

• Hadley invited the spirit by singing primary songs: “God will be my strength with every step I take”
• Emmett drew a picture of me complete with a squiggly heart to show he loved me
• Kit smiled and lit up anytime I made eye contact

My little grandson, Beau, is the definition of chill. He’s not easily upset, he is a good sleeper AND he was not especially interested in crawling or walking at the expected times. So when his parents sent a video of him taking 7 steps, it was big news on our family text thread. 

In the video, Beau’s mom steadies him and says: “Go. Go to Dad.” Beau looks at his dad, holds both arms out and — with a huge smile — totters towards his dad. His dad has his arms open wide. Beau laughs when he gets close. When Beau takes his final step, his dad swoops him up and says: “Way to go, Beau!” 

Beau’s grandparents, aunts and uncles cheer from 3 different time zones. 

The Savior invites us to walk the path of discipleship. I think our heavenly parents look at us like little children as we wait, then try and fall and take baby steps forward, unsure and unsteady. 

…walking the path of discipleship leads to precious blessings. We see baptism as the starting point in our journey of discipleship. Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jesus Christ invites us on the path of discipleship. He uses phrases like:

• Come unto me
• Draw near unto me
• Follow me

These words imply that He is already there — on the path. Our part is to do something, however small, to choose to follow Him.

How can we come unto Him?

When my youngest daughter went to college, her sister who is 5 years older, gave her a stack of letters. Each was sealed in an envelope with instructions written on the outside. Instructions like: open when you miss home, open when you didn’t study for your test, open when you feel alone. Our path is like that: sometimes steep, sometimes lonely, sometimes rocky.

I think heavenly parents have given us love notes too. Notes that look like the gift of the Holy Ghost, personal revelation, prophets, priesthood, and scriptures. These gifts help us navigate when the road gets steep, when we feel alone and when we fall. 

OPEN: when the road gets steep

Wherever you are on the covenant path, you will find a struggle against the physical trials of mortality or the opposition of Satan.

Henry B. Eyring

…Troubles are part of the plan and do not mean you’ve been abandoned; they are part of what it means to be His. He was, after all, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Michelle Craig

My friend, who is in the middle of a major family crisis that could easily pull her under is learning to ride the wave. To accept that she is at a low point. To remember she wasn’t always there. To hope she won’t stay there. She is not fighting the force but riding swell after swell with the help of God.

One of the lifelines to which she clings may surprise you. She practices a morning meditation based on this scripture. “…when thou risest in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks unto God…” (Alma 37:37)

While in bed, she centers on her own breath. She notices her senses – the feel of the sheets, the weight of the blanket, the light shining through the window. She chooses to see things for which she is grateful. She thinks of the roof over her head, the pie that she made the night before, the support of her sisters, and her Savior who is the source of peace and hope and direction. 

She is doing more than counting her blessings. She is shifting her focus.

The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

Russell M. Nelson

Maybe this is when we need gratitude the most. When all we can see is darkness. When we have to work to see the light. 

Being grateful IN our circumstances is different from being grateful FOR our circumstances. Dieter F. Uchtdorf calls this gratitude “…an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true.”

When the road gets difficult, think of this: it’s not what you’re going through; it’s who you’re becoming. Choose gratitude. 

OPEN: when you feel alone, confused or you don’t belong

One of my favorite names of Jesus Christ is Immanuel, which means God with us. 

Like a mother who bears and carries her baby, Jesus Christ has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”

Regardless of your circumstances, your personal history, or the strength of your testimony, there is room for you in this Church.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

To me, one of the most touching moments in Olympic history happened in the 1992 400-meter race. Derek Redmond had come back from 5 surgeries, including one on his Achilles’ tendon 4 months before the Olympics. He notched the fastest time in the prelims and earned his place. 

His hopes had been dashed 4 years before when he tore his Achilles just one hour before the Olympic race. 

Now ready for his second Olympics, he looked strong out of the blocks and on the first straightaway. Around the halfway mark, he grabbed his right thigh, his hamstring torn. He dropped to the ground while the other sprinters ran on. 

Alone on the track, he got up and started hopping on his left foot, determined to finish the race. 

Someone appeared along the track; Derek’s dad. Waving off officials, Derek’s dad ran to his son to talk him out of continuing his agony. Derek put his head on his dad’s shoulder and wept, then said: I want to finish. So his dad said: we’ll do it together. 

Together, father and son walked slowly toward the finish line of a race that had already been decided. 

It is one of the most powerful paradoxes of the Crucifixion that the arms of the Savior were stretched wide open and then nailed there, unwittingly but accurately portraying that every man, woman and child in the entire human family is not only welcome but invited into His redeeming, exalting embrace.

Jeffrey R. Holland

And He is near. When you feel alone, remember Immanuel – God with us. Open your heart to Him. 

OPEN: when you fall

When you stumble and fall, look up. Look for the light. 

My dad battled Parkinson’s disease for the last 12 years of his life. When he passed to the other side, these words came to me. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:” (2 Timothy 4:7)

In our battle, we will all be wounded warriors. The Lord uses lessons from war all through the scriptures. Even the righteous stripling warriors, the 2,060 boys that comprised the army of Helaman, the ones who did not doubt, the ones who obeyed with exactness. They were wounded. True no one died, but 200 of the 2,060 fainted from loss of blood. No one escaped without many wounds.

We’re all in need of the healing made possible by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Healing from sin, unfairness, illness, pain, suffering, and grief. 

Let me remind you of something you already know. You were never meant to be enough, not alone, but you are worthy of love and belonging, right now as you are. You were always meant to look up and take hold of His hand. Because He is enough and more.

Jesus Christ loves to restore what we cannot restore, heal wounds we cannot heal, fix what is irreparably broken, and compensate for any unfairness we have endured. In fact, if we let Him, He will consecrate our suffering for our gain and sanctify to us our deepest distress. He will not just console us and restore what was lost, but He will use our trials for our benefit.

Dale G. Renlund

When you fall, look up; look for Him. 

Invitation

We’re all on the path of discipleship. Following the Savior brings great peace.

What step will you take today?

What small step will you take to connect with the Savior every day? 

What does walking the covenant path look like?

Sometimes it looks like taking the next step forward. Sometimes it looks like standing still, holding your ground with what you do know. Sometimes it looks like falling to your knees, then reaching up. Sometimes it looks like standing in the ashes with a tiny hope that God will make them beautiful.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Ezra Taft Benson who said,

Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through thte veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.

Ezra Taft Benson

I think the Savior is near, even when we can’t tell. I think all he asks is that we start, that we take the first step to discipleship. I think heaven sees us right now, as we are, and is cheering us on as we did for my grandson’s first steps.

the shape of a life (my mom’s)

A few years ago when my sister and I were going through my parent’s papers, we found a picture we’d never seen before. A picture my dad took of my mom on their honeymoon. She is in the bow of a canoe gliding through turquoise water. The way she holds the paddle and turns her head makes me wonder what she’s thinking. 

Did she still feel sad her mom never met her new husband? 

Did she know the years ahead would not be graphed as a single rising line? Did she expect, like most of us, her life would ascend without dips or stops or fallbacks? 

She couldn’t foresee she would move across the country from her family cattle ranch. Never to return for anything longer than a visit. 

She couldn’t know she would bury her baby daughter soon after her little girl learned to walk. 

Or she and her husband would work to pay for the family home they built not once, but twice. 

She couldn’t expect to watch her teenage grandson endure months of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. 

Or that she’d lose her husband little by little as he succumbed to Parkinson’s disease. Then, after all, she would go first. 

And still. 

She couldn’t imagine the surge of emotion each time one of her six children was placed in her arms for the first time. 

She couldn’t picture the students she would inspire 2,000 miles from the ranch. 

Or that she’d fall in love 20 times over as she welcomed each grandbaby into the world.

Or that her great-granddaughter would carry her name. 

My mom lived a life that was anything but linear. Instead, it was a 3-dimensional shape drawn with precision and scribbled in a rush, erased, crossed through and rewritten. A shape sewn with threads she gathered and threads she received, over and under and through.

A life characterized by transitions she navigated like the canoe — hold, pull, reset. Transitions she learned to accept and work through. Transitions she allowed to change her because she trusted God. 

my path

My path has been steep; it’s been rocky. Sometimes it’s been smooth. There have been times I didn’t know if I could go on, but when I looked up, my Father in Heaven was always there.