On Inspiration

Hey friends! I gave a talk (speech) yesterday in Church and thought I’d share it with all of you. Here it is below!

Good afternoon, my friends. I'm really grateful to be with you. Don't blame Indigo that you all are stuck listening to me today; I reached out to him and offered to speak, so here I am. Let's pray that both he and I made the right choice.

Honestly, though, I do pray and trust that the Spirit will help you understand my message and the treasures of my heart, and more importantly, that the Spirit will help you understand the Lord's message and the treasure of His heart, you. It's my belief that the Lord has a message to share with each of you individually today. Today, I am grateful to stand as an instrument for the Holy Spirit to bring the music of the gospel to your hearts. We are in a dedicated building, preparing to partake in a holy ordinance. It is also my prayer that our collective testimonies of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel may help all of us prepare our hearts and minds to remember Him and make new our covenants again.

Most of you here know me; I've been in the ward for about a year and a half now, but for anyone new or visiting, my name is Joseph Sanns. I grew up in a small area called Hibbard, just outside of Rexburg, Idaho. I feel much like Nephi; I was blessed with goodly parents, and I was preserved from many of the evils of our day. I had a really happy childhood. And although my parents aren't here today, I wish to express my appreciation to them for giving me such a strong foundation in the gospel and helping me build a framework through which I can live the gospel, live the covenants, and receive revelation.

I have a dear friend who lives out in Vineyard; we've become close this year. We like to go on walks together and talk about today, the future, our hopes and dreams, our struggles, and our journey with God. Our conversations are always exciting because they are filled with the Spirit. It is through intentional, Spirit-led conversations that I learn quite a bit about God and myself. I started to realize this on my mission in Argentina a few years back. One of my favorite memories as a missionary was teaching a lesson and feeling revelation flow through me. I often said things that would surprise me, understanding truths and principles I didn't even know myself - hearing myself say words that I knew were not mine but were true. My Vineyard friend and I often feel we are discovering truth in a similar way when we are on our walks. Well, at the very least, I do. I had such an experience this week. The Spirit conveyed something to me along these lines: "A good way to make sense of life not going as planned or expected and understanding God's will is to read the scriptures and look at what really happened."

I'll give some applicable examples of what I mean by this from the story of Adam and Eve. Their story has been front of mind to me for some months. In fact, just last month, I had the blessing to be trained by Elder Soares, Elder Martinez of the Area Presidency, and Sister Yee of the Relief Society General Presidency. In the training, the importance of wearing the temple garment correctly and being modest was emphasized. For our friends who are here today learning about Jesus Christ's Restored Church for the first time, the temple garment is a garment worn under the clothes of members of our Church who have made sacred promises with God in buildings we call Temples. For us, this garment reminds us of our sacred promises to God, and as Elder Carlos Asay would say, "it is an outward expression of our inner commitment to God." I'm sure you've seen Temples around; they're the big white, beautiful buildings that dot the highways between here and Salt Lake.

Anyway, our church leaders taught us about modesty in our training last month. I often see online and hear in conversations with friends that a sign of true confidence is being immodest or that to really express one's personality that means being immodest. I hear and see too that people believe immodesty is more attractive. Immodesty can mean many things, but for today, I think it's safe to say that immodesty is any presentation of one's body that doesn't accurately reflect their divine heritage as a son or daughter of God.

Adam and Eve's story can help us better understand this. Looking at what happened to them and how God responded can help us make better decisions about how we choose to present our bodies. Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, and upon partaking of the fruit, they realized their nakedness. They became ashamed and covered themselves with leaves. Genesis 3:7 says, "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." God came to visit them and asked them what they were doing. He asked them why they had covered themselves. Now this next part is very important to us, especially as it pertains to modesty. Genesis 3:21 says, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." It's important to remember here that the Lord wants us to love ourselves and be confident. If it were the case that modesty did not matter, it is my supposition that the Lord would not have taken notice of the leaves, or he would have said, "What are you doing? You don't need those leaves." But that is not what He did; instead, He made them better clothes. He wanted them to be clothed, and the leaves weren't enough. That's what happened. Understanding that has helped make decisions about how I dress myself easier. I know the Lord is on my side and that His path for me is happier than the path I can take in this life. I can be confident that I will be happier, and love and appreciate my body more as I dress modestly. And I am.

Another application of looking at what happened in the scriptures to have doctrinal questions answered and find direction in life came to me this week as I read Come, Follow Me, a study manual for scriptures produced by the Church. Recently, I have started my day by saying a prayer and reading a scripture before even getting out of bed. I was inspired to do this by the example of Elder Joaquin Costa of the Seventy, last General Conference he taught us that he does something similar in his daily routine. Anyways, I was reading the Come, Follow Me manual with groggy eyes when I read this sentence about Adam and Eve, "Many people believe that the Fall was only a tragedy and that Eve and Adam made a permanent mistake when they chose to eat the fruit." For some reason, that sentence woke me up and the word permanent stood out to me. I pondered on that word all morning and the Spirit guided me to a realization. Jesus Christ performed an infinite and eternal atonement. The infinite nature of His atoning sacrifice allows Him to forgive sin and to make right any wrong, even events that happened before His mortal life, like say for example, Adam and Eve's transgression. Since Jesus Christ has this infinite power, perhaps God could have allowed Adam and Eve to repent and enter back into the garden, but that is not what happened. God allowed Adam and Eve to repent and then sent them out of the garden. Their mistake was never permanent. They were never meant to stay in the garden of Eden. That's what happened. And now we are all here in this world to learn about God and make covenants that will guide us home. This journey we are on, which is your life, is supposed to happen.

It's these two stories from Adam and Eve that really paint a clear picture in my mind about what it means to move forward with faith and peace. There are aspects of life that I have struggled sometimes to find peace in as a young single adult. I imagine that you and I are not that different and that maybe one of these aspects of life or all of them will resonate with you.

Sometimes I feel like even after I have repented of some mistake, that my mistake has taken me off of the course that God intended for me to be on. I've made some mistakes that I have irrationally felt cost me opportunities. Opportunities to focus on my mission while I was a missionary, to date women I admired, to pass certain classes, and to get better employment. It's tough to wrestle with the "what-ifs" in life. But here is what I have learned from Adam and Eve's story and from an understanding of the infinite power of Jesus Christ to heal and mend our lives. If things were supposed to go back to the way they were after repentance, then they would. God has the power to do that. However, God's pattern, starting with Adam and Eve, is to give us even more after we turn to Him. Adam and Eve messed up and were naked. They turned to God and God gave them more; He gave them clothes. Adam and Eve left the garden and God gave them more; He taught them how to work, and He gave them children, a family. Adam and Eve tasted the bitter. They turned to God, and He gave them joy.

Sometimes things are not supposed to go back to the way they were. Broken relationships, now healed by Christ, sometimes feel different. But there is hope in that - it could be a sign that the relationship has grown and that what once tore it apart will no longer have power to do so.

Sometimes we think our mistakes have ruined our potential or altered our path or ability for us to become what we are supposed to become. Sometimes we may even believe that our mistakes will deny us blessings that God has promised us. These thoughts and beliefs will only have a chance of being true if we never turn to Jesus Christ. I know that when you turn to Jesus Christ and repent, you will become the person you are meant to be. I know that when you turn to Jesus Christ, you will be the person you are meant to be today, today. I know that as you turn to Jesus Christ and follow Him, all the blessings He has for you will never be lost, and that your hopes and dreams for happiness will be realized. I know that as you turn to Jesus Christ, you can feel peace, starting today.

Sometimes we start new things with certain expectations, but they don't go as planned, and this, unlike the examples before, does not happen by any fault of our own. Maybe you go to school and expect to work hard and get good grades, but along the road, you realize that you're not a good fit for your major or maybe even the university itself. Maybe you move to a new area, say Provo or the Crestwood, expecting to make new friends and have a hard time doing so. (Although I will say that here in this ward you will always have friends!) Maybe you move to a new area hoping to meet your person, and after years you still haven't. Maybe you move to a new area hoping to meet and date a lot of people and instead you meet someone immediately. Maybe you date someone for a long time and you love them, but in the end, you aren't right for each other. Maybe you date someone and you feel really good about it, but they do not. Maybe you want to date but don't know how or don't feel you are able to connect with someone. These can be hard things to face and make sense of, especially when they were decisions made by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and fueled with righteous desires. I find peace in the unexpected outcomes of inspired decisions from the pattern set in the scriptures of what happened.

Consider Jacob who met Rachel at the well and made a deal with her father, Laban, to work for seven years to then marry her. After seven years, he was given Leah to marry. It's not for another seven years that he could then marry Rachel. However, because of his multiple marriages, he was able to have 12 sons, whose descendants became the 12 tribes of Israel and started a work that we are continuing today. Was it what he expected? No. Was it what was supposed to happen? Yes!

Consider Joseph, Jacob's birthright son, who was expected to inherit his father's house but was sold into Egypt to be a slave. He then later was a prisoner, and eventually his path led him to be second in command in all of Egypt. Was that what he expected his life would be like? I doubt it, but that's what happened, and it was for the good of his family and himself.

Consider Thomas S. Monson called to the Quorum of the Twelve at the age of 36 to full-time service to the Lord when most of his career would still have been ahead of him. I'm sure that blessing was not what he expected, especially so quickly in life. Or consider President Nelson, called to lead a worldwide Church at the age of 93, probably something he didn't expect. Were these events supposed to happen when they happened, though? Yes!

I'll close with one final story from the life of Elder Bednar. As a stake president in Arkansas, he and his presidency picked a weekend to train all the stake leaders. It later turned out that this training day was to be the same day as a little league basketball championship for which his son would be playing. Just minutes before the meeting was to start, he was seated on the stand looking out at the congregation of ward leaders. He saw an Elder's quorum president who he recognized as the father of a boy who would be playing on the opposing team in his son's championship game. Elder Bednar felt to leave the meeting with that man and go watch the game. So they did. It was a nice time, and they were happy to see their boys play. A few months later, this Elder's Quorum president called Elder Bednar and told Elder Bednar that his young boy had been in a tragic accident and had died. He thanked Elder Bednar for taking him to that game they went to months before because it was the only time he would have ever seen his boy play in such a game as that.

This story is a powerful example to me about how God gives us inspiration little by little to accomplish something great. Was Elder Bednar inspired to have stake trainings on that particular Saturday? Yes. Was Elder Bednar, the leader of that stake, supposed to be at that training that particular Saturday? No. Was Elder Bednar inspired to have stake trainings on that Saturday so he would actually end up at a basketball championship game with another young father from his stake? Yes. You might ask if the Lord's intention was for these fathers to attend their boys' game then why didn't he inspire Elder Bednar to make the training on another day? Who knows? I don't. But what I do know is that that is what happened. That's how the Lord orchestrated it to be a meaningful experience and day for a young father and his boy. So too, should we allow it to happen in our lives. Let the Holy Spirit guide. Don't question or doubt any inspiration that comes from the Spirit, even if the inspiration seems to not align with the inspiration that got us to where we are. If we follow the Spirit, we will be where we need to be, doing what we need to be doing, when we need to be doing it.

It is my testimony that your life will be everything it should be and can be as you follow Jesus Christ and put Him first. It is my testimony that every single time you repent, you will be forgiven and strengthened. It is my testimony that peace and happiness are yours to experience today and in the future. I know that we will receive all the blessings of the Father as we keep on the covenant path. That's what happens in this gospel. And it happens because of Jesus Christ, the living Son of God.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Joseph