Today's Talk

I know some of you showed some interest in hearing the talk I gave today in church. Since I typed out the entire thing, I figured I would throw it on here for you.  Enjoy.

Be grateful, love and work hard=true happiness and no regret

I was very humbled to receive this opportunity to speak to you today.  Especially because of the topic and the timing of the request.  President Monson’s talk (Finding Joy in the Journey) made a significant impact on me when I first heard it, and reading it again brought back many of those same feelings.  I only hope the spirit can be with me so that my feelings regarding his words will make a small difference in each of our lives today.

Throughout our lives we have heard that change happens.  President Monson reiterates this sentiment quoting the familiar adage, “Nothing is as constant as change.”  But realization of that quote means nothing until change happens to you.  To help make this point I decided to quote a passage from my journal from this past week.

“What a difference a week makes. What a difference life in general makes. Just over a week ago, I left town for work. Not even half way through my trip, I found out that my uncle passed away completely unexpectantly. The worst feeling in the world in not having an opportunity to say goodbye to someone you love. Even worse than that, is realizing that is takes a death or some other catastrophic event to put life into perspective. You automatically ask yourself questions like "What am I doing with my free time? Am I telling my family everyday how much I love them? How will my decisions affect my future?" and so on. There are so many things that go through your mind.

The week of being away and dealing with a death in the family helped me to realize how lazy I have been, and how I have put off some inevitables.  Sitting around and being satisfied with the ordinary is fine. It suits many people, but true happiness is never satisfied with the mundane. I envision happiness as something that provides much more than the ordinary, the feeling of accomplishment from hard work and the rewards reaped from such work.

Neglecting family and loved ones can seem fine in the present with no knowledge of the future, but they can be taken in the blink of an eye. Be grateful, love and work hard=true happiness and no regret.  A simple formula that all of us can follow.”

This is the formula I would like to speak about today.  

First, Be Grateful.

D&C 59:7 says, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.”

Being grateful is easy by word, but not so much by deed.  In our lives, we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fully restored with a prophet and apostles to lead and guide us.  We have been raised to know that individual study can teach us of those truths.  We have scriptures, we have families, friends.  I assume we often show our gratefulness to those we love more often then we show how grateful we are to the one person who provided all we have.

“When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.”

Serving God’s children “SHOWS” our gratefulness to our Heavenly Father.

Second, Love

When I received the news of my uncle’s passing, I was alone in a hotel room.  Not the best way to get that kind of news.  One of the first things that popped into my head was the realization that I wasn’t prepared.  I couldn’t remember the last time I told my uncle I loved him.  Now I understand preparing for the death of a loved one is nearly impossible, but we can tell them we love them more, we can show them we love them more.  I made it a point to promise myself that night that I would tell those close to me how much I loved and cared about them without hesitation, because hesitation to such promptings only brings about regret later. 

Third, Work Hard

One of President Monson’s favorite quotes is from the Music Man.  “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”

Working hard stretches to so many facets of our lives.  Work hard to be the best in our chosen profession, work hard to be a worthy son or daughter of God by studying the scriptures, praying, attending our meetings and such, work hard in our calling and so many more.  Life is way too short to complain or worry that things aren’t the way they should be, because empty yesterdays will be the logical result to that kind of thinking.  

Result is True Happiness and No Regret

Showing our gratitude to those we love including our Father in Heaven, telling those we care about how much we love them constantly and working hard will leave our lives with complete happiness and no regret.

Measure of a Man (Clive Romney)

Our journey on earth is short.  What we do everyday is a big deal.  The decisions we make now do affect our future, but we can’t allow that big responsibility to lead us towards fear.  Fear is Satan’s opposition to Faith.  The only thing we should focus our lives on is satisfying that Man who gave each of us life, who has provided a way for us to return to live with him  Our happiness, our ability to adapt to change without regret depends on our own willingness to do what is necessary.