Be an Example of the Believers

Stockton and Jorja

Jorja gave a talk in church today. It was fantastic. She was poised and articulate. Sister Christensen told me afterwords that Jorja just glows. That made me laugh because that is Jorja's favorite compliment. I snapped a picture before church started. Josh came and talked to Jorja while she was sitting on the stand. He ran for a class office for the first time this year. He will be the Junior class public relations officer. He was so excited he looked like he was going to pop out of his skin!

Bishop Waddoups, Bro. Mogensen, Jorja and Josh

I recorded Jorja's talk on my 'voice memos'. Here is the transcript:

I was asked to give a talk on how I can be an example of the Savior at school and among my friends. Now keeping that question in mind, I'm going to take a minute to go over the apostle Paul's epistle to Timothy when he says, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)

The first two mentioned kind of go together and that's word and conversation. Words have the power to lift people up, but they can also be used as destructive weapons to tear people down. In this day it's hard to go about your life avoiding profanity. It surrounds the air and when it's so commonly used around us all the time it can be hard not to fall into that habit ourselves. We can be an example of the Savior as we choose only to use clean and loving language which will lift up those around us. That's the first one. Being an example of the believers in words and conversation.

The second one is charity. Charity is defined as the pure love of Christ. We can gain and practice charity by choosing to see others through Christ's eyes. For the past couple of months I've been praying each morning to see others through Christ's eyes and to gain a portion of his love for them. Sometimes I have to spend a couple of days or a week on a certain person trying to gain a true love for them and other times it's just recognizing what Christ sees in everyone that we aren't able to see through our eyes. Even though there are still those people that get on my nerves sometimes, I can truly say that over the months I've been able to come a lot closer to my peers and I can honestly say that I feel a deep love for everyone that I know and I'm so grateful for that. I've always thought of charity as pure and sincere kindness and I think one of the best ways we can show pure and sincere kindness in school and anywhere else is just reaching out to those who need it. I'm sure most of us know highschooll can be a dark and lonely place and there are people all around us who we don't realize need a helping hand. I know that I've had my days where I go to school and I feel lonely and I hope and pray for someone to come up to me and include me. It's just made me realize that we don't know what everyone's going through and even the kid who might seem the most popular or cool at your school might just really need a true friend. My mom always tells me that it never hurts to be kind and I really think that those are words to live by because you'll never regret being kind to someone, you just never know who needs it. So that's the second one, be an example of the believers in charity.

Third is spirit. When you are an example of the spirit you radiate light around you like a lighthouse. How cool is it to be the person that people come to when they have a bad day. I know for me when my friends come up to me and open up to me I just feel really touched that I'm someone that they feel safe around and I try my best to be a good listener. When we live as examples of the spirit, people will be drawn to us in their times of darkness and through Christ's help we can bring them safely to shore. One important thing that I think separates us from other churches is our ability to not only feel the spirit but that we can keep it with us. Other churches, they can feel the spirit. It comes in and out of their lives like air comes out of a balloon. It goes in and out, inflates and deflates; but for us, the spirit surrounds us like the air surrounds us. At times that can make it hard to recognize the spirit just like we don't recognize the air around us unless we really think about it; but as we live worthily of the spirit, others will be able to feel it surrounding us. So that's the third one, be an example of the believers in spirit.

Next is faith. We must trust in the Lord and his word. Our faith, or lack of it, influences all we do. Our faith brings us courage to make hard decisions. Communication with our Father is vital and we can't take it for granted. If we pray and read the scriptures regularly we will have increased faith in Him and can be more confident following his plan, even if it doesn't involve what we want at the time. Search diligently, pray always and be believing and all things shall work together for thy good. I promise that as we choose to live our lives in faith we will receive blessings that we can't even begin to comprehend. That's the fourth one, be thou an example of the believers in faith.

Now last is purity. We must treat our bodies as a temple and fill our minds with clean and pure thoughts. Live the commandments and the teachings in the For the Strength of Youth packet. Staying pure allows us to receive his blessings. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That's the last one, be an example of the believers in purity.

I'm just going to close with a quote from Thomas S. Monson that says, "As we follow the example of the Savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light in the lives of others." I promise that as you live as an example of the believers you will light a path for others and bring blessings to not only you but to those around us.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In other non-important news, I was spotlighted on the wall outside of the relief society room. I think this paper stays up for a month. 

 Jorja relaxing after church

We have 9:00 church, so I was able to watch the Jazz/Rockets game. Not the best game this year. The game was on ABC. We have an antenna so we can get that channel. It worked great at first, but once kids started going in the kitchen above me I couldn't see anything. After they left the kitchen it still wouldn't work. Mike was able to move the antenna in a spot where the tv came through. He spent the last part of the game holding it there, even though we knew the Rockets were going to win. That's a nice husband.

Mike helping me watch the Jazz/Rockets game

Stockton picked up Gavin and went to Nate's house to see him opening his mission call. He is going to Arkansas, Marshallese speaking, or something like that. Mike and I went to the trek fireside with Jorja. She had a speaking part in it. She was one of the narrators and did great. Today was a busy day for her. She has had a busy week. She is glad it is over.