Eyring - Our Perfect Example - October 2009

President Eyring speaks of Christ as our perfect example.  He shares advice on how we can improve in our lives to exercise more faith, more devotion, and show our love of the Savior to others.

• Different as we are in circumstances and experiences, we share a desire to become better than we are. There may be a few who mistakenly feel they are good enough and a few who have given up trying to be better. But, for all, the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is that we can and must expect to become better as long as we live.

Love is the way that we can motivated to improve our lives and help others improve theirs.  We cannot expect to become like Him if we don't love those that need love.  Our demonstration of love for others is a reflection of our love for the Savior.

• Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others. There is no surprise in that, since the Lord proclaimed those as the first and great commandments. It is love of God that will lead us to keep His commandments. And love of others is at the heart of our capacity to obey Him.

President Eyring talks about family relationships. No relationship in the world will bring us greater joy or great sorrow than the family relationship.  This is God's plan.

• The greatest joys and the greatest sorrows we experience are in family relationships. The joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. And the sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love. The ideal God holds for us is to form families in the way most likely to lead to happiness and away from sorrow. A man and a woman are to make sacred covenants that they will put the welfare and happiness of the other at the center of their lives. Children are to be born into a family where the parents hold the needs of children equal to their own in importance. And children are to love parents and each other. That is the ideal of a loving family.
  

He gives us several bits of advice on how we can follow the Saviors perfect example on our quest to become more like Him.

• Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.
  
• Now I give counsel to the parents of a wandering child. The Savior is the perfect example of persisting in love. You can pray for your children, love them, and reach out to them with confidence that Jesus reaches for them with you. When you keep trying, you are doing what Jesus does.
  
• Now, here is my counsel to children. The Lord gave you a commandment with a promise: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth  thee.” It is the only one of the Ten Commandments with a promise. You may not have parents that are living. In some cases, you may not feel that your parents are worthy of the honor and respect of their children. You may not even have ever known them. But you owe them life. And in every case, even if your life is not lengthened, its quality will be improved simply by remembering your parents with honor.
• Now to those who have adopted other people’s families as if they were their own: I have friends who remember my children’s birthdays better than I do. My wife and I have had friends who seldom failed to visit or to remember a holiday with us. I often am touched when someone begins a conversation, “How is your family?” and then waits to hear the answer with love showing in their face. They seem attentive when I go through a description of the life of each of my children. Their love helps me to feel more keenly the love of the Savior for our children. In their question, I can sense that they are feeling what Jesus feels and asking what He would ask.

President Eyring reminds us that each of us has felt the love of the Savior on our quest to become like Him.  He encourages us to reflect on those moments for strength to keep trying.

• You have had evidences that you are moving along the road to becoming more like Jesus. It will help to remember how you have felt, at times, like a little child, even in the midst of cares and trials.
  

The atonement of Jesus Christ provides us the strength to keep trying, the encouragement that we have the Lord on our side, and the ability to pick ourselves up and keep moving towards the Savior.

• Because of His Atonement for you, your childlike obedience will bring a feeling of love of the Savior for you and your love for Him. That is one of the gifts that is promised to His faithful disciples. And this gift can come not only to you alone but also to the loving members of your family.

He closes by reminding us that we are not perfect, we are not expected to be. But we need to be following His example and keep trying to follow Him.

• None of us is perfect yet. But we can have frequent assurance that we are following along the way. He leads us, and He beckons for us to follow Him.
  

What a great message of hope. We are blessed to have a perfect example to follow in the Savior, but even more blessed to have His atonement to encourage our continued efforts. I am so happy to know that we are not expected to be perfect.  I don't have to feel discouraged when I don't live up to the perfect ideals that I have of how I should act. What I can do it recognize my need to improve and seek to follow His example in how I act, speak, and treat others. I can become a more loving, caring, and thoughtful person as I look to the Saviors perfect example.