This post is based on an October 2001 General Conference talk called "One Step after Another" by Joseph B. Wirthlin. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk.
Though you may feel weary, though you sometimes may not be able to see the way, know that your Father in Heaven will never forsake His righteous followers. He will not leave you comfortless. He will be at your side, yes, guiding you every step of the way."
Brother Wirthlin mentions,
"We all are going through different life experiences. While some are filled with joy today, others feel as though their hearts could burst with sorrow. Some feel as though the world is their oyster; others feel as though they were the oyster itself, plucked from the ocean, cracked open, and robbed of all that is precious to them.
No matter your station, no matter your emotional or spiritual state of mind, I would like to offer counsel to you that may be of use, regardless of where you are in your sojourn through this mortal life.
Certainly we have much to be grateful for. And I think if we will consider the blessings we have, we will forget some of our worries.
Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.
Our Heavenly Father knows that we must begin our climb from where we are. “When you climb up a ladder,” the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them.”
Our Heavenly Father loves each one of us and understands that this process of climbing higher takes preparation, time, and commitment. He understands that we will make mistakes at times, that we will stumble, that we will become discouraged and perhaps even wish to give up and say to ourselves it is not worth the struggle.
We know it is worth the effort, for the prize, which is eternal life, is “the greatest of all the gifts of God.” And to qualify, we must take one step after another and keep going to gain the spiritual heights we aspire to reach.
An eternal principle is revealed in holy writ: “It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize.”
We don’t have to be fast; we simply have to be steady and move in the right direction. We have to do the best we can, one step after another. As we read about the great souls who have preceded us, we learn that they too had times of discouragement and sorrow. We learn that they persevered in spite of hardship, in spite of adversity, sometimes even in spite of their own weaknesses.
We learn that they too continued to press forward, one step after another. We can be like those righteous souls Lehi spoke of who “caught hold of the end of the rod of iron, and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, … even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.”
My brothers and sisters, our time here is so precious and so short. How well I understand the prophet Jacob when he said, “Our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream.”
All too soon, our time is finished. While we can while we have the time to complete our work let us walk in the right direction, taking one step after another.
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| We don't have to be perfect today. We don't have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can. |
I encourage you to read the whole talk in your own time. Here's the link to the talk below.
Stay Tuned until next time.
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