"Let us be faithful and keep the commandments of God. Let us never allow our prospects to become dimmed; let them be fresh before us by day and by night, and I will assure you that if we will do this our growth from day to day and from year to year will be marvelous.
"We can look back new and we can see that we have advanced. We have not stood still, but we have been moving along and gradually increasing our growth. The child grows from childhood to boyhood, and from boyhood to manhood, with a constant and steady growth; but he cannot tell how or when the growth occurs. He does not realize that he is growing; but by observing the laws of health and being prudent in his course he eventually arrives at manhood.
"So in reference to ourselves as Latter-day Saints. We grow and increase. We are not aware of it at the moment; but after a year or so we discover that we are, so to speak, away up the hill, nearing the mountain top. We feel that we have faith in the Lord; that His providences are always beneficial; that we are connected with Him; that He is actually our Father, and that he leads us along in life."
- Lorenzo Snow, Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 2
President Snow challenged his listeners to keep their "prospects" in the eternal sense bright and "fresh" so that they could continue to grow and prosper. We can do much to influence those prospects in our lives as we strive to follow the Gospel path, obey the commandments, and remain faithful to our covenants. We will see that continual, steady growth is the result:
Our physical growth is very gradual, so as to be imperceptible when viewed from moment to moment or day to day. But as we compare over time, we see that much has changed. President Snow suggests the same is true in the life of a faithful disciple. Our spiritual growth should be always occurring, and over time, we will not profound and significant changes.
(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2019)
No comments:
Post a Comment