Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters
My name is Shelby Park
I moved into the Ward in January but you probably haven’t
seen me much because I’ve started actively attending not that long ago.
A little about me:
I went to BYU-Idaho and graduated in 2014 with a degree in
Art. Don’t ask me to draw you anything, it’ll be ugly.
I have the most annoying dog in the world, her names Aida.
I’m a Nanny to the best little boy in the world.
And I’m a die hard Carolina Panthers fan.
I’m from a small town in Washington, called Battle Ground.
Some people think “Oh that’s such a cool name! What battle
happened there?”
Well it’s named after where a battle didn’t happen actually.
I find this ironic because Battle Ground became a symbol of
where things didn’t happen for me. And
ultimately those things led me to Boise, searching for what I’m going to talk
to you about today; Peace.
I bet if I asked every person in here, you all could
probably tell me you are going through some sort of trial in your life right
now. Sometimes life is just hard.
The scriptures make it very clear in 2nd Nephi 2:11 when it states For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all
things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be
brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good
nor bad.
We have the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth
today! That is the greatest gift we could possibly have! We have a Savior who
loves us enough to die for us, so that we can return home. We have a living
prophet on the earth today who communicates with God about us. It makes sense then that if we live in a world with something
so great and wonderful, there has to be some bad stuff too.
How do we find peace and enjoy this wonderful, crazy,
beautiful life we were given?
President David O. McKay said, “If you
want peace, yours is the responsibility to obtain it.” We belong to a church of
action. We must not only follow the Gospel in word, but in deed as well. We
cannot be Sunday Mormons. So here are a few actions I would like to share with
you, to help in your journey to find peace.
4 Ways to Find and Enjoy Peace:
1.
Franklin D. Richards stated in his talk The Blessings of Peace, that an
important part of forgiving is forgetting. In some ways, being
able to forget is almost as valuable as being able to remember. The Lord
said in Isaiah 1:18: Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Finding and Enjoying
peace comes from forgiving and forgetting what others have done, and also
forgiving and forgetting what we ourselves have done. Repentance is real, we do
not have to dwell in our sins forever. The Atonement works. If the Savior
remembers our transgressions no more after true repentance, why should we? Trust
me, I know this is a hard one to
practice, but it’s also an essential one. Forgive and forget.
2.
Be courageously obedient. Study your scriptures,
say earnest prayers, and keep the commandments, listen to the counsel of the
prophet. I didn’t attend primary, but I did go to seminary, so to me these are
Seminary answers. These are such simple things, but these are important things.
We live in a world were it’s “silly” to read your scriptures, and talk to God?
Most people will think you’re crazy, talking to someone you cant see. Do them
anyways. It is “different” to do these things, it is courageous to do these
things. Be courageously obedient.
3.
I’m saying this one twice because it’s THAT
important. Keep the Commandments. The scriptures taught in Psalms 119:165 “Great
peace have they which love thy law”. In Sister Pinegars talk “Peace, Hope and
Direction”, she told a story of a little boy and his father, flying a kite at
the park. The Story goes:
The boy was very young. It was his
first experience with kite flying. His father helped him, and after several
attempts the kite was in the air. The boy ran and let out more string, and soon
the kite was flying high. The little boy was so excited; the kite was
beautiful. Eventually there was no more string left to allow the kite to go
higher. The boy said to his father, “Daddy, let’s cut the string and let the
kite go; I want to see it go higher and higher.” His father said, “Son, the
kite won’t go higher if we cut the string.” “Yes, it will,” responded the
little boy. “The string is holding the kite down; I can feel it.” The father
handed a pocketknife to his son. The boy cut the string. In a matter of seconds
the kite was out of control. It darted here and there and finally landed in a
broken heap. That was difficult for the boy to understand. He felt certain the
string was holding the kite down.
The
commandments might seem like rules to keep us from experiencing life. We might view them as the string that’s
keeping us down. We “miss out” on experiences
that our other brothers and sisters have. But let me tell you this, they are the ones missing out. They
don’t feel hope, they don’t feel safe, they don’t
feel fulfilled, and they do not feel peace. The
commandments keep us safe. The commandments keep us free.
4.
Serve others. It’s not that hard to do service
for people. It took me a while to realize that service doesn’t have to be this
big grand gesture. It can be as simple as holding the door open for someone. Sending
a “hey I hope you’re doing great, is there anything I can help you with” text
or even dropping by and saying hi. If you do that last one, I recommend
bringing treats, it breaks the ice a bit. Who can be mad when a random person
drops in bringing cookies? No one. Another way to serve, and one of the best
ways to find peace in my opinion, go to the temple! We have a temple 15 minutes
away, do you know what a blessing that is?? Go to the temple, often. If you
cannot attend the temple, walk the grounds, I promise that will give you peace
as well. And make it a goal to one day be able to attend the temple.
5.
Along the lines of service: magnify your church
callings. The Lord tells us, “But
learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward,
even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” (D&C
59:23.)
In my
patriarchal blessing it talks about family history work, a lot. But I always just kind of shrugged it off. Family
history work is for older people, right? Recently
however, family history work has been on my mind quite a bit because my family isn’t LDS and my
grandfather has dementia, and he is quickly
loosing his mind. I have moments of panic and guilt when I think about my ancestors. Imagine my surprise
and amusement when Bishop called me
into his office and extended a family history calling to me! The Lord knows you and knows where you will best
be of service, if you have a calling, it’s
for a reason, so magnify it!
So now you might be thinking “Shelby hasn’t taught me
anything I haven’t already heard”, well that’s the point. I’m not here to bring
new ground breaking doctrine to the table, that’s not my job (thankfully). I’m
here to remind you of things that you might have forgotten. I know that when I
fell away from the church, it was because I didn’t do a single one of these
things I just mentioned. Salvation is in the little details. If we can do the small
things, we can do the big things as well. As I started to come back I added
little good things in my life, and I got rid of bad things. I have never felt
more at peace in my entire life. I know where I am going and I know who I am
pleasing.
Life will never be perfect, but that’s okay. We did not come
down here to sit here willy-nilly twiddling our thumbs with no trials and no
joy waiting until our time is up to return home. We came here to be tested. But
if we turn to Christ, our burdens can be lightened and peace can fill our
souls. I am grateful for all the trials I’ve had the last few years, because
they have brought me to this spot, speaking to you today.
I challenge you to take one thing from the list I gave you,
and work on it. If you have to start small that’s okay, just start. Will you
commit to doing that?
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
