Our Decisions Impact Our Recovery

Those of us who are struggling need all the help we can get in making correct decisions.  Here are two suggestions on how we might make good decisions:

Part One - An Answer from Elder Bednar


Elder Bednar was asked how to make proper decisions. Here is his answer:

What if I'm making a decision about, should I go to this school or should I go to that school? How do I begin to know the difference?" You study it out in your own mind. You don't just sit and wait for heaven to deliver the answer. You have to learn about the two options. You do your best to understand and compare them.

And then, ultimately, you make a choice. And you take that option that you've selected in prayer to our Heavenly Father, and you ask in the name of Christ, "Is this the right one?"You and I have the responsibility to study that out. If it's right, then over time, we'll come to know, by the simple reassurance of the Holy Ghost, that yeah, this is the thing to do.

Sometimes you have two good options and you never feel really strong about one or the other. There are even some times where Heavenly Father will say, "You make a judgment here." If it's wrong, you'll be warned as you begin to try to apply the decision that you've made. No member of this Church who's trying to be [good] will fail to be warned by the Holy Ghost if they're heading in a direction that is not right.

But you won't always know that, necessarily, before you begin pressing forward. So we have to study it out; we have to act. And most answers from the Holy Ghost come a little bit at a time, not all at once. They come in small packages, not great big bundles. So we can pray one time and think, "Well, I didn't get an answer." Well, you probably got a part of the answer, but you have to keep pressing forward to get the other parts of the answer that help you know which path you need to pursue.

--Face to Face with Elder & Sister Bednar, May 2015.  Click Here to watch the event.
 

Part Two - An Answer from Our Patriarchal Blessing 


When making an important decision, we should read our Patriarchal Blessing--Again!

A legal contract, if written correctly, should have only one meaning. And no matter who reads the contract or when it is read, it should have only that one meaning. But a patriarchal blessing is not like a legal contract. 

As a patriarch explained to me, a patriarchal blessing, like the scriptures, is not intended to have just one meaning.  It is designed to have different meanings, depending on when you read it.  

Let’s say you receive you patriarchal blessing at the age of 12.  When you read it at 12 you may understand a certain meaning of some of the phrases in the blessing. When you read that same blessing at age 16 or 18, those same phrases may have a different meaning.

When you read that blessing on your mission, or as you are getting ready to marry, or at the birth of your first child, those phrases may still have a different meaning for you. Or when you read that blessing as a grandparent, they may have yet another meaning.

But as the patriarch explained, all those interpretations can be correct. Each interpretation depends on the circumstances in which you find yourself.

Perhaps reading our patriarchal blessing once again in the unique circumstance, in which we now find ourselves, may help us with our recovery.


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