Did you ever read the story of the Exodus and shake your head at the short-term memory issues that plagued the Children of Israel? Me, too.
For a quick refresher, the Lord sent miracle after miracle to help the Israelites escape from bondage in Egypt. As they traveled through the wilderness, the Lord (and Moses) protected them, led them, and even fed them as they fled.
Then, Moses needed to go up the mountain for an extended PPI with the Lord, and he left Aaron in charge. Before you can say “Golden Calf,” Aaron is busy making an idol for them all to worship. And they got the party started.
Moses came back and saw what was going on. He was not happy. The Lord was even less happy and wanted to destroy all of them. Things cooled down, and the Lord decided not to destroy every last one of them – yet.
Moses ground the Golden Calf up into powder, mixed it with water, and had the Israelites drink it. (An interesting way to internalize a lesson.)
Ever since, the Children of Israel have been seen as stiff-necked, arrogant, and stubborn – and very easily distracted – even in the midst of the Lord’s blessings.
Now here we are, two days out from General Conference, and I can’t help but wonder if we aren’t having our own sort of “Children of Israel Moment.”
Is it possible that we can be as flighty and distracted as the Israelites? Let me me suggest the that it is.
I’ll draw on two talks to make my point, President Uchtdorf and Elder Schwitzer.
President Uchtdorf encouraged us to concentrate on the simplicity of the Gospel. He said, “And all of us, as members of the Church, we need to make a conscientious effort to devote our energy and time to the things that truly matter, while uplifting our fellowmen and building the kingdom of God.”
As a second witness, and to extend the idea further, Elder Schwitzer said, “Those who mock often try to drown out the simple message of the gospel by attacking some aspect of the Church’s history or offering pointed criticism of a prophet or other leader.”
The message? Keep it simple, and don’t get distracted by the world!
Conference was powerful. We received messages from the Lord through his chosen servants. So many things we can work on to find greater peace and happiness. So many things we can do to please God. So much to share. So much to talk about. So much to change.
And for two days since, the focus has been on what?
Distractions:
• Someone tried to sell “Ponderize T-shirts.
• Nobody stood next to President Monson when he was struggling.
• No foreign language talks were given.
• No new international Apostles were called.
Distractions. The Israelites got nothin on us.
And to all of those distractions, I simply say “Big whoop!”
My friend Viki says it stronger: “Are you kidding me? Listen to yourselves a minute. We have LIVING apostles!”
Of all the amazing things that we could be focusing – when our hearts could still be on fire from the witness of the Spirit – when we should be full of joy…
…we re worrying and wasting our breath talking about this stuff?
It has been three two days – but at least the Children of Israel waited forty.
“We need to make a conscientious effort to devote our energy and time to the things that truly matter, while uplifting our fellowmen and building the kingdom of God.” President Uchtdorf.
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Spot on, MMM, as usual!
But,but complaining about ridiculously small small things compared to the big picture is my one and only true hobby.
I’m finding ponderizing to be helpful
I thank Thee for sending a prophet to guide me in these latter days. I thank the gospel to lighten my mind with it’s rays. … Either President Monson is inspired and the calls are from God, or he’s not a prophet. As for me, I have received my testimony that President Monson is a prophet and felt the Spirit of confirmation as each new member of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke. That’s good enough for me, and I’d feel that way if the new members were red, yellow, black or white.
Fortunately the responses I have seen to conference have been overwhelmingly positive (with a couple of negative)…concerns for our prophet’s health and well being, sharing of quotes from conference, sharing of scriptures that people are using to ponderize, etc. I am sure the bad is out there and I stumble upon it occasionally, but I feel thankful that’s not the majority of what I see.
It is astonishing to me what is happening to members all over the world. The issue regarding the 3 New Apostles that were “white” started within minutes of the announcement on my Twitter page. I couldn’t believe it. Then I see several articles posted about it and decided I needed to say something, so I posted it here: http://kellywsmith.com/three-old-white-guys-from-utah-as-new-apostles.html
I pray the members wake up as to what is going on here
Thanks for helping make my point that we are discussing the wrong stuff.
Totally agree, as I told a friend who was bemoaning the “ponderize” thing…only two beings are able to judge; and I’m neither of them.
As usually goes with conference, the talks were superb…many addressed right to me!
Here I am praying that I will always keep my eyes fixed on my eternal destination, and He who always has His hand outstretched, not to judge or call anyone to repentance…not my calling in Zion.
I loved conference! And I hated seeing people stoop so low as to criticize President Uchtdorf that he didn’t get up there and stand by President Monson soon enough all over Facebook….et.al. One thing social networking has caused and that is a whole bunch of judgement in ways that we never could see coming.
We as LDS members seems like we are going the way the world is, not happy unless we can complain and fuss about the thick of thin things. I was so happy and blessed to be able to sit and watch the servants of the Lord lead us for two days in the ways the Lord is encouraging us to live our lives. I need all the help I can get so I can return to my Heavenly Father and my family who have crossed the veil.
Is it really a bad distraction to be interested in the workings of the church? We are all on this great ship Zion together. It is an interesting place to be. Is it bad to be interested in how the captain of the ship is doing health-wise? (I guess the captain is Christ, so the prophet would be second in command?) It is interesting why everyone on the ship was asked to speak in English over the weekend. It is interesting who the new leaders of the ship are. Most people assume that with worldwide membership, at some point we will have a leader called that may be from a different country. I know God gets to decide when/if that happens, but it is still an interesting thing about this ship we are on. I guess it is possible to get too lost in the details of the ship that we forget why we are on it to begin with. But I also wouldn’t liken it to completely disobeying commandments I was just given. The Israelites completely jumped ship.
To be interested? Sure. To criticize, argue and belabor? Not so much. Isn’t criticizing the leaders jumping ship?
I guess if interesting leads to questions, and the questions lead to my own answers, and my own answers lead to criticizing the leaders because their answers don’t match my own, then yes. If that whole path is followed then the short name for it is pride. And pride cometh before the fall off the ship.
I was trying to decide whether to go to the temple tonite or do my laundry and watch prerecorded football. No brianer…goin to the temple. Thanks for the grounding.
Kinda amazing how, every time the World tries to fill Cherie & me with fear (America’s going to Hell! Cherie will lose her job! Chet may lose his feet! Loonies want to kill Jews & Christians!) studying even one talk from Conference calms us, and prompts us to ponderize our weekly verse – and realize there is safety in doing the small, simple things the Lord commands.
I had recorded Elder Scott’s funeral and just watched it tonight. I was just struck in awe at his special witness of the Savior. We have Apostles of Jesus Christ. Anyway I was also just thinking these thoughts. How can we get so distracted. Thanks for your observations
I’ve been thinking the same thing. It makes me shake my head in wonder and to try really hard to not get caught up in the ridiculousness of it all. It’s one of the reasons I limit myself to only two blogs (yours and one other) that constantly uplift me rather than try to drag me down into the distraction abyss. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for saying this … it needed to be said. Next conference, they should have a ticker on the bottom of the screen with this reminder playing.
Some people just aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy
SPOT ON! Thanks for your witty thoughts on this topic.
You hit the nail right on the thumb.
Y’know, when I first read the Book of Mormon, I had a hard time believing that an entire nation steeped in blessings and miracles, could turn so wicked in less than a generation.
That was in 1990, when “freedom is breaking out all over.” Now, 25 years later, I’m getting mighty tired of the Book of Mormon being more topical each day.
I NEED General Conference, the Sacrament, and to serve. I’m dead meat otherwise.
My dear friend’s husband died on Sunday. He was 45 and left 4 children. The talks were solace to my soul and have been as I mourn with those who mourn. I haven’t been distracted by the distractions you mentioned. I’ve just been trying to remember all the good and wonderful things that were said. I can’t wait to read the talks later this week. I need to understand fully and act upon the great messages given to us. I need my friend to hear and read the talks too. It’s been a very emotional difficult week. I really appreciate your notes on all the talks MMM, thank you again.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, MMM! I’ve been thinking the same things over the last few days. Are we really willing to be distracted by all that was powerful and pure over the weekend over trivialities that in the eternal scheme of things don’t matter all that much??
Gold Kool-aid, anyone?
Thank you for grinding up my golden calf so I can get back to the things that matter 🙂