Today’s RS lesson was taken from the April 2011 Conference talk by Dallin H. Oaks entitled, “Desire”. This talk was selected for study in Priesthood and Relief Society by Bishop Jacobsen.
Elder Oaks stated that his goal in giving this talk was for “each of us to search our hearts to determine what we really desire and how we rank our most important desires.”
“ Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming.”
D&C 137:9 “For I the Lord will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.”
In class we took time to think and write down what it was we truly desired.
Elder Oaks asks us: “Are we truly prepared to have our Eternal Judge attach this enormous significance to what we truly desire?”
We must adjust our desires to the things of eternity. Righteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive or temporary—not just passing preferences or fleeting feelings, longings or cravings---but heartfelt, unwavering and permanent.
God desires to bless us with all the righteous desires of our heart and ultimately share eternal life with us. Satan desires all men to be miserable like himself. Reality requires us to be responsible for our desires. Do we desire God’s plan or Satan’s?
It is up to us---God will facilitate, but not force.
How do we school or train our desires? We must pray for help with our feelings. Feelings preceed desires. We must pray to have ‘right’ feelings---whether it is in our relationships with others, our motives behind our choices.
We must study and have a knowledge and understanding of truth---then we must love truth and obey it.
Sometimes it helps to have a vision of our future—of the possibilities that await us---of what we can become. Elder Oaks shared the true story of Aaron Ralston, the young hiker in S. Utah who slipped on a large rock inside a slot canyon and got his arm caught. He was alone and could not move the rock. After five days and having run out of food and water, becoming weak, he prepared himself to accept his lonely death. Then he had a vision of a three-year-old boy running toward him and being scooped up with his left arm. Understanding this as a vision of his future son and an assurance he could still live, he found the courage to break the bones in his right arm and then cut it off with his knife. He climbed out and walked 5 miles before he found help.
If our righteous desires are strong enough we find the motivation to free ourselves from any sins, weaknesses or temptations that prevent our eternal progress.
God is a discerner of our thoughts and intents of our heart (D&C 33)---will hateful feelings go unnoticed? Envy? Covetousness? Deception?
“What we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity.” Neal A. Maxwell
Elder Oaks closed by telling us that “To achieve our eternal destiny, we will desire and work for the qualities required to become an eternal being.” Pray unto the Father with all the energy of our heart that we may be filled with His love that He bestows on all who are true followers of Jesus Christ.
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