President Dallin H. Oaks taught me a lot in his address "No Other Gods". He speaks of the commandment in Exodus 20:3 of the Old Testament, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' He teaches we should always be kind to other people and sensitive to their beliefs, but worrying too much about being politically correct can actually be breaking this commandment. This happens when someone is more worried about what others think than what the Lord thinks. We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are His representatives; we should be unapologetic, yet kind, when standing up for what is right. Today, there is a special need to speak for the preservation of the traditional family. Here are some highlights from this address:
If you are interested, you can find his whole talk here.
His point was completely a new idea for me. What strikes me lately is as I study the gospel I believe in, the more I learn of it's finer points, the more I learn how sinful I am. It's a crash-course on how truly dependent I am on Jesus Christ's atonement.Yet, I know that I am fundamentally good; when I see these publicly known new faults in myself, I see it as a challenge. It is like jumping to the next level of a video game, one more obstacle to becoming more like my Savior. It's healing to know that as long as I try to do my best, my faith in God grows, and my faith in me gets stronger too. Pretty cool!
"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God."
