Aloha my Brothers and Sisters,
This week I would like to share Part 2 of a 3 part weekly message to our ward. Last week's message was on coping with opposition in our lives and you can read it again, here:
Part II: You Are Part of a Greater Whole
Today is July 24th and that signifies Pioneer Day for Latter-day Saints. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. This is just one of many significant dates in the history of the church and for many, the history of their gospel ancestry. Each of us is tied to a history when the gospel was first introduced in their lives or the lives of their ancestors. This history is important for us to know.
Elder Uchtdorf gave this message at a Mormon History Symposium:
“The late novelist Michael Crichton is reported to have said, “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” History teaches us not only about the leaves of existence. It also teaches about the twigs, branches, trunks, and roots of life. And these lessons are important.
One of the weaknesses we have as mortals is to assume that our “leaf” is all there is—that our experience encompasses everyone else’s, that our truth is complete and universal. As I considered what I wanted to speak about today, it seemed that the metaphor of the leaf needed to be at the heart. But I also ran across an old Yiddish expression that goes, “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.” I want to emphasize that the truth embraced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints extends beyond leaves and certainly beyond horseradish. It extends beyond time and space and encompasses all truth—from the mysteries of the tiniest atoms to the vast and incomprehensible secrets that the universe holds so tantalizingly before us.
The gospel of Jesus Christ encompasses not only the truth of what was and what is but the truth of what can and will be. It is the most practical of all truths. It teaches the way of the disciple—a path that can take ordinary, flawed mortals and transform them into glorious, immortal, and limitless beings whose divine potential is beyond our meager capacity to imagine.”
We live in a time when social pressures attempt to dictate truth, dictate our worth, and try to form our thoughts and actions. In the scriptures, we read that our Heavenly Father teaches His children over and again not to place their trust in the wisdom of the world—not to overvalue what the world holds in high regard. He teaches us that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Let us not rely on the leaf of information we have in our possession and think that is a representation of all there is to know. Let us not be like the worm inside of the horseradish and assume that what we see all around us is proof that the world is made of that substance. God sees infinitely more than we do. His perspective is infinitely more complete and profound than ours…. He has more information than we do. Let us put our trust in God, learn from history, recognize we are part of a greater whole, a greater truth and that each of us has an eternal worth.
With Love, Bishop Tano
Kahalu'u Ward
Meeting Schedule & Links
Sacrament Meeting 2 pm @Waikalua Chapel
Sacrament Meeting Program: CLICK HERE
Announcements
Missionary Meals: Our missionaries need meals and visits! Please sign up to meet with the Elders using this calendar, or call them at (808) 379-8012.
July 24, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @Waikalua Chapel
July 24, Sunday 5 pm - Stake Youth Council Meeting @Kailua Chapel
July 24, Sunday 7 pm - Youth SED Canceled
July 24-30, Mon-Sat - FSY @BYU-Hawaii Hale 2 Check-in
July 28, Thursday 6:30 pm - Deacons and Beehives only @Waikalua Chapel
Aug 6, Saturday 9:30-11 am - Stake Primary Activity @Waikalua Chapel
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