HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL!! I gave a talk this morning that I wanted to share and know is a perfect message for us as we begin the very first day of 2023.
"i CAN do ALL things":
One Saturday during the year of 2022, I was driving home from the temple, when my GPS lost connection and I was left to discern the next freeway exit to my home by myself. A bit worried, I began to reflect on the location of the correct merging point. At last, I saw the great big word, “Portland,” and gratefully, I turned my blinker on and took the exit. But that had been a great big mistake, leading me right into downtown Portland. My heart immediately took off. Without the GPS, I had no idea how I would navigate the bridges, one-ways, and hobos of Portland to find my way back home.
Immediately, I called upon the Lord for help. “Heavenly Father, I know I can get home with your direction. I promise I will listen to your voice right now. Please help me, I’ll be your student driver.”
Just as soon as I finished my prayer, my GPS flickered on and directed me in the course of a merging point. I obeyed and the GPS flickered off again. Every time I needed to turn or merge, the GPS would turn on and direct me, before it turned off again. I kept praying the whole way home, affirming myself that I could do anything with Christ in my passenger seat. And eventually, after driving around the whole city in a humongous circle, I did reach the driveway of my home, where I thanked God for giving me the strength to pass that spiritual driving test.
This year’s youth theme reads, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philipians 4:13). I know this theme was inspired to help us during this day when division, confusion, and hardship prevail. It, in fact, is our current spiritual GPS, which is programmed to lead us closer to our Heavenly home through 3 given steps.
#1 - I CAN
These two words may be easy to say, but the more you examine them, you realize that they’re more than ink blobs on a page. They are the affirmation to who we are, what we can accomplish, and who we can eventually become. They can work confidence, belief, and courage in us, and enable us to believe in our identity as capable sons and daughters of God. By saying them, we allow the very Great I Am to work in us.
James E. Faust once explained, “At times all of us are called upon to stretch ourselves and do more than we think we can. …. Each of us must climb mountains that we have never climbed before. [And as we climb,] the Lord assures us, ‘I believe you can. I believe you can.’”
I know each of us will be stretched more than we think we can. We will be faced with daunting tasks, just like I was faced with riding the freeway into downtown Portland. But because the Lord truly believes in us, we can believe in ourselves! We can say with belief, "I CAN!"
#2- DO ALL THINGS
The next step is to do ALL things–an action which inspires God in us. I have come to realize that “all things” is defined by the Lord, not ourselves. His “all things” for us comes in His own way, and His own time, written in His own, giant planner. His “all things” are the very things we think are impossible. The very things that lead us back to Him.
As a teenager, I want things to go my way. I’m learning how to be independent and with a future full of ecstatic things, I can’t help but want to plan everything out on my own—college, mission destination, number of dates before marriage, wedding day, number of children, future farmhouse, number of wrinkles, and so on. Sometimes it’s hard to give my will over to God. But when I’m faced with a pickle in my life, I realize that with God is the only way I’m going to “do all things.”
Some of the “all things” in my life are as complete as following the FSOY standards in body and spirit, keeping the commandments, kneeling when I pray, and attending the temple weekly, to something as big as creating an inspirational organization for 20 homeschool girls around the nation to talk of Christ through bi-weekly zoom meetings, or starting a podcast about rising up through Jesus’ teachings. I believe that by doing these things, I am overcoming the world, as President Nelson invited us this past conference. Eventually, the Lord’s wants and desires become my very own and it is not as hard to say “I can” to those things.
#3- THROUGH CHRIST
The final point of this year’s theme is that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. Without Christ written in this theme and in our lives, “I can” and “do all things” would not be bound together in one phrase; “the way, the truth and the life” would never exist.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to not have returned home that day I got lost. If there was no way back, I would have been miserable. I would never have the chance to tell my parents and siblings the story of taking the wrong exit and how I found my way back. I would also never have the chance to share this story with you today. My one mistake of taking the wrong exit could never be fixed. There would be no hope.
However, I know that that DIDN’T happen. There is hope! Through Christ, through “His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice”, we can find our way home. The Lord is in our passenger seat, and oftentimes, we have to let Him take our wheel and guide us home when we take the wrong turns in our lives.
As Jeffery R. Holland once stated, “We can hope. We should hope. Even when facing the most insurmountable odds.”
I know that this assurance, action, and cause will direct us back home when we get lost and find ourselves in the trials of our lives. We don't have to fear, because God will be beside us the whole time, right in our passenger seat. As we continue to rely on Christ, and move through Him, nothing will be impossible. We will be able to believe in ourselves and the mountains we're climbing. Our very desires and plans will align with His, opening the perfect way for us to pass the ultimate test and return to Him to tell Him our story.
Surely, we can do all things!
xo.
Makenzie
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