Sacrament Talks

During our church meeting on Sunday members of the congregation are called an asked to speak on a given topic, by a member of the bishopric (our local pastor)  usually three speakers and one is usually a youth speaker aged 12-18.   Today was Garrett's turn....... and get this HE ASKED FOR HIS TURN!  I don't know what came over him, doesn't he know no one likes public speaking, especially not my kids. :)

his given topic was HONESTY.  he wrote the whole talk himself.  The only help he got was our discussion beforehand about some ideas he could lead with and how to express his testiomony of honesty and its importance in Heavenly Father's plan for our happiness.  I think he did pretty awesome.  Great job Garrett!  Love you!  you make a mom proud.

This is what I know about honesty, in star wars Princess Leia is set in a jail cell in the death star, but then Han Solo and Luke Skywalker save her. This is because she stayed true to the republic and didn’t reveal the secret base to Darth Vader, but I really don’t think brother Yost would want me to do a talk about star wars in sacrament meeting, because he book marked honesty in the strength of youth pamphlet which states, Be honest with yourself, others, and the Lord. When you are honest in every way, you build strength of character that will allow you to be of great service to God and others. You will be blessed with peace of mind and self-respect. When you are honest, you will be trusted by the Lord and by those around you.

            So, I was talking to my mom about ideas for honesty, my mom immediately thought of Daniel and the Lion’s den. This story is about King Darius creating a decree that you cannot worship god. But Daniel defies that decree and is sent to the lion’s den for it. Then King Darius doubted that god would help Daniel in the lion’s den, but over night the Lord blessed Daniel for his honesty with the lord and the king and the lions did not harm Daniel. King Darius then learned that heavenly Father is the true and living god, and then made a decree that everyone in his kingdom will worship Daniel’s god and I quote: this decree will not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end Daniel chapter 6:26.

            Another, topic my mom and I thought of was Sampson and Delilah; this story to me was more a dishonest story and about how much destruction and misery dishonesty brings. This is where Sampson and Delilah meet each other and get married, but the Lord told Sampson not to marry a philistine, which Delilah was. The Lord then told Sampson not to cut his hair short, or else his strength would disappear, but Delilah then tricked Sampson into telling him his secret to his strength, then when Sampson woke up the next morning he found that Delilah had cut his hair and he lost his strength. He was then arrested by the philistines and then was blinded. He then asked heavenly father to give him back his strength one last time at the wicked philistine temple to pull the pillars down to destroy those wicked people, which in turn, destroyed him. This shows that dishonesty can be very destructive and can cause misery not to just the people that were dishonest but also other people like their family and their friends. But Daniel teaches us that being honest and true with others especially with god can bring joy and happiness and also protection.

           

            Honesty is one of the important attributes that Heavenly father teaches us, because when we want to get a temple recommend we have to talk to the bishop and answer a short list of questions. This teaches me heavenly father thinks honesty is very important to him. Heavenly Father thinks this is one of the most important attributes his children can have. One of the funny ways I learned to be honest was my mom would tell me “liar, liar pants on fire, how do you put out a fire?” for lying, and that means she hoses you down in the backyard for lying, that usually helped me be honest for a number of reasons. It was really fun to study these stories again with honesty in mind and think how honesty can bless us in extraordinary ways. This is probably something all of us will struggle with all of our lives, but these stories will help me and also you to remember that honesty is very important. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

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