When President Spencer W. Kimball was 14 years old, a church leader visited his Stake Conference and told the congregation that they should read the scriptures. In recalling the experience, President Kimball said:
" I recognized that I had never read the Bible, so that very night...I walked to my home a block away and climbed up in my little attic room in the top of the house and a lighted little coal-oil lamp that was on the little table and I read the first chapters of Genesis. A year later I closed the Bible having read every chapter in that big and glorious book...." I found that there were certain parts that were hard for a 14 - year - old boy to understand. There were some pages that were not especially interesting to me, but when I had finished reading , I had a glowing satisfaction that I had made a goal and that I had achieved it."
Setting and achieving goals is an important skill that we develop in our sojourn here on earth
- Be ye therefore perfect -
The Savior commanded us to achieve a specific goal. It is found in Matt. 5:48 : " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven in Perfect. "
I think of this scripture when considering the plan of salvation that says we can return to, and become more like, our Heavenly Father. I find it remarkable and inspiring that he Lord does not tell us we are lower beings with lower expectations, but rather, he commands us to be like Heavenly Father. It, therefore, must be attainable.
What he did not give us however was a timetable.
We find ourselves in this life comparing our accomplishments and our families, our spirituality with self-imposed deadlines of " perfection" In our hustle to be better people or to achieve more for and with our families, we can lose perspective about what the Savior means when he commands us to be perfected. Losing perspective leads to depression and self doubt, and robs us of joy.
Elder Nelson taught in 1995 about the topic of reaching this challenging aim:
Recently I studied the English and Greek editions of the New Testament, concentrating on each use of the term perfect and it's derivatives, studying both languages together provided some interesting insights, since Greed was the original language of the New Testament.
In Matt. 51;48, the term perfect was translated from the Greek teleios, which means, " complete." Teleious is an adjective derived from the noun telos, which means " end " The infinitive form of the verb is teleiono, which means " to reach a distant end, to be fully developed, to consummate or to finish."
And so we learn that being perfect is not to be free from error, but rather to be complete, whole and finished. it is to gain eternal life with Him.
-The Lord's pattern of perfecting us-
The Lord's pattern of providing us spiritual knowledge in the following statement by President Joseph F. Smith :
" When I as a boy first started out in the ministry, I would frequently go out and ask the Lord to show me some marvelous thing, in order that I might receive a testimony. But the Lord withheld marvels from me, and showed me the truth, like upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, until he made me to know the truth from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and until doubt and fear had been absolutely purged from me. He did not have to send an angel from the heavens to do this, or did he have to speak with the trump of an archangel. But the whispering of the still small voice of the spirit of the living God, he gave to me the testimony I possess. and but his principle and power he will give to all the children of men a knowledge of truth that will stay with them, and it will make them know the truth a s God knows it to do the will of the Father as Christ does it. And no amount of marvelous manifestations will ever accomplish this. It is obedience, humility, and submission to the requirements of heaven and to the order established in the Kingdom of God upon the earth, that will establish men in the truth. "
We must choose worthy goals to attain!
Set goals with a prayerful heart.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.
Setting a goal is not enough. We must follow the prophets admonition and " do it "
If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, did it make a sound? if a goal is set and not worked toward, was it useful?
All the righteous desires and goals we may have will not help us unless we worth to achieve them.
The Lord said, " all victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness and prayers of faith." ( D&C 103:36 )
As we work diligently, obey the commandments, and pray we can accomplish our righteous goals. Each day is an opportunity to come a little closer to achieving our goals. We can also make special effort to help family members reach their goals.
-Sacrifice to achieve a goal is required -
Often we must sacrifice to reach a goal. President Spencer W. Kimball once explained how he was able to achieve one of his goals through sacrifice:
" After my mission I wanted to attend college, but my family could not afford to send me. So I took a job in the freight yards of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Los Angeles to earn money for school. I worked fourteen hours a day moving freight between warehouses and boxcars on a two-wheeled hand truck. often I had a thousand-pound load on the hand truck. I am sure you can understand why I was tired at the end of the day.
I was living with my sister two or three miles away. The streetcars fare was ten cents, and I trudged the whole distance each way in order to save twenty cents a day. I wanted very much to go to college and walking that distance made my goal that much dearer. Through sacrifice I was able to save enough to return to my home stake of Arizona and attend the University of Arizona."
After 27 years of imprisonment for his role in the apartheid struggle, Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa. his forgiveness of those whom had imprisoned him was remarkable. he received a wide spread acclaim and praise. Mandela frequently deflected accolade by saying, " I am not saint- that is, unless you think a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying."
President Thomas S. Monson has taught, " One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need by final." Even if we have been a conscious deliberate sinner or have repeatedly faced failure and disappointment, the moment we decide to try again, the Atonement of Christ can help us. And we need to remember that it is not the Holy Ghost that tells us we are so far gone that we might as well give up.
