Temperance

 

Adorned with the Virtue of Temperance

By Elder Ulisses Soares

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

The gospel of Jesus Christ provides us with divinely inspired and effective means to prevent the spiritual erosion in our souls, powerfully reinforcing our foundation and helping us avoid gaps in our faith and instability in both our testimony and our understanding of the sacred truths of the gospel. One particularly relevant principle for achieving this purpose is found in section 12 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith to Joseph Knight, a righteous man who earnestly sought to understand the Lord’s will, not for mere outward change but to stand unwavering in his discipleship—“firm as the pillars of heaven.” The Lord declared:

“Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work;

“And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.”

The Savior’s guidance, recorded in this sacred revelation, reminds us that temperance is an essential reinforcement for a firm foundation in Jesus Christ. It is one of the indispensable virtues, not only for those who have been called to serve but also for all who have made sacred covenants with the Lord and accept to follow Him faithfully. Temperance harmonizes and strengthens other Christlike attributes mentioned in this revelation: humility, faith, hope, charity, and the pure love that flows from Him. Furthermore, cultivating temperance is a meaningful way to protect our souls against the subtle yet constant spiritual erosion caused by worldly influences that can weaken our foundation in Jesus Christ....

It is the virtue that brings harmony to the heart, shaping desires and emotions with wisdom and calmness....

Disciples of Christ who strive to cultivate this Christlike attribute become increasingly humble and full of love. A serene strength arises in them, and they become better capable of restraining anger, nurturing patience, and treating others with tolerance, respect, and dignity, even when the winds of adversity blow fiercely. They strive not to act impulsively but choose to act with spiritual wisdom, guided by meekness and the gentle influence of the Holy Spirit. In this way, they become less vulnerable to spiritual erosion because, as the Apostle Paul taught, they know that they can do all things through Christ, who strengthens them even in the face of trials that could shake their testimony of Him....

However, Paul warned that they should be “not selfwilled, not soon angry, … [and] no striker.” Such characteristics are contrary to the mind of the Savior and hinder true spiritual growth. In the scriptural context, “not selfwilled” is one who refuses to act with arrogance and pride; “not soon angry” is one who avoids the natural urge to become impatient and irritated; and “no striker” refers to one who rejects contentious, aggressive, and harsh behavior verbally, physically, and emotionally. As we strive to change our behavior with faith and humility, we can be firmly anchored to the solid rock of His grace and become pure and polished instruments in His holy hands...

Hannah reminds us that true spiritual strength is not expressed in impulsive reactions or haughty words but in temperate, thoughtful attitudes aligned with the Lord’s wisdom....

The gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to exercise this virtue especially in times of challenge, for it is precisely on these occasions that the true character of an individual is revealed....

He also taught that all who desire to come unto Him with full purpose of heart must reconcile with those with whom they are angry or with those who have something against them. With a temperate attitude and a compassionate heart, He assured us that when we are treated with harshness, unkindness, disrespect, or disregard, His kindness will not depart from us, and the covenant of His peace shall not be removed from our lives....

Jesus Christ, the greatest of all, suffered for us until He bled from every pore, yet He never allowed anger to inflame His heart, nor did aggressive, offensive, or profane words escape His lips, even amid such affliction....

As we strive with faith and diligence to weave temperance into our actions and words, I testify that we will strengthen and anchor our lives more securely upon the sure foundation of our Redeemer.

I solemnly bear my testimony that the constant pursuit of temperance purifies our soul and sanctifies our heart before the Savior, gently drawing us nearer to Him and preparing us, with hope and peace, for that glorious day when we shall meet Him at His Second Coming.

You Need a Firm Spiritual Foundation

 

The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation

By President Russell M. Nelson

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

My dear brothers and sisters, these are the latter days. If you and I are to withstand the forthcoming perils and pressures, it is imperative that we each have a firm spiritual foundation built upon the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.²

So I ask each of you, how firm is your foundation? And what reinforcements to your testimony and understanding of the gospel are needed?...

Should distance, health challenges, or other constraints prohibit your temple attendance for a season, I invite you to set a regular time to rehearse in your mind the covenants you have made....

And to each of you who has made temple covenants, I plead with you to seek—prayerfully and consistently—to understand temple covenants and ordinances.¹⁸ Spiritual doors will open. You will learn how to part the veil between heaven and earth, how to ask for God’s angels to attend you, and how better to receive direction from heaven. Your diligent efforts to do so will reinforce and strengthen your spiritual foundation.

Access to God's Power

 

Faithful to the End

By Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus

Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency

The covenants we make with God, such as those we make in the ordinance of baptism, give us access to the power of godliness. God’s power is a real power that helps us face challenges, make good decisions, and increase our capacity to endure difficult situations. It is a power with which we can grow in the specific abilities that we need.

The For the Strength of Youth guide explains: “Covenants connect you to Heavenly Father and the Savior. They increase God’s power in your life.”

Let’s talk about that connection. Remember when Christ taught the difference between a house built on rock and one on sand? Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf explained: “A house doesn’t survive in a storm because the house is strong. It also doesn’t survive just because the rock is strong. The house survives the storm because it is firmly attached to that strong rock. It’s the strength of the connection to the rock that matters.”

Our personal connection to Jesus Christ will give us the courage and confidence to move forward amid people who do not respect our beliefs or who bully us. Christ invites us to keep Him in our thoughts constantly; He tells us, “Look unto me in every thought.” Thinking about the Savior gives us clarity of mind to make decisions, to act without fear, and to say no to what is contrary to God’s teachings. When my day is difficult and I feel like I can’t take any more, thinking about Christ brings me peace and gives me hope.

How can we draw upon this power of Jesus Christ? Obeying our covenants and increasing our faith in Jesus Christ are key...

Dear friends, Christ is eager to accompany us on the journey of our lives. I promise you, as you hold on to the iron rod, you will walk hand in hand with Jesus Christ. He will be guiding you, and He will be teaching you. By His hand, you will be able to bring down every Goliath that appears in your life.

Jesus is the Rock - Build your spiritual foundation on Him

 

“Be Still, and Know That I Am God”

By Elder David A. Bednar

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I believe the Lord’s admonition to “be still” entails much more than simply not talking or not moving. Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in.” Thus, “be still” may be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things....

The symbolism of Christ as the “rock” upon whom we should build the foundation of our lives is most instructive. Please note in this verse that the Savior is not the foundation. Rather, we are admonished to build our personal spiritual foundation upon Him.

The foundation is the part of a building that connects it to the ground. A strong foundation provides protection from natural disasters and many other destructive forces. A proper foundation also distributes the weight of a structure over a large area to avoid overloading the underlying soil and provides a level surface for construction.

A strong and reliable connection between the ground and a foundation is essential if a structure is to remain sturdy and stable over time. And for particular types of construction, anchor pins and steel rods can be used to attach the foundation of a building to “bedrock,” the hard, solid rock beneath surface materials such as soil and gravel.

In a similar way, the foundation of our lives must be connected to the rock of Christ if we are to remain firm and steadfast. The sacred covenants and ordinances of the Savior’s restored gospel can be compared to the anchor pins and steel rods used to connect a building to bedrock. Every time we faithfully receive, review, remember, and renew sacred covenants, our spiritual anchors are secured ever more firmly and steadfastly to the “rock” of Jesus Christ...

Our homes should be the ultimate combination of both sacred time and holy place wherein individuals and families can “be still” and know that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. Leaving our homes to worship on the Sabbath and in the house of the Lord certainly is essential. But only as we return to our homes with the spiritual perspective and strength obtained in those holy places and activities can we then sustain our focus upon the primary purposes of mortal life and overcome the temptations so prevalent in our fallen world.

Our ongoing Sabbath, temple, and home experiences should fortify us with the power of the Holy Ghost, with an ongoing and stronger covenant connection to the Father and the Son, and with “a perfect brightness of hope” in God’s eternal promises.

As home and Church are gathered together in one in Christ, we may be troubled on every side, but we will not be distressed in our minds and hearts. We may be perplexed by our circumstances and challenges, but we will not be in despair. We may be persecuted, but we will also recognize that we are never alone. We can receive spiritual strength to become and remain firm, steadfast, and true.

I promise that as we build the foundation of our lives on the “rock” of Jesus Christ, we can be blessed by the Holy Ghost to receive an individual and spiritual stillness of the soul that enables us to know and remember that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we can be blessed to do and overcome hard things.

 

Steady in the Storms

By President Henry B. Eyring

Second Counselor in the First Presidency

Liahona May 2022

My prayer is that I might help you stand steady in the storms we face, with a peaceful heart.

The place to begin is to remember that we are each a beloved child of God and that He has inspired servants...

The perils of greatest danger come to us from the forces of wickedness. Those forces are increasing. And so it will become more difficult, not easier, to honor the covenants we must make and keep to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

...there is hope in the promise God has made of a place of safety in the storms ahead...

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, … whereon if men build they cannot fall.”³

The misery and endless woe of which he spoke are the terrible effects of sins should we not fully repent of them. The growing storms are the temptations and the increasing attacks of Satan. It has never been more important than it is now to understand how to build on that sure foundation...

He invited his people and us to build on the only sure rock of safety, who is the Savior. He made clear that we are free to choose between right and wrong and that we cannot avoid the consequences of our choices. He spoke directly and sharply because he knew what sorrow would come to those who might not hear and heed his warnings...

King Benjamin went on to say, “O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.”⁴

For me, the power of that warning to repent forms in my mind a picture of the sure time when you and I will stand before the Savior after this life. We want with all our hearts not to shrink but rather to look up at Him, see Him smile, and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: … enter [in].”⁵

King Benjamin makes it clear how we can receive the hope to hear those words if we find the way in this life to have our natures changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we can build on the sure foundation and so stand firm during the storms of temptations and trials ahead. King Benjamin describes that change in our natures with a beautiful metaphor that has always touched my heart. It was used by prophets for millennia and by the Lord Himself. It is this: we must become as a child—a little child.

For some, that will not be easy to accept. Most of us want to be strong. We may well see being like a child as being weak. Most parents look for the day when their children act less childish. But King Benjamin, who understood as well as any mortal what it meant to be a man of strength and courage, makes it clear that to be like a child is not to be childish. It is to be like the Savior, who prayed to His Father for strength to be able to do His Father’s will and atone for the sins of all of His Father’s children and then did it. Our natures must be changed to become as a child to gain the strength we must have to stand steady and at peace in times of peril.

Here is King Benjamin’s stirring description of how that change comes: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”⁶

We receive that change as we make and renew covenants with God. That brings the power of Christ’s Atonement to allow a transformation in our hearts. We can feel it every time we partake of the sacrament, perform a temple ordinance for a departed ancestor, testify as a witness of the Savior, or care for someone in need as Christ’s disciple.

In those experiences, we become over time like a child in our capacity to love and obey. We come to stand on the sure foundation. Our faith in Jesus Christ brings us to repentance and to keeping His commandments. We obey, and we gain power to resist temptation, and we gain the promised companionship of the Holy Ghost.

Our natures change to become as a little child, obedient to God and more loving. That change will qualify us to enjoy the gifts that come through the Holy Ghost. Having the Spirit’s companionship will comfort, guide, and strengthen us....

God. I have learned from many experiences that the Holy Ghost speaks most often in a quiet voice, heard most easily when one’s heart is meek and submissive, like that of a child. In fact, the prayer that works is “I want only what You want. Just tell me what that is. I’ll do it.”

When the storms in life come, you can be steady because you are standing on the rock of your faith in Jesus Christ. That faith will lead you to daily repentance and consistent covenant keeping. Then you will always remember Him. And through the storms of hatred and wickedness, you will feel steady and hopeful.

More than that, you will find yourself reaching out to lift others to safety on the rock with you. Faith in Jesus Christ always leads to greater hope and to feelings of charity toward others, which is the true love of Christ.

I bear you my solemn witness that the Lord Jesus Christ has given you the invitation “Come unto me.”⁷ He invites you, out of love for you and for those you love, to come to Him for peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. He knows perfectly the storms you will face in your test as part of the plan of happiness.

I plead with you to accept the Savior’s invitation. Like a meek and loving child, accept His help. Make and keep the covenants He offers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They will strengthen you. The Savior knows the storms and the places of safety on the way home to Him and to our Heavenly Father. He knows the way. He is the Way.