Revelation and Sarah

This week has been testimony strengthening. It hasn’t been anything spectacular but just simple, quiet, and reaffirming.

Our stake was reorganized this week, and Elder David A. Bednar accompanied a member of the Quorum of Seventy. Since the Bednars were in our ward and in our stake, it was a very comfortable, almost intimate experience for me. There’s something about being in his and Sister Bednar’s presence when they bear their testimonies and share their experiences.

And on Sunday, he answered the question, “How do you know if you’re receiving revelation or if you’re just responding to your personal feelings?” His response was, “It doesn’t matter. Just be a good boy or a good girl, keep the commandments and your covenants, do your best, and in time you will receive a witness that you’re doing what your Heavenly Father wants you to do.” He said that he has learned as an apostle that the process for him to receive revelation is the same as it was for him before and as it is for everyone else. The witness or revelation doesn’t come until after we’ve acted on our faith in the Lord. He shared a few experiences, including this last conference talk he gave about safety through the temple. He had another talk prepared and submitted, until two days before the translation deadline. He woke up feeling uncomfortable with that talk for this time. He knew he had to prepare another talk, but all he could think about was a scripture that came to his mind during the Rexburg temple dedication: “that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them” (D&C 109:22).

He didn’t know why that scripture or what his talk was going to be—he just acted on the prompting and began to study and prepare, and he submitted his talk. He simply acted on a feeling; he didn’t hear a voice telling him to change his talk, he didn’t get direction on the topic, he didn’t have the talk dictated to him, he didn’t wake up to find the talk written out for him, and even when he prepared the talk, he didn’t know why he was to change his original topic. It wasn’t until after he followed Elder Oaks’ talk of service, covenants, and temples and until after Elder Gary Stevenson followed him with his talk on “Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples” that Elder Bednar knew why he had received that feeling that he should change his talk—his talk was to fit between these other two.

This week I read Orson Scott Card’s Sarah, the story of Abraham’s wife Sarah. She is such a perfect example of an individual who kept her covenants and her faith with a life-time of praying for a child. Of course she felt discouraged, hurt, and at times abandoned. She didn’t understand why her prayers weren’t answered the way she wanted them answered. Yet she remained faithful and true. However, Heavenly Father had another plan, and she was very much an important part of that plan, and He heard her prayers and answered them with Isaac in His own due time.

And also this week, I finished George Q. Cannon’s The Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet. We're so blessed to live in a time of prophets, seers, and revelators. I know our prayers and heard and answered, that our Heavenly Father is aware of us—both our goodness and our struggles. Stay close to Him, and we will feel His presence when we need it most. He loves us.